Free Republic

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At "Buns and Guns" you can order a "Kalashnikov" sandwich from a bullet-shaped menu, prepared by chefs in military fatigues with the roar of explosions as background music. This new fast food restaurant in Beirut's southern suburbs, where the Hezbollah movement holds sway, was the brainchild of co-owner Ali Hammoud. He said the war theme was a novel concept that had nothing to do with Lebanon's bloody recent history. BEIRUT (Reuters) - At "Buns and Guns" you can order a "Kalashnikov" sandwich from a bullet-shaped menu, prepared by chefs in military fatigues with the roar of explosions...

In an era of McNuggets and McChicken sandwiches, this bird brings new meaning to the term “fast food.” (A brown hen has taken up residence outside a McDonald’s in Temecula and, try as they might, neither the employees nor the customers can catch her.) That’s like a dog hanging out in front of a Chinese restaurant in Peking. Sure everything seems OK, until they catch you. Next thing you know, you’re the number 12, extra spicy, on the menu. (It has been almost four months...

I think Dianne Feinstein is definitely the less insane of my state’s Senators. She’s actually seeing a government-run program that’s losing money hand over fist (and has been for years–this isn’t just a Democrat thing, it’s a government thing) and releasing it into the private sector: “It’s cratering,” she said of the restaurant system. “Candidly, I don’t think the taxpayers should be subsidizing something that doesn’t need to be. There are parts of government that can be run like a business and should be run like businesses.” Of course, ideology quickly came into play, because many of Feinstein’s fellow Dems...

A city centre was evacuated today after two bombs were found - at least one of which exploded - at a busy lunchtime cafe. A man, who is believed to have set off the explosive device, was injured and has been taken into custody. At least one of the devices was believed to be a nail bomb. The Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall, Stephen Otter, said tonight: "We can now confirm there were two explosive devices found at the scene." He said they were both in the same area of the Giraffe restaurant at the Princesshay shopping centre, in...

Restaurants are feeling the pinch in two directions. With money tight, consumers are cutting back on how often they dine out. Meantime, food costs more. Way more. Egg prices have doubled in the last six months. Dairy, chicken, beer and bread crumb prices are all climbing higher. Even when the core commodity escapes the trend, packaged ingredients and other restaurant supplies are more expensive as the costs of transportation climb due to higher fuel prices. When people do go out, they are ordering less. "Appetizer sales are down. Dessert sales can almost disappear," says Dan Simons, principal at Vucurevich Simons...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Federal immigration authorities raided seven Mexican restaurants in four states Wednesday, arresting 56 people, including 11 accused of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants. The immigrants were primarily undocumented Mexicans forced to staff the restaurants for long hours with little pay to work off smuggling fees and rent, authorities said. Ten individuals were arrested in Mentor and Willoughby in northeast Ohio, at Jalapeno Loco Mexican Restaurant and two houses, said Greg Palmore, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Two face charges of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants and the rest face immigration violations. The arrests began at...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

The restaurant spreads before you, six steps below ground: sawdust floors, lines of people, painted menus and neon beer signs on the walls. The lines--at peak hours there are 10 of them, each up to 20 people long--weave between the tables where scores of others are eating, oblivious to the crush. Pick a line and wait your turn. When you reach the counter, you don't need to consult the menu on the wall, of course. You've been here before. You make it short and snappy--"Beef, double dip. Coleslaw, blueberry pie, coffee." This is Philippe the Original, an L.A. institution that...

The Saudi vice police stormed a food court at a shopping mall, and told families to leave because there were no partitions to separate families from one another, press reports said on Sunday. According to the Saudi edition of Al-Hayat newspaper, members of the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice stormed the dining area at the Granada Shopping Center, causing panic among people eating there. "They made no distinction between men, women, or children. They started pulling chairs out from under everyone," one eyewitness told the paper on condition of anonymity. "I don't know why they...

