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Unless it’s a fairly elaborate April Fool then today is the grand opening day of New York City’s Exchange Bar and Grill.

Its owners hope to make the place stand out by its unusual pricing policy.

Unlike a normal bar or restaurant where the price of each item is fixed, the price of food and drink at the Exchange Bar and Grill will move according to market demand.

Buy low

It is pure culinary capitalism.

If there is a run on the cheesesteak sandwich then its price will go up. If nobody wants the penne a la vodka then its price will fall until people start buying it.

Sell high

How long will it be before a secondary market develops? Some bright spark could buy up all the bottles of Goose Island beer in a oner, watch the price rocket and then sell the individual beers to dedicated Goose Island fans.

The closest we get to the idea are happy hours where restaurant and bar owners try to tempt in customers with price cuts during normally quiet trading times.

It would be interesting to see if the stock market idea would work in Edinburgh or Glasgow although it may well fall foul of licensing laws.

The Exchange Bar and Grill is not unique. I can’t find it but there was/is a place in Frankfurt, near the city’s stockmarket, that operated the same pricing policy on its drinks and La Bolsa in Barcelona does the same thing.

Shameless plug alert

It’s a neat gimmick and if you’re interested in bar/restaurant promos and themes then I’ll be blethering about the subject on the Fred MacAulay Show on Radio Scotland at 10.50 this morning.