At the U.S. Open, a Quest for $100 Chicken Nuggets

The tennis tournament is known for upscale offerings, but a new box of six “golden” nuggets drew a covetous crowd, and plenty of attention online.

Buying a $23 Honey Deuce cocktail (or two) when attending the U.S. Open has become a New York rite of passage. The same can be said of purchasing a $40 tournament hat.

But this year, during a tournament that had more than its fair share of fun, there was a new novelty treat on which tennis fans, foodies and social media influencers alike trained their focus: a $100 box of chicken nuggets.

“I’m hungry. It’s different. I’m here for it,” said Faris Salem, 23, of Boston, who attended the men’s singles final between Taylor Fritz of the United States and Jannik Sinner of Italy on Sunday and decided to try the nuggets — which are dolloped in caviar and come six to a box — after hearing about them on TikTok.

Like so many coveted items, the nuggets became a hot commodity over the two-week tournament — and the subject of some heated debate online — in part because of their exorbitant price and their air of exclusivity. Created by the team at Coqodaq (a luxe Manhattan fried chicken restaurant that itself can be famously hard to book), the nuggets were at a stall open only to tennis fans with a ticket for the club level, home to the suites at Arthur Ashe Stadium. On Sunday afternoon, the cheapest tickets on that level available via Ticketmaster were selling for roughly $1,000 each.

But many nugget enthusiasts were undeterred. A spokeswoman for Gracious Hospitality Management, which runs Coqodaq and the Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse Cote, said that the stall had sold roughly 100,000 handmade nuggets through the tournament.