It’s a diner’s worst nightmare: biting into your food to find hair stuffed inside. That’s what happened to a West Bend, Wisconsin man after he returned his steak for being overcooked. The worst part is the customer didn’t want to return the steak, but the manager insisted. Three bites into it, the customer knew something was terribly wrong. It was in the kitchen of the Texas Roadhouse in West Bend where the unthinkable happened. Cook Mike Perkins says he witnessed fellow cook Ryan Kropp put body hairs in a customer’s steak, all because, Perkins claims, Kropp had to cook the...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2007 – A South Carolina-based troop-support group and a national restaurant chain have teamed up to see that at least 500,000 servicemembers get a note of thanks this holiday season. Brian Bohlman (left), a chaplain with the South Carolina Air National Guard, visits with Army Cpl. Brandon Schadrie in September 2006, during his deployment to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Bohlman, who founded Operation Thank You, a troop-support group, shares notes of support his organization collected from people back home for deployed servicemembers. Photo by Thomas Warner, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center Public Affairs  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

Many years ago on a long back country hike I was following a winding trail that loosely traced the path of an old creek. Every mile or so, the path would cross the creek and I’d get another chance to wade through the cool mountain water. I’d been hiking that trail since sunrise and had crossed the creek at least thirty times. It was getting late in the day and some angry looking clouds were rolling toward me overhead. I could hear cracks of thunder in the distance. It wasn’t easy to see the sky through the thick canopy of...

Chinese cat lovers mobilized online to save a truck load of cats from the cooking pot, a newspaper reported Tuesday. Veteran Shanghai cat rescuer Duo Zirong started off her mission of deliverance on Friday when she called police to stop a truck stuffed with some 800 live cats, the China Daily said. The standoff happened at a parking lot in a southern suburb of Shanghai. It continued for hours while cat lovers spread word of the incident online, eventually raising $1,320 in donations to buy the whole load. They now hope to place them in homes after posting their pictures...

LOS ANGELES, May 22 (UPI) -- A Los Angeles waitress faces multiple identity theft charges for allegedly stealing customers' credit card numbers. Jonathan Diamond of the city attorney's office said April DuBoise, who worked at the Hamburger Hamlet restaurant for six weeks, has been charged with nine identity theft and fraud-related counts along with five counts of grand theft, The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. The Los Angeles city attorney's office said DuBoise took at least six credit card numbers using her position at the restaurant and may have taken as many as 40. The office said $16,300 in unauthorized...

If O.J. Simpson tries to legally pursue the restaurant owner who banned him from his place, the Goldman family will have his back. Kentucky restaurant owner Jeff Ruby was on "The Big Show With Steve Mason & John Ireland" on ESPN Radio last night, saying, "I got a phone call from the Goldman lawyers, and he's not going to be able to do this lawsuit anyway, because they've already taken preemptive action in case there is a claim." Ruby says any money Simpson might win would go to the Goldmans, who would then give it back to Ruby. Simpson's attorney,...

A man was fatally shot Wednesday evening in southwest Houston while eating crawfish at a Cajun restaurant, the Houston Police Department said. The 29-year-old man was seated while eating in the Cajun Kitchen at 11900 Bellaire around 9 p.m. when two men entered and shot him in the head, police said. The owner of the restaurant chased the suspects and fired several shots at the gunmen before they escaped. The victim was taken to Ben Taub Hospital where he was pronounced dead. His identity is pending verification by the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office.

"Polonium" Restaurant Capitalizes on Ex-KGB Spy Case Business: 5 December 2006, Tuesday. The owners of a restaurant in northern England are having their hands full these days, unexpectedly capitalizing on the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. The reason for the rising popularity of the establishment in Sheffield is in its name - "The Polonium Restaurant". Ever since word broke that the former Russian spy was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210, the place has been fully packed. The Polish owner say the place was not named after the radioactive stuff, but a Polish folk band he played in some 30...

