Ducking the Law

Big news in the Windy City.
On Feb 17th Doug Sohn, owner of the popular hot dog joint Hot Doug's, made the headlines. The headlines weren't about his love for sausage and encased meats, nor for his unique game sausage of the week, no, it was for something far more sinister....(cue scary music): Chicago's first foie gras violation.

When I was in Chicago, there were plenty of restaurants with foie being offered as a "verbal special." I guess Doug's foul was that he listed the banned offering in plain sight of his customers and Chicago officials.

Food bans are becoming more common. First Chicago with the aforementioned, then NYC banning trans-fats (which sorry, you pro-trans-fatters, this is a good thing. I worked on an autopsy show. I've seen what H.O. does to your arteries. Gross.). But what gets me, is that a guy selling hot dogs - really good and interesting hot dogs - is the guy that gets nailed. Nailed with a fine that could cost him anywhere between $250 - $500 bucks. That's a lot of dogs.