Postscript to Chicago's foie gras ban

The recent ban on foie gras in Chicago brought this response from chefs and health inspectors:

Chicago health inspectors paid a surprise visit to a previously warned River North restaurant last week to catch it in the act of selling foie gras -- only to find that the banned liver delicacy was being given away.

Bin 36, 333 N. Dearborn, managed to avoid a $250 ticket by offering foie gras “as a complimentary sidebar to another dish on the menu. . . . The menu made it clear that they were giving it away as part of a larger offering,” said Health Department spokesman Tim Hadac.

“We turned around and came back. . . . The ordinance prohibits the sale of foie gras. It does not address giving it away. That would be up to the framers of the law [to close the loophole],” Hadac said Tuesday.

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) is chief sponsor of the foie gras ban that Mayor Daley calls the “silliest law” Chicago aldermen have ever passed.