When Travel + Leisure ranked America’s best cities for foodies, the District didn’t crack the Top 10—heck, it barely made the Top 20. One thing holding D.C. back in terms of culinary achievement, according to the Huffington Post: High incomes. So argues Eli Lehrer:

Yes, this is a disadvantage. A lot of the best and most innovative food traditions come from people with limited budgets: if you can afford the best (most expensive) ingredients, it’s not hard to make an edible meal. Creating something tasty with humble foods is a lot harder. D.C. as, the wealthiest city in the country by some measures, is a place where Jose Andres‘ mini-empire of small plates places — which I like — passes as “cheap” even though my last simple dinner for two at one of them (without alcohol) came in at over $100. Andres is a great talent but, in a less well-off town, food like his might actually be more widespread.

Do you agree? Are deep-pocketed Washingtonians stifling the city’s gustatory development?

Photo by Tamorlan/Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license