


You’re never too young for caviar dreams.
“She is the biggest fan. She will eat caviar with a spoon,” Roosevelt Island-based real-estate broker Veronica Baitova told The Post of her daughter Sophie, 7. “She’ll eat it with a blini or add it to her favorite meal — on top of her pizza or steak. Truffles and caviar, that’s one of her favorites.”
But the second-grader doesn’t enjoy her caviar with a silver spoon — after all, the metal would pollute the fine taste. Instead, Sophie prefers a more refined mother-of-pearl spoon.
On a recent Wednesday, Sophie helped herself from a tin of imperial osetra caviar — retailing for $900 —at the trendy Italian restaurant Scarpetta in NoMad, topping off her plate of spaghetti with butter.
“It tastes like the ocean. It’s salty,” Sophie told The Post. “The black caviar is so yummy — that one is actually my favorite. The orange one is a little squishy.
Plus, she added: “I feel fancy. I like to put my pinky out.”

She’s on trend: The hashtag #CaviarSnacks has 7.4 million views on TikTok, with eaters topping snacks with caviar. In one video, two young kids are seen trying a Dorito topped with black sturgeon and crème fraîche — as their mom comments that their “future after-school snack bill just went up.”
Olivia Dozortsev had her first bite of it when she turned 1, seven months ago. She has a ready pipeline to the good stuff which she likes to eat straight off the spoon, as her parents own Ikraa Caviar, a brand that imports caviar from Italy, France and China.
“I just gave her a little bit on the spoon, and her expression was so excited — no blinis, no sides needed,” said Olivia’s mom, Anna Dozortsev, who runs the company with her husband Arty Dozortsev.
She said that the Caviar Picnic Pack has been a big hit for families with kids. Costing $540, it includes four ounces of imperial osetra caviar with French mini blinis, truffle butter and two pearl spoons.

“We’ve noticed many of our clients like to buy caviar for their kids, not just for themselves,” said Anna, 37, who lives in NoMad. “Caviar is considered one of the most nutritious foods in the world. It’s full of proteins packed with omega 3 fatty acids. It supports critical brain function.”
Still, she admitted: “We cannot eat it every day. It’s a treat [for Olivia]. We don’t want to spoil her.”
Chef Shaun Hergatt, who owns and oversees the Soho seafood restaurant Vestry, said it’s not unusual for families to share the $220 Caspy Caviar Service, featuring 50 grams of the stuff, but that kids tend to prefer potato chips or mashed potatoes over blini.
“They get very excited about the presentation,” he said.

At Sushi By Bou, which has restaurant locations throughout the city, co-owner Richie Romero said he’s seen kids under 10 dig into their $100 caviar tower — 30 grams of Beluga caviar with potato chips and crème fraîche.
“The kids call them pop rocks of the sea,” Romero told The Post, adding he’s also seen kids eat wagyu uni with caviar from the omakase menu which starts at $60.
“We’re seeing kids as young as elementary school come in and bankrupt their parents,” Romero said.
Nicholas Patarkatsishvili, 13, chose the tony Greek restaurant Avra for a back-to-school treat recently, so he could order the imperial osetra and fingerling potatoes with a scoop of crème fraîche, costing a cool $125.


“It felt very fun — you get to do it yourself. It makes you feel like, ‘Oh hey, I’m a chef,’ because you put the crème fraîche on a nice warm blini with a dollop of caviar,” Patarkatsishvili, a seventh grader who lives on the Upper West Side, told The Post. “The crème fraîche gives it a nice texture to make it creamy, you know? The caviar gives it that pop of saltiness. Best thing ever.”
He admits the first time he tried caviar, at age 8, he “thought it looked disgusting” and “did not like the idea of eating fish eggs.” But that first bite was something like: “nutty and buttery. I loved it.”
His mom, Vanessa Soleil Pepen, 36, said Nicholas pairs his caviar with spaghetti, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes or potato chips at home.
For Sunday brunch, he scrambles eggs himself — using a Gordon Ramsay recipe — and adds imperial osetra caviar.
Nicholas says two of his friends like caviar, but most of them don’t.
“They’re always like, ‘That’s nasty. How can you like it?’ I tell them, ‘Because it’s the best thing in the world, why else?'”