Chicago in no rush to enforce recent ban of foie gras

CHICAGO — When the letter came from City Hall threatening punishment if he continued to serve foie gras at his Chicago restaurant, Doug Sohn framed the warning and set it beside his cash register.

And he kept serving the fattened duck liver without a care.

"We displayed it proudly," said Sohn, owner of Hot Doug's, a gourmet-sausage eatery where the daily special can include smoked pheasant topped with foie gras chunks. "My customers and myself enjoy foie gras."

In April, the City Council sided with animal-rights activists who consider the production of foie gras cruel because geese and ducks are force-fed to make their livers bigger and passed an ordinance banning the delicacy. Four months after the ban went into effect, many chefs and restaurateurs are thumbing their noses at it.

Several restaurants are so brazen that they list foie gras on their online menus.

While the city considers other ordinances to force restaurants to eliminate trans fats and disclose nutritional information on its menus, it has barely pursued foie gras scofflaws.

The city has sent warning letters to nine restaurants believed to have served foie gras but has issued no citations, said Tim Hadac, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Public Health. Letters are sent after a citizen complaint and are followed by a visit after a second complaint. Visits that turn up evidence of the banished dish can result in fines from $250 to $500.

But Mayor Richard Daley is no fan of the ban. Just this week, he called it "the silliest law" the City Council has ever passed.

Perhaps that helps explain why the Health Department is in no rush to boost their compliance checks.

"In a world of very limited public-health resources, we're being asked to drop some things so we can enforce a law like this," Hadac said. "With HIV/AIDS, cancer, West Nile virus and some of the other things we deal with, foie gras is our lowest priority."

Alderman Joe Moore, sponsor of the ban, took no exception to the fact that foie gras investigation is among the lower priorities for the Public Health Department. But he was dismayed to know restaurants are flouting the ordinance.

As he did before the ban, David Richards, owner of Sweets & Savories, has two foie gras dishes on the menu, which are two of his most expensive: a Kobe beef burger topped with foie gras pate and seared foie gras accompanied by pumpkin flan.

At first, he said, restaurant owners worried their access to foie gras would be limited, and they crafted plots to keep their supply flowing — like getting it mailed to a suburban address for weekly covert pickups. Such cunning turned out not to be necessary, he said. Richards still gets foie gras from the same distributor he always did, and no one seems to care that it is still on his menu.

Material from The Seattle Times archive is included in this report.