The Ultimate Bar Bill

Photograph by Corentin Fohlen/Maxppp/Landov

It's a bit of a sorry sight, if you think of it: Their multimillion-dollar paydays not enough, Wall Street's titans of finance have for the better part of a year been wringing their hands over whether they're losing status as the financial capital of the world to London.

The most recent finger-in-the-eye from across the pond? A bar bill to the tune of £105,805 at Crystal in Marylebone, a nightclub frequented by the likes of Prince William.

Even the most spendthrift of stateside hedge funders would probably experience a little vertigo when signing that bill, which works out to about $217,000.

How do you drink $217,000 worth of anything in one night? If you're the Dubai-based businessman supposedly responsible, you start modestly, with a $50 bottle of Pinot Grigio.

Once you've got your drink on, you then move on to eighty bottles of champagne, the total for which was $164,000. It will help if you bring 18 friends along with you.

The night brings to mind the five Barclays bankers who lost their jobs over a £44,007 dinner in 2002. It was some sort of record at the time.

But as any Wall Streeter knows, records are made to be broken. Get on it, New York!

by Duff McDonald