The 8 Dumbest Restaurant Laws

Hi, how about making restaurants more accessible to people with disabilities? I'd like to see more braille menus and ramps instead of stairs. I happen to be a blind food critic, please check out my blog:
www.blindtastetest.net

BOYB is illegal in many places. Who really cares? Is this one of those things worth arguing over? Really?

The Newark comment was uncalled for, but the implication that Texans are not classy is over the line. The most recent things I have gotten from Zagat have been disappointing for what I thought was a classy organization. I do not know if you are going for a younger crowd (and therefore think you need to be smutty or insulting) but this is not what I signed up for. Before you make "classy" jokes about someone else, get some of your own.

American teens have been using Mexican border towns for their drinking binges forever (and moreso since raising the drinking age here to 21). Can you imagine the uproar here if Mexican authorities started targeting visibly intoxicated Americans who trash their towns and head for the border (driving drunk)?

I have several Latino friends who live in Texas who are routinely stopped and harrassed by law enforcement for driving (or walking, or sipping a drink) while Brown. And my friends are doctors, lawyers, and professors some of whose families have been established in Texas for hundreds of years -- long before that state was stolen from Mexicao in war.

However, the author's political slant in the comments was uncalled for (that is, disparaging all Texans) but her citing of the abuse of the law by a renegade few vigilante law enforcement folks (with an agenda other than protecting the public) to target anyone who looks South of the Border should be reviled by everyone of every political stripe. The very fact that it is a useful law for legitimate law-enforcement officers to use to pre-empt the danger that might be posed by clearly drunk and disorderly people should mean everyone should stand up to not allowing abuse of the law for other purposes. And all those potential drunks stopped (especially while in a bar) should always meet a minimum threshold of potentially posing a true threat (ie - they are beligerent or show intent to drive a vehicle).

I blame the editor more than the author -- who did some good research and added some clever asides and comments. Before hitting that publish button, the editor should do the job of representing the company's and it's memberships
best interests. Stories should stay on-target and relevant to the goals of the site -- none of which are to insult subscribers, express political views, or offend anyone with an "us"/"them" approach.

I think this writer nailed it! These laws are completely ridiculous and she is using humor, much the same way Mark Twain, Mark Russell and other commentators have done in the past, to illustrate her point. And suggesting such editorial doesn’t belong in Zagat is entirely contradictory to its very existence! Editorial comments are the sole purpose behind this user-driven review system and anyone who has ever read a negative review on the site or in their books knows exactly what I am talking about.

Fun, light hearted humour. Nice article. However, seems there are some really sensitive folks out there. No doubt, if our "America loving governor" also wanted to secede from the union, we might be a little too insecure to laugh at ourselves.

Add New Mexico to the list of "No Drinking on Election Day". The other day of the year? Christmas, naturally. Go figure! Oh, and in Vermont, you must finish the drink in front of you before you can order another. Thanks for this piece -- I'm perplexed at the array of negative comments. Maybe they're all teetotalers?

I must say I am far more surprised at the vehemence of some of these comments than I am at the initial eight points. Sensitive?

To add to the no booze before noon on Sunday law which is common all over the country, Newark Airport, part of the terminal is a No Booze before noon, because it is within the city limits, the other half of the airport is in the county so booze anytime.

Lighten up Larry! It looks like you just joined. As a long-time ZAGATer I like these little excursions.

I just joined Zagat's online for, crazily, opinions on restaurants, not laws. I will not renew.

Another "Honerable Mention" should go to Vermont, where it is illegal to have more than one drink in front of you at a time at the bar. So much for the apres ski shot and a beer.

In the U.K. restaurants in many cases refuse to serve hamburgers other than well cooked....but may have steak tartare on the menu!

It's worth noting that many restrictive laws have been repealed. It was once illegal for a New York State liquor store to sell a corkscrew or hold a wine tasting. (And this in a wine-producing state!) When I was growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio forbade all liquor sales on Sunday. Hence all bars and restaurants were closed on the Sabbath, while business was booming across the river in Kentucky. Convention and tourism officials in Cleveland, Columbus, and other cities protested, and the blue law was eventually repealed. Kentucky, home to many Bourbon distillers, still has lower liquor taxes and the enormous store next to the Great Cincinnati Airport (in Florence, KY) does much of its business with Ohio travelers seeking bargains. At least Ohio has streamlined its State Stores, which were once Soviet-style establishments where it took three clerks to deliver a single bottle. (And no, I am not kidding!)

Whoever wrote this trash (and the editor who permitted it to be posted to the web) should be terminated. There are plenty of hack political sites on the web for someone to spew hatred and insults at the inhabitants (or just law enforcement officers) of an entire State; just because your political leanings don't align with the majority of said State's voters. The trash in #5 does NOT belong on a Food / Wine / Entertainment review site. Insinuating via verbal tone that Texan's are racists who pick on illegal immigrants (excuse me ... undocumented workers) through use of "Dumb" laws is pathetic. (By the way, does the writer also seem to insinuate that these poor "undocumented workers" are a bunch of DRUNKS??? If they are sober, how are they breaking THIS law .... let's forget about the laws they have broken by entering the country illegally in the first place.) I've subscribed to Zagat.com since 2002 and purchased print editions before that. If this is the kind of garbage my subscription fees support; then it is time for gayot.com or some other review site. If I want to read (or watch) insulting tripe, I can always turn to MSNBC. (BTW, if more states enacted Dumb law # 6; perhaps we wouldn't be in such a pathetic economic mess!)

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but it used to be that restaurants could not sell food for carry-out service on Sundays in South Holland, Illinois. So, if you went to a fast-food restaurant, they could not put the food in a bag to go.

If the restaurant had no seating area, then it basically couldn't open on Sundays.

This goes back to when many of the town's residents were of Dutch heritage and consequently belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church.

If you're not an illegal why would you worry?

New York State used to have the "no alcohol on Election Day" rule until one year when the Village Election Day (always in March) fell on St. Patrick's Day. There was such an outcry (publicized and aided by me as a journalist at the time) that the law got changed.