Free Republic

The prime suspect in the New York and New Jersey bombings sued his local police force and claimed they were persecuting him for being a Muslim. Ahmad Rahami said in a lawsuit that cops in Elizabeth, New Jersey subjected his and his family to discrimination and 'selective enforcement' based on their religion. The family - who used the name Rahimi in the legal papers - claimed that police tried to shut down their chicken restaurant, called First American, too early each night with 'baseless' tickets and summonses. Ahmad, 28, his father Mohammad Sr, 53, and his brother Mohammad, brought the...

Business is booming for a hibachi restaurant after a woman complained she was “sexually assaulted” by a toy used as part of the chef’s routine. While dining at Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Isabelle Lassiter claims she was sexually assaulted by a toy figurine that squirted water on her. According to the 911 call, Isabelle’s husband, James, said the chef “pulled out this little fricking doll with his pants down and he shot water at my wife out of its [expletive].” When an officer arrived on the scene, however, he noted the toy did not depict any male anatomy....

A huge police presence is in the German city of Saarbrücken, next to the French border, and officers have sealed off the area. A police official said the man seemed to be in an "exceptional psychological situation" and there were no indications it was a terrorist-related incident. It remained unclear how he came by his injuries. Counter-terrorism officers have been scrambled to the scene and it is believed staff at the "Dubrovnik" restaurant on Kupfergasse Road managed to escape when the gunman entered the building at 9.15am on Sunday. He is thought to have ordered staff out of the building...

Get ready, Toronto A "toilet-themed dessert bar" is headed to Canada. The aptly named Poop Café Dessert Bar is slated to open in mid-August in Toronto's Koreatown, according to the Toronto Star. Menu items will include chocolate soft-serve, pudding, and traditional Asian desserts like patbingsoo (shaved ice with red beans and various other toppings). Per the Star, "All of the poo-ticular items available at the café will be brown, formed like a stool and served in toilet-shaped dishes." What a world. Owner Lien Nguyen says she's "trying to make poop cute," as evidenced by the restaurant's poo-themed murals accompanied with...

Legal Sea Foods found itself in hot water Monday after some readers said they were offended by a full-page Boston Globe ad that called Hillary Clinton a “cold fish,” all in the service of a sushi pun.

A Donald Trump supporter has claimed she was thrown out of a Mexican restaurant in New York for wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat and button.Esther Levy visited the Cancun Inn eatery in Sugar Loaf, NY, with a retired local judge after coming back from a July 4th Great American Weekend Festival on Sunday.'We were about to place our order with the waitress when she was summoned by the co-owner and told to not serve us and say we had to leave right away,' a shocked Ms Levy claimed.In an outraged post on the New York For Donald Trump...

Several police officials have been wounded in the apparent terrorist attack, at least 20 civilians, mostly foreigners, held hostage inside the restaurant, according to witness accounts -

Robot Waiters Fired for Incompetence in China Customers liked them, but they couldn't carry soup. Adam Toobin April 6, 2016 The world may not be ready for restaurant robots — yet. At least two restaurants in Guangzhou, China have fired their teams of artificially intelligent robot waiters after discovering the machines were unable to keep up with their human staff. “The robots weren’t able to carry soup or other food steady and they would frequently break down. The boss has decided never to use them again,” an employee at one of the restaurants told the Worker’s Daily. The humanoid bots...

A deal that would raise California's minimum wage to $15 an hour was met with a mixture of joy and anxiety across the state Sunday. Some workers and labor officials hailed it as a breakthrough in providing higher-wage jobs in fields where it's a struggle to make ends meet. But some business owners feared the shift would hurt their bottom lines -- and perhaps even put them out of business. The debate is likely a preview for the weeks ahead as the minimum wage proposal works its way through Sacramento. Selwyn Yosslowitz said that minimum wage hikes add increased pressure...

Fellow Freepers: I will be visiting Cassino, Italy and the mountaintop Monastery of Monte Cassio next month for a writing project on the Polish II Corps. I am aware of the Polish Cemetery, but would appreciate any information on off-the-beaten-path monuments. Also, it you have any recommendations on restaurants and wineries in the area (especially those smaller local restaurants you won't find on the tourist websites) along with any "must try" dishes. Thanks in advance! V/R Bill

CYPRESS, Texas -- While many businesses won't allow people to carry openly, at least one is greeting guns with open arms. Brooks' Place in Cypress is offering a discount to folks carrying a weapon at their waist. "If you haven't tried it, how do you know you don't like it?" said owner Trent Brooks. For once, Brooks isn't talking about his BBQ.