CHARLOTTE -- A University-area restaurant employee was treated for minor injuries following an explosion Wednesday night. An employee of the Thai House, in the Grand Promenade shopping center, stayed after hours to do some cleaning and the explosion was triggered when the employee set off 20 aerosol pesticide defoggers too close to the pilot light of a gas stove. “When it was contacted by the pilot lights on the gas equipment, it caused sort of a spontaneous explosion,” said property manager Mark Hanna. Firefighters at Station 27, which is within walking distance of the restaurant, say they felt the explosion....

After finishing dinner at a Connecticut restaurant, two diners got more than a butter mint when a waiter, apparently miffed by a $2 to $3 tip left on a $50 check, attacked them with a knife. They only suffered minor injuries, but no doubt tipped much better after that. While violent cases of waiter rage are rare, the 1989 incident points to waiters' sticky reliance on tips for income. In some states, restaurants are only legally required to pay as little as $2 or $3 an hour. So if a server earns $30 in tips on a bad night, he...

Hundreds of Chechens forced to flee Russian town as restaurant brawl erupts into race riot · Xenophobic groups use fight to urge ethnic attacks· Minorities targeted in internet campaign Tom Parfitt in Moscow Tuesday September 5, 2006 The Guardian UK Several hundred Chechens and dark-skinned people from the Caucasus have been forced to flee a town in north-west Russia after a brawl in a restaurant prompted a race riot at the weekend. The exodus of minorities from Kondopoga in the Karelia region near the border with Finland follows events on Saturday when a mob rampaged through the town and burned...

See for example this thread first. This story is making the rounds-- A restaurant fined, on these grounds: Instead of just bread A live cockroach, instead Now THAT's how you lose a few "pounds"!

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2006 – Over the past two and a half years, about 500 severely wounded servicemembers and their families have enjoyed 5,000 free dinners out on the town thanks to Hal Koster and Marty O’Brien. “Some of them have come to multiple dinners because some of them are here for years,” Koster said Aug. 18, as he looked over the 60 or so guests dining on the rooftop of The Exchange restaurant here. About 20 servicemembers, many in wheelchairs and prosthetics, family members and other guests dined overlooking a panoramic view of the U.S. Capitol, and the Washington...

Restaurant Robbery Foiled By Gun-Packing Customer August 18, 2006 INDIANAPOLIS -- An armed customer foiled a robbery at a fast-food restaurant on Indianapolis west side on Thursday afternoon, according to Indianapolis police. Police said William McMiller Jr., 40, ordered a bucket of chicken before demanding money from a cashier and threatening to shoot at the KFC in the 2800 block of West 16th Street. Police said the clerk didn't understand what McMiller wanted and thought he was asking for a refund. Investigators said McMiller repeated his demand two more times before the clerk reached for money. Investigators said that when...

Editor's Note: This article was widely circulated on China's internet websites. We believe it will provide our readers an insight into the mindset in China. I remember the host on a program about animal rights saying, "Please take care of our animals. It will be good for everyone." However, some Chinese don't think about the animals when eating meat. They dare to eat anything but aren't aware that what they are eating may actually be harmful to them. Ah Chang, who has worked in the restaurant industry for many years in China, has witnessed the use of all kinds of...

I am taking a possible client to dinner, and would like a reaonably priced place. What about Oasis Cafe? What other places can you recommend? Thanks.

Unless they yelp a little louder, dog owners won't get to take their pets out for a bite at their favorite restaurants. A new state law, effective July 1, doesn't automatically let restaurants accept pets on their patios. Rather, the measure lets every city commission, town council and county commission in Florida consider whether to allow doggie dining if residents demand it. So far, few have. "This is not, nor has it been, an issue in Pompano Beach," city spokeswoman Sandra King said. "Unless there is interest on the part of the public to initiate such local legislation, Fido will...

