1st fine for flouting 'silly' law
Sausage king pays price for putting foie gras on menu
By Jason Meisner and Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
Tribune staff reporters
Published March 30, 2007
Even as a restaurateur got the bill for the city's first foie-gras citation Thursday, officials said there isn't much bite behind the Chicago ordinance that has garnered national attention.
Doug Sohn, a self-described "encased meat" specialist, became the first person fined under the ordinance banning the sale of foie gras.
Sohn, owner of Hot Doug's in the 3300 block of North California Avenue, agreed to pay a $250 fine for the first-time offense, officials said.
Sohn's lawyer met with a city hearing officer, who agreed to levy the minimum fine, said Tim Hadac, spokesman for the Department of Public Health. Sohn, who was not at the hearing, could have been fined up to $500 under the ordinance, which took effect Aug. 22.
Passing the ordinance may have made a symbolic statement, but city officials said they currently aren't going after any other restaurants and acknowledge that Hot Doug's likely made more than the $250 fine off publicity.
Hot Doug's was the scene of the city's first foie-gras bust on Feb. 16, when city health inspectors found the restaurant openly offering hot dogs laced with the fattened duck-liver delicacy and confiscated the product.
It came as a surprise to no one. Sohn had been itching for a fight ever since the City Council overrode Mayor Richard Daley's veto and enacted what the mayor derided as the "silliest law that they've ever passed."
Sohn had been issued a warning several months before being slapped with the citation, but he stood his ground, continuing to advertise foie gras ingredients on his Web site and on a board hung near his front door.
The letter that the city sent him warning of possible punishment? Sohn framed it and placed it beside the cash register. "I was poking the grizzly bear, and it snapped my head off," Sohn told the Tribune in February. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Foie gras is produced by inserting tubes down the necks of geese or ducks and force-feeding the birds, expanding their livers to as much as 10 times normal size. Animal rights activists lobbied the City Council heavily in support of the ban, which was sponsored by Ald. Joe Moore (49th).
In December, the city sent warning letters to nine restaurants accused of serving foie gras, Hadac said. Letters are sent after a complaint and are followed by a visit after a second complaint.
When health officials visited Hot Doug's in February, they found about 30 pounds of foie gras and foie-gras products in the freezer, Hadac said. The citation was issued because the delicacy was on the restaurant's menu with a price, he said.
The list of daily specials on Hot Doug's Web site this week had several exotic offerings, including smoked alligator sausage with Cajun shrimp mayonnaise. But foie gras was nowhere to be found.
Hadac said the Health Department is not actively investigating any other restaurants, noting: "It is most definitely one of our lowest priorities. We do not enforce it aggressively."
Asked about the amount of the fine compared to the free advertising Sohn has received, Hadac said: "He has cashed in, in terms of publicity, make no mistake."
No comments:
Post a Comment