In America, chain restaurants get a bad rap. We blame them for the spike in obesity and the death of the family dinner. We demonize them as “the core of what is wrong with our food system.” No wonder our bougie, West Coast friends shun Bloomin’ Onions and Big Macs in favor of meals from farm-to-table gastropubs and “undiscovered” ethnic food joints. And it’s not just them. Food — obscure, locally sourced, painstakingly chef-crafted — has become a defining obsession, a “measuring stick of cool,” as New York magazine put it. Today, a quarter of Americans eat organic products on...

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain says America's restaurant industry would shut down if Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Bourdain blasted Trump's vow to deport illegal immigrants if elected, saying it would leave the nation's kitchens empty.

Back in July we covered the controversial (to say the least) move by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to take a page from Barack Obama’s playbook and bypass the state legislature through executive action, raising the minimum wage for fast food chain workers to $15 per hour. This was seen in the more progressive sectors of the activist community as a role model for other states to emulate as long as Congress wouldn’t make such a move on a national level. Protests regarding the fundamental unfairness of this plan, combined with the highly dubious legal nature of the scheme...

This intervention is not aimed at those with life-threatening food allergies or similarly grave medical conditions. I would never question people whose faces will balloon if they ingest trace amounts of shellfish. Or people who risk going into anaphylactic shock with a whiff of peanut dust. Those problems are very real, and everyone who is afflicted with them has my sympathy. I’m talking about the rest of you. Those of you who don’t eat garlic because you detest its smell or avoid cauliflower because it makes you fart or have gone gluten-free because you heard it worked wonders for Jennifer...

According to a report released Sunday by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the $15 minimum wage has caused Seattle restaurants to lose 1,000 jobs — the worst decline since the 2009 Great Recession. “The loss of 1,000 restaurant jobs in May following the minimum wage increase in April was the largest one month job decline since a 1,300 drop in January 2009, again during the Great Recession,” AEI Scholar Mark J. Perry noted in the report.

Chick-fil-A is America's favorite restaurant. American Customer Satisfaction Index’s 2015 Restaurant Survey named Chick-fil-A the most-loved restaurant in America. The company scored an 86 out of a possible 100 points in customer satisfaction, beating Chipotle and Panera Bread. Chick-fil-A's secret? Having the perfect blend of great food and excellent customer service. Fast casual companies like Chick-fil-A are successful because they, "typically offer better ingredients, freshness, and more developed décor," according to the report. Chick-fil-A not only beat all other chains in customer satisfaction, but it also took ACSI's top rating in dining experience as well. The criteria evaluated for this...

A new report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest has identified the unhealthiest restaurant meals in America.For the center's annual "Xtreme Eating" list, its nutrition experts reviewed menus at 200 restaurant chains in the US to find the meals heaviest in calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar.Restaurants that made the list include The Cheesecake Factory, Outback Steakhouse, and Red Lobster.Here's the list, ranked lowest to highest by calories.9. The Cheesecake Factory: Warm Apple Crisp (1,740 calories) Center for Science in the Public InterestThis decadent dessert has whipped cream, caramel sauce, apple crumble, and two scoops of ice...

Do you want water or milk with that? Servers at Davis city restaurants will soon be asking that question to customers ordering kids’ meals with beverages, under a new ordinance designed to discourage sugary soda consumption. The ordinance, passed on a unanimous 5-0 vote Tuesday night, will require any Davis restaurant that offers a meal-with-drink kids’ menu to make water or milk, not soda, the primary option. Parents can still request soda at no extra charge, but must specifically ask for it. By Sept. 1, Davis restaurants must prove compliance with the city ordinance by submitting a copy of their...

Los Angeles residents can now dine from the hands of the "Machete" man himself. Our friends at Flama report that Danny Trejo, the actor known for his hard persona and movie roles as a villain, will open up Trejo's Tacos , a Mexican restaurant. Expected to open sometime in the Spring, the restaurant promises to bring, "the best tacos and craft beer," according to their Facebook page. Formally a Taco Bell, the newly designed location will give a real Southwestern feel, with blackened steel and blacked leather upholstery, according to LA Eater. Trejo took to his Twitter to announce the...