CEDAR FALLS --- A rental agreement and a car crash spiraled into an immigration investigation that led to a raid at Cedar Falls restaurant last month. This according to court records unsealed today as federal charges were filed against Julio Zapala-Urbina, the third co-owner of Julio's Mexican Restaurant and Cantina. Zapala, who owns 50 percent of the business and is its president and chairman, was charged with harboring and engaging in a practice of employing illegal aliens in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. He was arrested Wednesday night and appeared in a federal court in Kansas City, Mo., today,...

March 21, 2006 Business Prepares for the Possibility of Avian Flu in the United States By MELANIE WARNER The deadly strain of avian flu has not been found anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, but Mark Holden, a chicken grower for Tyson Foods in Ellijay, Ga., is not taking any chances. Every seven weeks a group of his chickens is tested before the birds are sent to be slaughtered. All people who enter or leave the chicken houses must walk through disinfecting baths. And visitors and workers must wear plastic booties over their shoes. "Even though we don't have any outbreak...

Chicago's Berghoff Restaurant to close after more than 100 years Terkel: Another 'link to the past' is gone By John Garcia December 28, 2005 - Chicago's oldest restaurant is closing after more than 100 years in business. The Berghoff will serve its last meal February 28. The federal government is in the process of acquiring a lot of the buildings in the block around Berghoff's using meant domain, but they say they wouldn't dare to touch this restaurant, because it's too much an important institution in Chicago. Mayor Daley issued a statement Wednesday saying the Berghoff family has been a...

SHELBY, Miss. (AP) - A restaurant owner is under investigation after he apparently tried to sell the meat of a cottonmouth moccasin to customers, police said. Eddie Boone, a city worker, said he sold the owner of James Quality Market the venomous snake, which he had killed with a pipe while he was cleaning streets. The snake "was gonna get me so I had to get him first," he said. Boone said that while he was showing off the snake nearby Thursday, the owner of the grocery store-restaurant combo "came out and asked me if he could buy the snake...

OK you Fox News Channel watchers and/or NYC restaurant goers - A couple of months ago I saw a story on Fox News Channel about injured military vets from Iraq that were recovering from some major injuries (I believe) in New York City. Some of the injuries they suffered were quite disfiguring, and what the story further related was that they were able to go to a nearby restaurant and enjoy drinks and a meal among themselves, courtesy of the restaurant owner. I also seem to recall that there was a private entrance or some other means by which they...

'Body sushi' uses woman as buffet table November 4, 2005 BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter Advertisement The "body sushi" special at Kizoku Sushi and Lounge isn't special so much for the fish as for the platter it is served on: a semi-nude woman. The River North restaurant began offering the $500 all-you-can-eat dinner special in its private lounge about two weeks ago by word of mouth. Customers must make reservations in advance, and there is a four-person minimum. Ever since the restaurant at 358 W. Ontario sold the first special to two couples last Sunday, it has logged 19...

First the storm, then the floods. Now hell is apparently freezing over. Galatoire's is opening in Baton Rouge. The storied French Quarter restaurant, one of the steadfast symbols of New Orleans' singular cultural heritage, will, for the first time in its 100 years, regale customers with soufflé potatoes and trout amandine at a restaurant other than the one Jean Galatoire opened on Bourbon Street in 1905. Galatoire's Bistro, as the new restaurant will be called, should open in the capital city mid-November "maybe sooner," Rodrigue said. The Bourbon Street restaurant suffered roof damage, he said, and will need to have...

Babies and restaurants are the Chernobyl of parenting BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on July 30, 2000.) If you're a new parent, there will come a time when either you or your spouse will say these words: ``Let's take the baby to a restaurant!'' Now, to a normal, sane person, this statement is absurd. It's like saying: ``Let's take a moose to the opera!'' But neither you nor your spouse will see anything inappropriate about the idea of taking your baby to a restaurant. This is because, as new parents, you are experiencing a...

