Free Republic

A. Barton Hinkle, a Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist and Reason magazine contributor, wrote a fascinating and chilling column this week about the Food and Drug Administration expensive and burdensome new menu labeling scheme. The regulations will “dictate the disclosure of calorie counts for foods sold in restaurants, grocery stores, delis, bakeries, coffee shops, and even gas stations,” according to Hinkle. And those businesses will pay a hefty price to comply with the policy. The federal government figures the rules will “cost more than $1 billion and require more than 14.5 million hours of labor to meet.” The calorie posting regulations, which...

Gas stations have not historically inspired confidence as palate pleasers. Day-old (or longer) doughnuts or hot dogs rolling (and rolling) on a spinner grill come to mind. But across the Washington region, there are at least a dozen eateries serving delectable, sometimes organic, fare near the pump. There’s Korean bibimbap in Wheaton, authentic Mexican in Jessup, Thai in Leesburg and Latin American in the District. Corned Beef King cooks its meat for 11 hours. Gas station cuisine is partly being driven by popular food truck operators — Corned Beef King started as a truck in 2011 — seeking permanent locations...

David Harsanyi calls it "preposterous," which I suppose is true enough, but then, it's an advertisement... It's not so much that the ad is preposterous as that it's so... Ruthless. The ad essentially calls all of Chipotle's competitors murderers and pedophiles. It really pushes the line as far as disparaging competitors. It's one thing to do a cooked-up Taste Test. But this employs all the tricks of the greatest propaganda medium ever created -- moving pictures + sound -- and mixes them together with what Harsanyi suggests is food paranoia to attack all fast-food rivals as monsters. I find it...

Taco Bell says it’s expanding its small test of waffle tacos, as it prepares to take its breakfast menu national sometime next year. The fast-food chain says the waffle taco, which includes scrambled eggs, sausage and a side of syrup, was the top seller during breakfast hours at the five Southern California restaurants where they were tested earlier this year. Now the company wants to see how it would fare on a bigger scale; the waffle tacos and a full breakfast menu will be expanded to about 100 restaurants in Fresno, Calif.; Omaha, Neb.; and Chattanooga, Tenn., starting Thursday.....

I discovered this website while looking to see what the bullies and haters are doing against me and my husband and I found this website and all the horrable things you all have been saying just because Gordon Ramsay lies about me. None of you have ever even been to my restarant before and never even tasted my food. YOU NEVER DID SO WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BULLY AND HATE? MY FOOD IS NOT FROZEN! GORDON NEVER EVEN TRIED MY CAKE! WHY AM I AN EVIL WITCH??? WHO ARE YOU TO THINK YOU CAN GO ON THE INTERNET AND...

Apparently, one of the local TV stations reported that Bea's Restaurant refused to serve President Obama when he was in Chattanooga today. The owner says the president's people did call and ask him to provide some catered food. But the restaurant is closed on Tuesday's, so he turned them down. Apparently, this has become a bit of a controversy, and they had people calling them racist on their Facebook page. The owner tried to explain that the same thing happened back when George H.W. Bush was president and they weren't making any political statement either time. He just thought his...

Now, Florida waiters, who have nothing to do with the Trayvon Martin decision, are being punished for the Zimmerman verdict. At least, that is what happened at one Florida restaurant. Diners leave no tip – because of Trayvon verdict. No Justice – No Tip

How touching: A restaurant owner in Winter Park, Fla., decided to tell all his workers that they'd lost their job without prior notice, and all via a mass text message. That's harsher than a text breakup. WFTV reports that the restaurant, Barducci's Italian Bistro, shut down without prior notice earlier this month. The owner, Gregory Kennedy, sent out a mass text to employees on the Fourth of July, saying, "I unfortunately need to inform you that I have been forced to close Barducci's effective immediately."

As I mentioned last week, even that most excellent of all grocery stores, Wegmans — much like many other businesses — is adjusting to the new costs of doing business directly imposed on them by ObamaCare, and is now preparing to nix their longtime practice of voluntarily offering health insurance options to part-time employees who work even just 20+ hours/week. In that same vein, the “Affordable” Care Act has made hiring part-time employees (i.e., those who work less than the 30 hours over which employers will be required to provide health insurance) over full-time employees an increasingly attractive option for...

FULL TITLE: EXCLUSIVE - The death threats, the rows and a scandal over unpaid tips: The most infamous couple from Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares take on their critics The most infamous couple ever to star on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares have told how they were left fearing for their lives after being subjected to death threats following their TV debut. Millions watched as fiery chef Ramsay walked out on Amy and Samy Bouzaglo, who own Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, Arizona, after a string of rows while filming the Fox reality show. Having been accused of stealing their staff’s tips...

As an actor, Harry Lewis took second billing to the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, most notably in the 1948 film noir "Key Largo." But he found his own starring role as a Los Angeles restaurateur who helped usher in the concept of the "gourmet burger" when he launched the ground-breaking Hamburger Hamlet restaurant chain, among others.

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...