Free Republic

The ice served in six out of ten of Britain’s most popular high street restaurants contains more bacteria than the water found in their toilets, an investigation by The Mail on Sunday has found. Scientific tests have shown that ice from branches of McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Starbucks, Cafe Rouge and Nando’s all had higher levels of bacteria than samples of water taken from their lavatory bowls. Experts say it could be due to them being cleaned more often than the ice machines. None of the samples found presented an immediate health danger, but four contained such high levels of...

Outside of the unions, there was perhaps no group more ardent in its support of Obamacare than the AARP. The advocacy group spent $121 million on advertising in favor of Obamacare, and millions more lobbying for it on Washington DC. But now AARP’s insurance business, Medigap which competes with Medicare Advantage (a program AARP lobbied to have hamstrung by OBamacare), just got a waiver from complying with the law. ... Keep in mind, again, that AARP is set to rake in billions in profits now that Obamacare has effective knocked Medicare Advantage out of the market.

Diners at the Esquire Club in Madison, Wisconsin, may be packing heat, but owner John Kavanaugh has no intention of restricting handgun-toting customers from entering his 300-seat establishment. In 2011, Wisconsin became the latest state to adopt right to carry legislation. Carrying rights are now a reality in every state except Illinois, while only six states—Maine, Louisiana, North Dakota, Illinois, and both Carolinas—claim a complete ban on guns in restaurants. While each state’s legislation possesses its own language and nuance, from licensing requirements to open or concealed carry permits, many states grant restaurant operators the ability to “post” their establishment—that...

The State of California has one of the worst proposals of any legislature in the country this year with a new bill that would force every restaurant and food service business in the state to commission an expensive "risk assessment" test for every menu item. Such a test could cost thousands of dollars for every food item sold. This outrageous and cost prohibitive testing would certainly cause all but the biggest chain restaurants to go out of business almost instantly. In another exercise in nanny-statism, California's State Senate Democrats want this "risk assessment" conducted to determine whether food being sold...

March 29, 2020 The federal government today announced new regulations for buying fast food. Starting June 1, upon entering a national fast food chain restaurant or before ordering via a drive-thru each patron must undergo a Body Mass Index (BMI) analysis. The score will determine portion sizes for adults and children and restrict the options available. Scores are: underweight, normal, overweight, obese and morbidly obese. Automated tickets issued from the machines will be color coded to alert servers of a patron’s options. If a person is obese, for example, he or she will only be able to order sugar-free drinks...

Diners will have to wait a little longer to find calorie counts on most restaurant chain menus, in supermarkets and on vending machines. Writing a new menu labeling law "has gotten extremely thorny," says the head of the Food and Drug Administration, as the agency tries to figure out who should be covered by it. The 2010 health care law charged the FDA with requiring restaurants and other establishments that serve food to put calorie counts on menus and in vending machines.

Mobile, digital, radio, TV, billboards and mailings all have their perks, but restaurant marketing doesn't have to be expensive to be effective. Fox's Pizza franchisee Scott Anthony has been searching for the right balance for the past two decades. He offered some approaches that have worked for his business during a recent educational session titled "Marketing on a Shoestring Budget." Getting started, he says, means building a "USP." "A 'Universally Selling Position' is a statement that emphasizes your strengths to your community. You have to be more than a generality," Anthony said. For example, Domino's is known for delivery, while...

High gasoline prices coupled with 2% payroll tax hikes is going to take a bite out of restaurant sales this year. For some chains the slump has already started. Consider Darden Restaurants, the owner of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn Steak House. Darden Restaurant Traffic is down an average 4.5, with Red Lobster leading the pack down 7.5%. Smaller Plates, Cheaper Items at Olive Garden At Olive Garden, Smaller, Cheaper Plates are on the way, along with new uniforms including a more contemporary black button-down shirt and black slacks. Don't worry, endless breadsticks remain. Olive Garden is also creating a...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Darden Restaurants (DRI), struggling to draw more customers into its Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants, said Friday that its third-quarter profit could fall below Wall Street's expectations and cut its outlook for the year. The Orlando, Fla.-based chain has tried to revamp menus and marketing for its flagship chains. But revenue at Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse locations open at least one year is expected to fall 4.5 percent in the quarter ending Feb. 24, indicating those efforts have yet to pay off...

WESTLAND, Mich., Feb. 21 (UPI) -- The owners of a Michigan buffet restaurant are being sued in federal court for allegedly kicking out a family whose children suffer from a rare skin disorder. A lawsuit filed Wednesday against a Westland Golden Corral alleges the restaurant's owners, Kirit and Shakuntla Patel, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to serve the family, The Detroit News reported. The lawsuit alleges that restaurant manager David Robinson approached the family and asked Duford "What is wrong with your baby?" Duford said nothing was wrong and informed the manager about the skin disease. "She...