Ghostly Apparations "Boo-ed" by Restauranteurs Orlando: Two restauranteurs have refused to move into the newly-renovated Church Street Station entertainment complex, "because it's haunted." According to the attorney for the restaurant owners ,"sub-contractors and other people" have reported seeing "ghosts or other apparitions" at the site. The attorney for the landlord says he asked them "..if these were good ghosts or bad ghosts,and if they were good ghosts,why it was a problem". The restaurant owners - who claim to be devout Jehovah's Witnesses-say their religion forbids them to have anything to do with spirits or demons, and they are opposed to...

It may take a strong stomach to eat curry or chocolate ice cream out of a toilet bowl, but a commode-themed restaurant in Taiwan does booming business serving up just that. The Martun, or toilet in Chinese, restaurant in the southern port city of Kaohsiung boasts lengthy queues on weekends as diners wait for a toilet seat in its brightly colored tile interior. Food arrives in bowls shaped like Western-style toilets or Asian-style "squat pots." Manager Hung Lin-wen said the original inspiration came from a toilet-shaped spaceship in a Japanese cartoon. The theme has attracted droves of novelty-seeking young people...

Clinton to be Sued for Missed Restaurant Reservation? May 25, 2005 Bill Clinton’s legendary eating habits have long been the butt of jokes, but it was an allegedly skipped dinner at one of Rome’s most fashionable restaurants that now seems to be needling the ex-chief of state. Whatever the reason for Clinton’s no-show, the restaurant owner is apparently none too pleased. According to reports, the owner may sue the former president who, the owner claims, didn't bother to cancel his reservation. Just weeks after his surgery, the president said while hitting the campaign trail for John Kerry, "If this isn’t...

Restaurant Sued Over Claim Of Skin In Sandwich Health Department Said Employee Cut Finger POSTED: 10:21 am EDT April 23, 2005 DAYTON, Ohio -- A man is suing a fast-food restaurant operator for more than $50,000, claiming he found a slice of skin on his chicken sandwich. David Scheiding filed the lawsuit in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court on April 1 after rejecting a settlement offer from GZK Inc., his lawyer said. GZK owns the Arby's restaurant in Tipp City where he bought the sandwich. Scheiding, of Troy, said he realized something wasn't right when he bit into the sandwich...

Police in Romania have caught a serial dater who invited women for romantic meals at expensive restaurants, then ran off, leaving them to pay the bill. Police say good looking romeo, George Hodoroaba, 23, struck dozens of times in the town of Suceava in eastern Romania. He was finally caught after restaurant owners were issued with a photofit image of his face. Five women have so far come forward to officially register a complaint against Hodoroaba, who was well-dressed with expensive suits when he approached them in bars and clubs to invite them for a "romantic meal". A police spokesman...

LONDON (AFP) - A British restaurant emerged as the best in the world in an annual list that also revealed Britain -- a country often laughed at for its poor food -- is home to the largest number of top eateries. The Fat Duck, in a village in Berkshire, west of London, won the coveted title of top dining spot at The World's 50 Best Restaurant's 2005 awards on Monday night, which also featured 13 other restaurants in Britain alone. Critics, however, argued that the annual list -- compiled by the magazine Restaurant and chosen by more than 500 chefs...

PERTH, Australia -- An Australian restaurant owner's attempt to get rid of cockroaches in his kitchen has left his eatery in ruins. The owner set off 36 fumigation devices. However, he apparently forgot to extinguish an oven pilot flame. Fire officials said the ensuing explosion lifted the roof off of the Thai restaurant, blew out the back wall as well as the front window and caused the ceilings to cave in. Three men were hospitalized with burns. One fire official said of the owner, "He's just overdone it."

