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**Pedro56** · 03-31-07, 09:45 AM

Hot dog joint pays for foie gras
$250 fine makes it 1st violator of ban on delicacy

March 30, 2007
BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter

In the end, Doug Sohn decided to pony up, not duck.

An attorney for Sohn, proprietor of the Northwest Side's "encased meats emporium" Hot Doug's, appeared Thursday before the Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings and agreed to the $250 fine lodged against the hot dog stand for selling foie gras-laced sausage.

That makes Sohn the first official violator of the city's seven-month-old ban on the duck liver delicacy.

Sohn was ticketed in February by health inspectors who found foie gras in the kitchen and on the menu during an inspection. That visit came after three anonymous complaints lodged against his popular storefront at 3324 N. California.

Ticket follows Web posting
The first complaint triggered a warning letter from the city, which Sohn framed and placed next to his cash register. He continued using foie gras in occasional specials after the ban took effect last August.

On the morning he was ticketed, he had posted a $6.50 foie gras and Sauternes duck sausage on his Web site.

Health inspectors will return to Hot Doug's to remove embargo tags on about 30 pounds of the banned product stored in a freezer, said city Health Department spokesman Tim Hadac.

"They have to remove it from the premises, which they've agreed to do," Hadac said.

Sohn did not return calls Thursday.

jfuller@suntimes.com

**Pedro56** · 03-31-07, 09:47 AM

This is the stupidest bend over and kiss the ass of the moron yuppy PETA people. If the shit taste good eat it, if you don't like it then don't. Same with smoking, want to sit somewhere where it is no smoking? Then go there, or open your own.

**BEB** · 03-31-07, 09:58 AM

Gotta give Doug Sohn, proprietor of the Northwest Side's "encased meats emporium" Hot Doug's credit for the cheapest national media advertising campaign in history.

**Buttercup** · 03-31-07, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by Pedro56

This is the stupidest bend over and kiss the ass of the moron yuppy PETA people. If the shit taste good eat it, if you don't like it then don't. Same with smoking, want to sit somewhere where it is no smoking? Then go there, or open your own.

I agree with you completely. It's meat. And frankly, I love foie gras and eat it every chance I get. That ban is one of the single most ridiculous legislative decisions ever.

**Cidp24** · 03-31-07, 10:25 AM

This might sound stupid, but I know nothing at all about foie gras. What exactly is it and why would it be banned?

EDIT: Disregard my last, the first link I clicked after a yahoo search told the whole story.

I agree, it is silly to ban this if some people like to eat it, even sillier to fine someone for selling it.