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Next time you eat out at a fancy restaurant, don't be surprised if, at the end of your meal, you spot an unfamiliar item on your tab — a surcharge to pay for Obamacare. Diners at high-end restaurants such as Melisse, AOC, and a dozen others in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas have noticed a 3 percent surcharge for employee healthcare tacked on to their bills, and the Los Angeles Times reports that some of the customers are none too happy about it. One diner complained in an online blog, "It's basically management saying 'Obamacare made me do...

At Panera Bread (PNRA), you're getting the option of dealing with a kiosk at the store instead of a cashier. Visit the local Chili's and you'll see tablets at the booth to help with orders. If you find the Domino's (DPZ) app too reliant on buttons, don't worry -- you can start interacting with a computerized voice.

On Tuesday, LA Weekly reported that several upscale restaurants in the City of Angels will be adding a 3 percent surcharge to cover their employees' healthcare costs, a trend that has been gaining steam since the Affordable Care Act launched nearly one year ago. Beginning on September 1, restaurants Lucques, Tavern, A.O.C, and a few offshoots all added a 3 percent surcharge to customers' checks, explicitly stating in a press release their decisions hinged on covering employee healthcare costs. Lucques Group, Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, owners of the restaurants, also named several other restaurant groups that will be duplicating...

While New Yorkers like to think of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as the epicenter of the American hipster, it's hardly the only place in the country where vegan, handlebar-mustachioed trustafarians ride their single-speeds to nanobreweries inside organic farm-to-table restaurants inside abandoned artist lofts tricked out with rooftop gardens where they grow only kale. Pretty much any US city, short of maybe Birmingham, AL, has some elements/neighborhoods of hipster culture at this point (you really just need a fixed-gear bike shop, right?), but these 10 cities are vying for the title of hipster-est. Behind Williamsburg, of course....

This recount, found on The Meta Picture, tells the story of one restaurant’s quest to find out why they kept getting bad reviews despite serving the same number of customers on a daily basis. It took a look into their past to discover exactly what has changed in the last ten years – and their findings tell more about how we as a country have changed – possibly, for the worse. Now, although this particular instance may or may not be true, it tells a story that is all too common today in America. We are so engrossed in ourselves...

A picture circulating online shows what appears to be a note left for a server at a restaurant in which the customer rants about why they decided not to leave a tip. Although the source of the letter has not been confirmed or reported, the picture has angered people all over, with many saying that a liberal-minded person had to be responsible for writing it. “I do not tip anywhere because the law governing tipping causes pay inequality between servers and kitchen staff,” wrote the anonymous tipper. “My meal was made possible by an entire team of kitchen staff,...

Two national chain restaurants have asked that customers refrain from bringing firearms into their establishments, saying the weapons can create an uncomfortable atmosphere for other diners. Sonic Drive-In and Chili's Grill & Bar both issued statements Friday requesting that customers keep their guns out of their restaurants even if they have an open carry permit. The request, which stops short of an outright ban, came after members of the gun-rights group Open Carry Texas walked into Texas outlets of Sonic and Chili's carrying assault rifles. Dallas-based Brinker International, which owns the Chili's chain, said in a statement it was dedicated...

California's economy continues to experience a tepid recovery since the Great Recession. One reason why: according to CEO Magazine, California has had the worst business climate in the nation for the last eight years, due in no small part to policies out of Sacramento.Any economic growth in the Golden State is largely driven from the continued tech boom in Silicon Valley - although even it may not be immune to California's poor business climate. Depending on how one categorizes "small businesses"- typically, either fewer than either 50 or 100 employees - as of the 3rd quarter of 2012, between 96%...

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - A group of Republican California lawmakers are breaking with their party's skepticism over immigration reform and asking the U.S. Congress to give immigrants a path to citizenship to help their state's heavy dependence on migrant labor for agriculture and construction. Flanked by representatives of the state's agricultural, construction and restaurant industries, 16 Republican state senators and assembly members joined a national push to demand a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Findings that unhealthy meals are being pushed by restaurants in public housing developments are disturbing. Clearly, good nutrition is the single most important initial factor for good health in body and mind. The finding that there are not as many healthy meals served in restaurants in public housing developments as elsewhere implies the health and lives of poor people in such instances are being sacrificed for quick profits by such unscrupulous businesses. Restaurants in public housing development neighborhoods offer less healthy entréesResearchers decided to compare restaurant marketing by restaurant and neighborhood type, reports the American Journal of Health Behavior. In...

A new Maryland bill would let counties require each restaurant to have a staff member trained on food allergens, ready to advise customers. Is the measure needed? County governments may soon have authority to make restaurants accommodate customers with food allergies. A new bill would let counties require each restaurant to have a staff member trained on food allergens, ready to advise customers, reports WJLA TV. The bill would also require restaurants statewide to encourage customers to notify servers about their food allergies. The Senate passed the measure 33-14 Monday evening. A similar bill is pending in a House committee....

For many, bottomless drinks are the cornerstone of any delicious (if not nutritious) urban brunch.  But the New York State Liquor Authority is determined to kill boozy brunchers’ buzz.Yes, the state of the soda ban is cracking down on more than calorie consumption. The NYC Hospitality Alliance sent out an alert Monday to its member restaurants reminding them of a prohibition against “selling, serving, delivering or offering to patrons an unlimited number of drinks during any set period of time for a fixed price.”Is the State Liquor Authority seriously enforcing this prohibition?  Unfortunately, the answer is “yes.” The New York...

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is asking the Obama administration to scale back draft regulations under ObamaCare that would force restaurants to post nutritional information on their menus. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is close to finalizing a rule requiring calorie labels on vending machines and at restaurants and “similar retail food establishments.” Proposed in 2011, the regulations stem from the Affordable Care Act and are designed to combat obesity by helping consumers make healthier choices.But the group of 24 lawmakers said the draft regulations, which apply to restaurants with 20 or more locations, go beyond Congress’ intent and...

A sandwich restaurant chain says it's looking into how a dead frog got into a customer's salad in Manhattan Monday. The customer found the small frog in her salad from a Pret A Manger store on 47th Street and Sixth Avenue, according to her colleague Kathryn Lurie, who photographed it and posted it to the photo-sharing app Instagram. Lurie, an editor at The Wall Street Journal, said on Twitter her co-worker wanted to remain anonymous but that "she was pretty shaken, understandably." It's not clear how the frog got into the salad. Pret said in a statement: "Our lettuce is...

Determining which restaurants in the nation offer the steepest prices is a tricky task. Most of the restaurants on this list serve the rarest, most premium, and freshest ingredients available, from kitchens run by chefs with expert levels of craftsmanship and artistry, in dining rooms with an exceptional quality of service provided by the front of house staff. But regardless of the justifications, the fact remains that the restaurants on this list are outrageously pricey. To arrive at the top 25 we compiled a list of restaurants commonly known for being outrageously expensive (such as Masa, which is known for...

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...