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Seattle is about to embark on a civic experiment that most experts predict will be an economic disaster; a $15 an hour minimum wage is set to go into effect on April 1st. And some restuarants in the city have already shuttered their doors and are either going out of business or moving to friendlier climes. This was entirely predictable - and was predicted when the measure passed the Seattle city council. Restuarants are particularly sensitive to this sort of increase in wages since most of their employees are paid at the minimum, and such a large percentage of their...

How’s this for an unusual marketing gimmick: Red Robin is hoping to lure Catholics who are abstaining from meat during Lent by presenting its latest seafood menu — even inviting Pope Francis to lunch.And other fast food restaurants are jumping on the Lent wagon as well.Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc., based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, extended an invitation to the pope on Wednesday as it introduced its new “Wild Pacific” crab cake burger.The company released a statement “joyfully” extending an invitation to the pope to eat at Red Robin during the Lenten season.“If His Holiness accepts and visits any U.S. location between February 18 and...

Just days after fire was opened at a synagogue in Paris, a kosher restaurant in the same city was attacked in a similar manner. According to the French-language JSSNews, an air gun was fired towards the Al Haeche kosher restaurant in the 19th district of the French capital. The attack took place overnight Tuesday, and the owner of the restaurant discovered a bullet hole in his window on Wednesday morning, around 7:00 a.m. The damage was minimal and there were no injuries, noted JSSNews, adding that the same type of gun was used in attack earlier this week on the...

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. - An employee who works at a popular brewery in Coral Springs was seriously injured Sunday after he tried breaking up a fight between patrons and a waiter, police said. Coral Springs police were called to Big Bear Brewing Company, 1800 N. University Drive, after receiving multiple 911 calls from employees who feared for their lives. Police arrested Claude Galland, 29, and Michael Laguerre, 29, on complaints of aggravated battery and disorderly conduct after witnesses alleged the men assaulted a restaurant employee.

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — A viral video shot outside a San Francisco restaurant may have people thinking twice about eating out. The video shot outside Lucky River, a Chinese restaurant in the city’s Sunnyside neighborhood appears to show a worker slamming slabs of frozen meat on the sidewalk. KPIX showed the video to residents near the restaurant. “That’s horrible,” said Steve Vender. “The sidewalks have never been cleaned,” said London Lacey. As to why anyone would be pounding the sidewalk with frozen slabs of meat, an inspector from the San Francisco Health Department paid a visit to Lucky River...

A popular restaurant owned by celebrity chef Guy Fieri went out of business on Monday, leaving dozens of employees out of work. Britton Archie was told not to talk to CBS13, but he did anyway. “I got a phone call that says today’s your last day,” he said.

Struggling restaurant chain Red Lobster is going back to its roots with a new menu that’s set to feature more dishes featuring lobster. A revamped menu announced on Monday removes several poorly received non-seafood dishes including Spicy Tortilla Soup and a Wood-Grilled Pork Chop. These non-seafood dishes had been added by the chain's previous owner, Darden Restaurants Inc., in the vain hope of attracting people who don't like seafood as sales declined.

Concern over Ebola has forced a Minnesota restaurant owner who serves African food to cover up part of her sign and reconsider her Liberian-themed menu. Kellita Whisnant has owned Mama Ti's African Kitchen in Brooklyn Park, Minn. for three years. Now that confirmed cases of Ebola have reached U.S. soil, she says business is down by about 50 percent. “This African name that brought people in before, is now hurting me," Whisnant told Minneapolis-St.Paul's KMSP Fox9 . "We get the jokes, the ridicule." Amid declining sales—and a customer flat out asking her if the restaurant had Ebola—Whisnant covered up the...

Olive Garden is hurting itself by piling on too many breadsticks, according to an investor that's disputing how the restaurant chain is run. In a nearly 300-page critique, the hedge fund Starboard Value says Olive Garden restaurants lack training and discipline and that servers bring too many breadsticks to tables at a time. That leads to waste — and cold breadsticks, Starboard says.

"Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy has been publicly called out by the owner of a local eatery for leaving a 20-cent tip on a bill totaling more than $60. The Philadelphia burger joint PYT shared a receipt online showing what was described as Mr McCoy's paltry tip. 'The twenty cent tip that the Eagles' LeSean McCoy just left our server on his $60 check is going to come in really handy for that new official NFL McCoy jersey he had his heart set on,' the message that accompanied the receipt read. 'That is a .03% tip. New record!'"

On Monday, Eagles running back LeSean McCoy was accused by a local Philadelphia restaurant of leaving a 20-cent tip on a $60 bill. Although the running back has yet to comment on the incident, the owner kept pressing the issue on Tuesday. In a statement posted on the restaurant's Facebook page, PYT owner Tommy Up accused the running back of being "verbally abusive to our staff in the most insulting ways" and making "derogatory statements" about women.

Former congressman Anthony Weiner wants to open a restaurant in New York City. The place would be in the Rockaways, a coastal Queens neighborhood that is still recovering from Superstorm Sandy in 2012. It would be named The Rockaway Restoration Kitchen and offer locally-sourced food. …

Ioanna Roumeliotis visits Signs, Canada's first restaurant staffed with deaf waiters.

This sign is posted on three doors of the Shiloh Brew and Chew in Maryville, TN A Tennessee restaurant is welcoming armed citizens.   The decision was made after the owner read about a convenience store manager that was shot after putting up a "No Weapons Allowed" sign, and after she lost business because some customers thought that she did not allow armed citizens inside.   From wbir.com: "They had put up a sign that said 'No Weapons Allowed' and they were robbed at gunpoint two days later. The convenience store manager was shot," said Floyd. "And that got me thinking....

With Darden Restaurants' (DRI) announcement that a remodel for its Olive Garden division has started, the main takeaway is a simple one — it's nowhere near to giving up on the Italian-themed chain. The other takeaway is that this latest attempt to spur customers to take a seat at its tables may well mean activist investors, who've been vocally at odds with management, received another reason to complain.

RIFLE, Colo. — Many stores and restaurants are telling people not to bring their guns inside, but one western Colorado restaurant not only embraces the practice of packing heat, it encourages its customers to carry openly — and its waitresses do, too. As she takes your order at Shooters Grill in the town of Rifle — yes, Rifle — waitress Ashlee Saenz carries a pad, pen and a loaded Ruger .357 Blackhawk revolver holstered on her leg, Old West style. It's loaded, and she knows how to use it

Knesset Chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) may have said Monday that he can't dismiss Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) from the Knesset for her shocking comments justifying the abduction of three Israeli teenagers - but one plucky restaurant owner decided to dismiss her from his establishment. In a video filmed on a cell phone, the Arab MK can be seen being kicked out by the owner, who called her "traitor" several times in the course of the interchange. Video At the start of the video, the owner can be heard asking Zoabi sarcastically if they don't have his restaurant in...

A Nazi-themed cafe in Indonesia that closed shop after sparking international outrage reopened Saturday with its walls still bearing swastikas and a painting of Adolf Hitler. Henry Mulyana voluntarily shut down his SoldatenKaffee last year after media reports exposed his swastika-clad establishment, prompting death threats and accusation of inciting racial hatred. Following the closure, his lawyer told AFP that Henry would later reopen his business with a broader World War II theme and said he would remove all swastikas. But at the opening on Saturday, three huge iron eagles bearing swastikas were on display, as were WWII propaganda posters bearing...

Blowtorches, tweezers and glue: These are just a few of the items used to create those mouth-watering restaurant ads. To make food look as appealing as possible, food stylists and photographers use a range of instruments, good lighting, fresh ingredients and attention to detail. These tricks of the trade help explain why restaurant meals from the drive-thru often look very different than they do in promotional images. "Nothing is just plopped down and put in the center like it is when you order at a restaurant," said Jean Ann Bybee, owner of Bybee Photography and co-author of a pair of...

PETA wants to turn Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood home into a vegan restaurant People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) does not shy away from attention grabbing news stories when it comes to furthering their cause of animal rights. As reported by the Akron Beacon Journal, the organization’s president, Ingrid E. Newkirk, recently wrote a letter to the real estate agent who listed infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood home for sale. In the correspondence to agent Richard Lubinski, Newkirk said that PETA would like to turn the Ohio house into a vegan restaurant and “respond to the past with...