A Washington couple were left stunned after their server handed them the bill for their family's dinner - and they saw they had been given a $4 discount for their 'Well Behaved Kids'. Laura King and her husband took their three children, aged two, three and eight, to an Italian restaurant in Poulsbo to enjoy an early-evening meal last Friday. As they tucked into their feast of pizza, pasta and mushroom ragu, the family discussed planets, racecars, zebra jokes, and commented on the warm decor of the restaurant, Mrs King said. 'They were just being their normal selves,' she told...

Three eateries in Chicago's River North neighborhood highlight robatayaki. Yet one has kicked things up a bit on the robata grill, venturing into the realm of delectable and unusual food for Chicagoans. What Is Robatayaki? What exactly is robatayaki? Robatayaki is Japanese-style barbecue -- seafood, meat, and vegetables are grilled over a hot flame of charcoals, called the robata grill. Folklore chronicles this food preparation back to the 1600s in northern Japan. 

 River North Restaurants Trending With a Robata Grill In Chicago's River North, a trio of Chicago restaurants within a 1-mile radius proffer sushi and foods prepared on...

An Applebee's diner refused to leave a tip for religious reasons. The waitress who exposed it wonders if Jesus will pay her bills. I was a waitress at Applebee's restaurant in Saint Louis. I was fired Wednesday for posting a picture on Reddit.com of a note a customer left on a bill. I posted it on the web as a light-hearted joke. This didn't even happen at my table. The note was left for another server, who allowed me to take a picture of it at the end of the night. Someone had scribbled on the receipt, "I give God...

The deceptively named “Cancer Project” animal-rights group is at it again. This time its target isn’t hot dog makers, but grilled-chicken servers. The group, a branch of the PETA-linked Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), filed a lawsuit in Connecticut yesterday against three restaurant chains demanding warnings about a supposed link between grilled chicken and cancer. As we told the media, PCRM is nothing more than an animal rights front for pushing vegan activism, which is funded primarily by a single rich donor. Since 2003, PCRM and the Cancer Project have derived 60 percent of their budgets from a...

The most recent development in the ongoing verbal sparring between New York Times dining critic Pete Wells and TV food personality Guy Fieri has escalated the bickering to a whole new level of unseemliness.Awkward, party of one! The most recent development in the ongoing verbal sparring between New York Times dining critic Pete Wells and TV food personality Guy Fieri has escalated the bickering to a whole new level of unseemliness. After Fieri defended himself to the dining community at large during an interview on the “Today” show Thursday, a panel of experts — comprised of Star Jones, Donny Deutsch...

Just telling it like it is — I like his style. Per Politico: John Metz, a restaurant franchisor who operates 48 locations of Hurricane Grill & Wings, several dozen Denny’s locations and a few Dairy Queens, told The Huffington Post Thursday that he’d join the growing list of restaurateurs piling purported Obamacare costs onto their customers and staff. In his case, though, he’s going to label it so all of his customers know about it. “If I leave the prices the same, but say on the menu that there is a 5 percent surcharge for Obamacare, customers have two choices....

Living in a big city, as I do, it isn’t hard for me to spend a lot on dinner. One big meal, and you can find yourself over $200 poorer, just for two people. Of course, it isn’t hard for me to spend very little on dinner either. I got fried pork chops and pork fried rice sent to me from the local Chinese takeout last night, and the whole meal cost me something like nine dollars. What is hard to get is a meal for $50 or so, and that seemingly innocuous fact speaks to an insidious trend not...

The crucial question must be asked of President Obama and Mitt Romney during the live telecast of next week's town hall-style debate at Hofstra University. Is “sausage or pepperoni” the new “boxers or briefs”? Pizza Hut is offering free pies for life to the brave voter who asks the White House contenders which of the two favorite toppings they prefer during the next presidential debate. "We recognize there are a lot of serious issues to be debated, but we also know a lot less serious — but no less important — ones are being discussed every night inside houses across...

A consequence of Obamacare. Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster) is cutting all of its workers to 30 hours to avoid having them fall under Obamacare requirements. 185,000 people with less hours. But think of all the new part time jobs Obama is creating! Many other companies will do the same.

Michelle Roberts, AP writer writes in her piece San Antonio, restaurants fight fat by cooperating that San Antonio health officials, along with the help of the of our beloved Major Julian Castro, and the San Antonio Restaurant Association have decided to change the way food is consumed in this city. They are targeting local eateries and encouraging (read: threatening) them to offer healthier meal options, lest the restaurant be faced with future regulations or fines for non-compliance. The argue that the city is "getting heavier" and this is a viable options to combat that. Lest we succumb to the ravages...