Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/10/californias-flintstone-house-in-another-fight-with-the-city.html
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Yeah…no. You don’t get to not be a restaurant just by saying you’re not a restaurant. They’re a catering company catering an event in a private home owned by the same people who own the catering company. That’s a restaurant. I’m so tired of all these “disruptive” businesses that are just trying to get around regulations that exist for very good reasons. Uber and Lyft are taxi companies. AirBnBs are inns and hotels. You shouldn’t get to bypass the rules just by calling yourself something else. If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
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The house’s unique design and decor has gotten them in trouble with the city before. The current owner has really leaned into it, adding dinosaur sculptures around the property. I think it’s great, but Hillsborough is one of the wealthiest enclaves in a very wealthy area, and some of the residents are stuffy about it.
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So. I learnt a new word: omakase.
Still not entirely sure precisely what its usage represents here, though (not that I care much).
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I think what it means here is that you don’t get a menu. You pay a shitload of money for a seat at the table in this unique “house”, and then you get served whatever the chef has decided the 15 course “experience” is going to consist of that particular night. And in this case, had it been allowed to continue, you would have had this high priced omakase experience without any assurance that the chef or the kitchen the food was prepared in were following any food preparation standards or regulations.
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So, not Japanese, then. 
(I probably suspected as much. Why not just call it a tasting menu? Maybe because the type of people they hope to attract think tasting menus are so passé and omakase is new and edgy.)
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So in summary: Rich assholes decide to out-asshole some other rich assholes.
My sympathy emulator clearly needs some adjustment, because I didn’t get a single beep out of the entire article.
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I’m a baker. I own a house. If I invite people to eat cake at my house that doesn’t make my house a bakery. If I hire a catering company run by the bakery I work for that still doesn’t make my house a restaurant.
Any event catered on site by a licensed catering company will definitely be prepared according to proper sanitation and food safety standards.
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But the people who own this house don’t just work for the catering company. They are the catering company. If this is a one off event, I would agree with you. It isn’t. They are trying to have their cake and eat it, too. They are running a business in a neighborhood not zoned for commercial business. And it’s a restaurant. And I presume the standards and rules for restaurants are different than those for caterers. And those differences exist for a reason.
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When I have a catered private party at my house, I don’t describe my relationship with the caterer as a “partnership” and then make a public announcement like Fang did. You’re not fooling anyone, Fang.
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Seems very typical of a Northern California “small town.” Once you are on their radar, look out. You’ll be hassled forever.
so true. same goes for the HOA called Rancho Cordova. once you receive your first “administrative notice,” you can expect more forever.
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I forgot that Sir Pat Stew was in LA Story!
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One of the best bits!
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Is the catering business being run out of the house? Because, to me that seems to be what you are implying. Like BakerB said, if a catering company provides food to a private party at my residence that doesn’t make it a restaurant. At least in my mind, a majority of the food would have been prepared at the catering company’s primary location. It doesn’t matter if I work for or even own the catering company.
We have a local bakery that consists of multiple locations which are mostly provided for by a central baking location. Essentially you have store fronts and a commercial, but not publicly accessible, bakery. I would expect these to be labeled differently even through the same “goods” are present at all locations.
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You wouldn’t charge your friends and family $230 for the privilege of nomming your cakes, tho.
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You can’t have c’est duck
I did not see LA Story…
But I’m curious, is the malapropism (ç’est vs ce) part of the gag?