A famed Lithuanian restaurant was closed this week by city inspectors after a dead mouse and rodent droppings were found in the Bridgeport eatery. Healthy Food, 3236 S. Halsted, was shut Thursday after inspectors found the feces of mice in areas where food was prepared -- including on a cutting board and in a meat slicer, said Matt Smith, a spokesman for Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation. The walk-in cooler also had mice droppings, as well as the decaying remnants of a mouse, Smith said Friday. City cites rodent problem The restaurant has had rave reviews over the years...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Schwarzenegger administration video packaged as a television news story has labor leaders and one lawmaker outraged.The video promotes regulations that give workers the choice of taking a meal break or going home early. "It's a blatant attempt to manipulate the media," Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, said yesterday. "If a television station is lazy enough just to take this video (and run it), it completely manipulates and skews the story."He suggested the video violated a ban on spending tax money to produce propaganda and said he would ask the attorney general's office to investigate.But an administration...

A great friend of mine is being forced, by business circumstances, to add credit and debit card usage to his family style restaurant in a blue collar community outside of Pittsburgh. Helps, tips, hints? It has been a cash business for more than 50 years, but newer (younger) custommers are repeatedly asking him to take their debit and credit cards.

AURORA, Colo. -- Aurora police have reviewed a weekend incident in which a man accused of stealing salad from a Chuck E. Cheese salad bar was hit with a stun gun twice by officers and said that proper procedures were followed. The incident began at 4:05 p.m. Sunday when officers were called to the restaurant on a report of a larceny in progress. Police talked to the Chuck E. Cheese manager, who told them that a customer had refused to show proof that he had paid for food. The manager said the man was seen "loading" his plate at the...

NEW YORK - The diners arrived at a nice Manhattan restaurant on a cold February night and stripped off coats, hats, gloves and scarves. They didn’t stop there. Skirts, shirts, pants, underwear and stockings all ended up stashed in plastic bags by the bar as the patrons got naked for the monthly “Clothing Optional Dinner.”

Clifton Heights restaurants lose domain battle Dan Monk Courier Senior Staff Reporter A Hamilton County judge has ruled in favor of a Clifton Heights redevelopment initiative that wants to use the city's power of eminent domain to tear down and rebuild part of Calhoun Street south of the University of Cincinnati. "There can be no doubt that a public purpose is served by this urban renewal plan designed to revitalize a declining, deteriorating neighborhood," wrote Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Crush earlier this month. The court fight pitted the Clifton Heights Community Urban Redevelopment Corp. against two small-business owners...

NEW YORK (AP) -- An appeals court Tuesday revived part of a class-action lawsuit blaming McDonald's for making people fat, reinstating claims pertaining to deceptive advertising. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court judge erred when he dismissed parts of the lawsuit brought on behalf of two New York children. U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet dismissed the lawsuit in 2003 because he said it failed to link the children's alleged health problems directly to McDonald's products. But the appeals judges said New York's general business law requires a plaintiff to show only...

Imitation is the worst form of flattery, say the owners of Manhattan's trendy Serafina restaurants — after they discovered an exact replica of their eateries doing business in the Middle East. "I'm just shocked," said co-owner, Fabio Granato. "When I first heard about [Serafina NYC] from friends who saw it while traveling in Beirut. I thought it sounded too close to be just coincidence." But Granato said it wasn't until he saw pictures of the Lebanese imitation using his yellow-and-blue logo and the familiar-looking Italian menu, that he was sure he and partner Vittorio Assaf's concept had been pilfered.

Val Prieto, at Babalublog, has some fun at the expense of a restaurant in Minneapolis which serves "revolutionary Cuban cuisine" amidst portraits of Che and Fidel. Val writes what getting a real meal is like in Havana... It's a masterpiece of debunking. He floors the guy in that magnificent storytelling way that only he can. >>Revolutionary Cuban cooking!? I wonder if the maitre'd hands everyone a ration card when they walk in the door. Or if they make the cafe cubano like they have been making it in revolutionary Cuba. One thin layer of fresh coffee grounds, one thin layer...