Gimme a break -- following the law a little too closely
From the
Chicago Sun-Times:
Hot dog joint hit with foie gras fine
Hot Doug’s is in hot water with the city.
The Northwest Side hot dog joint, known as much for its thuringer as it is for specials like gyros sausage with creme fraiche tzatziki, is the first restaurant in Chicago slapped with a $250 ticket for offering — in sausage form — the outlawed delicacy, foie gras.
“People are actually dying from the cold, and I’m getting hassled because of some sausage,” owner Doug Sohn said Friday afternoon, hours after a city Health Department worker ticketed him inside the restaurant. He has been outspoken about his distaste for the Chicago City Council’s ban on the fattened duck liver, a controversial food because of concerns about animal abuse.
Even after the ordinance took effect in August, Sohn continued serving it occasionally, and about 6 a.m. Friday, he posted the day’s specials on his restaurant’s Web site, including “Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage with Truffle Sauce Moutarde and Armagnac-Truffle Chicken Mousse” for $6.50.
A representative of the Health Department showed up at the restaurant, 3324 N. California, before he even opened his doors at 10:30 a.m., Sohn said.
“I was impressed. I’d like to see them react that quickly to anything in the city,” Sohn said. He said he doesn’t think the snitch is among his regular customers.
Does dish have a future?
He was ordered to remove the offering from his menu, which he did, was issued a ticket, and the meat was “tagged.” He was told the city would contact him about what to do with the meat this week.
Hot Doug’s had already racked up two previous complaints, said Tim Hadac, spokesman for the city’s Health Department.
The first triggered a warning letter, which Sohn framed and placed next to his cash register. The second complaint led to an inspection, in which officials found foie gras in a walk-in cooler but not on the menu.
“They insisted it wasn’t for sale,” but that the fatty liver was for “personal use,” Hadac said.
The most recent complaint prompted another inspection Friday. Inspectors this time found foie gras in the kitchen and on the menu.
The city has sent warnings to nine restaurants so far.
Sohn is wondering if the ticket will stand up at a March 29 court hearing because, technically, he hadn’t sold any foie gras when he was ticketed. “And the ordinance says nothing about possession,” he said.
But does foie gras have a future in his tiny “encased meat emporium,” as he calls the restaurant?
Will the customers who line up down the block — even in subzero temperatures on a Friday afternoon — once again delight in the forbidden duck as a techno beat pounds from the stereo?
“It’s sort of at the point where I don’t really care,” he said. “If we don’t serve it, we don’t serve it. I hope people opposed to it are leading ethical and moral lives. And they better not be wearing leather shoes.”
Emphasis mine -- indeed! Hot Doug's website is here:
Hot Doug's
I am not that much of a sausage fan but these have me salivating...
Posted by DaveH at February 18, 2007 11:12 AM