Cracking down on “unregulated dinner parties”

Think the war on drugs was a bad idea?

Well, people are now engaging in illegal consensual transactions over food:

It may look like a dinner party, but it’s really an underground supper club.

The diners are a mix of New Yorkers and tourists. CBS 2’s undercover cameras captured one experience — eight people who didn’t know each other eating a meal in a stranger’s home.

That hostess, Naama Shafi, writes about food but is not a chef. Leitner found her through a website, which connects amateur foodies and professional chefs in 20 different countries with people who want unique dining experiences.

Clandestine dinner parties like the one Leitner attended have become more common in New York City. And insiders told Leitner they are completely unregulated.

Yes, there is a growing secret network of illegal dinner parties.

“That’s the things with supper clubs, they’re in a sense illegal just because they are underground no one knows about them. So if the Health Department did come they would obviously shut it down. So there’s always a little bit of worry,” Patlazhan said.

To stay under the radar, Patlazhan changes the location every time and keeps the guest list exclusive through a members-only website.

“It’s definitely kind of a secret and I think that’s the interesting part about it. And a lot of it is word of mouth,” Patlazhan said.

But some critics have concerns about these unregulated dinner parties.

Yes they do. And by God, something must be done!

When asked if the underground restaurants should be regulated, [retired New York City health inspector] Lubarsky told Leitner, “Yes, they should be regulated by the same system that regulates every restaurant in New York City.”

The Health Department refused to discuss the issue on camera but in a statement told CBS 2: “In New York City, people who offer meals to the public for money are considered food service establishments and need permits. The city does not allow meals to be served to members of the public in someone’s home.”

People who “offer meals to the public”? What might that mean? These people are joining private clubs, are they not? If that is “public,” then why isn’t a cook serving people inside an ordinary home (or a spouse serving a spouse) public?

This is not a question of the government wanting revenue. If that were the case, they could just set their price the way they do with taxes and then collect it. This is prohibitory. There is no way that anyone cooking in a non-commercial kitchen can comply with restaurant licensing requirements, and the bureaucrats know it.

Freedom of association, anyone?