Eating Out at a Home Restaurant: Should the Gov't Regulate Paid Dinner Parties?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 พ.ค. 2014
- Ai is a master chef, and about twice a week, she and her boyfriend, Matt, host a group of strangers at their home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to enjoy a gourmet Japanese meal. Their guests find them through a website called EatWith, which makes it possible for diners to book a reservation, not in a restaurant, but in the home of a chef. Each guests pays Ai and Matt a fee of $41, and EatWith takes a 15 percent cut.
EatWith, which is now in 30 countries, won't divulge its sales numbers, but the company says it has thousands of open applications from potential hosts and that its volume is rapidly expanding.
"When you come to a dining experience with EatWith, there's an element to the social and human experience that you're not going to get anywhere else," says Hila Katz, EatWith's New York City community manager. "Around a table sit strangers and friends together, great food, a glass of wine, and good conversation, magical things are going to happen."
But if these home restaurants become more common, the city may start issuing fines that would force hosts like Matt and Ai out of business. New York City Department of Health Spokesperson Veronica Lewin told Bloomberg Businessweek, "People who offer meals to the public for money...need permits...The city does not allow meals to be served to members of the public in someone's home."
"If you're [hosting dinners] every day there should be some sort of regulation, because you're closer to becoming a restaurant," says EatWith's co-founder and CEO Guy Michlin.
But why should the government have any say over what people eat-or charge for-in the privacy of their own dining rooms? Unlike at a restaurant, EatWith guests get to socialize with the person cooking their meal, and the kitchen is often wide open for everyone to see how the food is being handled and prepared.
"The sharing economy is changing paradigms," says Katz. "I have no doubt that there's a real hunger for more human interactions, and it's those real connecting experiences that will linger with a guest for much longer after the dinner is ended.
About 3:40 minutes.
Written, shot, and produced by Jim Epstein.
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"Underground" supper clubs? My God, let's call the police!
Let's be real here, the main issue with the Gov't and Health Regulation is not health specifica at all but rather, the Gov't isn't getting their cut of the $ from taxes.
If they were feeding these people free meals, not one would care. In fact, it would be looked highly upon and considered "charity"
It's also technically infringement if you invite someone over to your house to watch a movie if they don't own a copy of the movie too. People are living as criminals 24 hours a day, and it's getting to the point where we'll all just stop caring. If the state tries to arrest everyone, there gonna have a fight on their hands.
Indeed. What about parties that require an entry fee? College students do it all the time and even adults to help cover booze expenses and whatnot. Tax & regulation lovers in NYC are really sore losers. This has nothing to do with protecting the public, it has everything to do with squeezing more money out of people and to put them back in their place.
HeatForce Don't give them any ideas. Those fascists may just go after college students.
" invite someone over to your house to watch a movie if they don't own a copy of the movie too" would only be technically illegal if they changed. Then there is also "open to the public" vs invite only. Put a sign saying "see Ironman 3 on a 80' TV, only $2", this is clearly braking the law. Buying a movie you and your friends want to see and asking you friends to chip in for the movie might be in a legal gray area, but no one cares. And invite someone over to your house to watch a movie if they don't own a copy of the movie of free is 100% legal.
Why do we put up with laws that hurt We the People? So what if they don't enforce them? What happens when they decide to selectively enforce them on people they don't like, don't approve of etc? It has happened before in other countries with disasterous results
The problem is not them trying to arrest everyone for nonsensical laws. That wouldn't work. No. What happens is, they use these laws to destroy their specific enemies. That is why there are so many laws. That is why they spy on us. They know that, no matter who you are, you've broken at least one law they can control you with.
It's all about power and control.
Government shouldn't regulate any food, food production or food distribution. Government should get out of the way.
It reminds me of the TSA, the ''Toilet Seat Administration'' from Southpark, that inspects every toilet user to use the required special seatbelt to prevent people from falling into their toilets.
It's the *government* that's the problem. It's *always* been the government that's the problem.
Pure Insanity. Once again, New York (City of Crazies) brought this up.
What a messed up World we live in.
Couldn't someone charge for "a night of being a family friend", with the understanding that friends always eat free? (Then the Department of Friend Management would be born, no doubt.)
Once you accept the authority of law you have already broken it.
I understand that there's a concern for public health, but to say consensual adults can't get together and eat with one another is absolutely ridiculous. Even if the cook is charging to cover cost.
PS, they probably changed some rules and regulations since this video was uploaded lol
That's actually really cool! I'd go to that Japanese place in a heartbeat. Shame the government is acting all, well, government.
and yet if I feed a bunch of strangers or friends for free its ok. Great F'ING LOGIC
change the paradigm, accept donations for the cooking class, the food is free.
Years ago when I heard of this I thought it was a cool idea. Now that I live next to a house that does I cringe at the idea. There should be strict guild lines and it should not be ran at the expense of the neighbors.
No loud music, no littering, no illegal parking be in a mixed zone area and not be weekly operating in an already parking challenged neighborhood are just some. The party should be completely responsible for guest they lure not just the cash.
It is interesting to see how the government deals with the changes of the internet. What is the difference between a home and a restaurant when both sever cooked food for money? What is the difference between a cab and a car ride you pay for through Uber?
OH NO I GUESS I'M A CRIMINAL TOO. I charged people to host a party and served alcohol and let them play my board games. I made no money out of it since all the money went to buying booze.
Just make it a non profit and make not paid for but rather a donation. Problem solved.
Fines might force them out of business? So which is it? Just a dinner party, or a business?
Just call it a DONATION for the food?? Did they try that? yet, ANOTHER REASON I would NEVER EVER live in a Blue State!! Especially the Moon Bat ridden NY or California!!
Government shouldn't regulate our food supply period. Inspections shouldn't be necessary, customers should be accountable by using their own discretion, and should drive people out of business via their own reviews.
all parties (chef and diners) should sign a private contract (like a farm csa food group). then they are no longer the "public" which the government seems to think needs protecting.
Except people have become so cowardly and unwilling to resist government infringment of privacy that in the end ,government WILL regulate paid diner parties and "paladar" style restauration.
I grew up in a place where almost everybody in the neighborhood was making and selling some kind of foods out of their home. Pies, juices, dairies, ice cream, snacks, meals, you name it. Whatever you needed, you would just go knock their doors with a few bucks and buy what they had to sell. It was peer to peer economy at its best, it tightened the community and people enjoyed home made delicacies which contributed greatly to the overall well being of the neighborhood.
I don t possibly see how home restauration can hurt anyone at all but we all know that this is more about disrupting socialization and the human positive behaviors that emanate from this type of activities.
I say keep doing it. Everyone should do this. Encourage others to do similar things. Resist. Even when the regulation passes, resist. Keep doing it. Resist.
Kriztofer Plitzkin the "regulations" are there especially to apply taxes.
I also grew up in such a place, in Italy in the province of Bologna.. I totally agree with you, it tightens the community and brings healthy non industrial food to your table.
Back home the government is still too dumb to apply taxes on any small activity that pops out but I can see how any tax regulation office in the US is ready to suck out dry anyone. Mother Fuckers
I agree with you and we're making the same point. Nowadays I live in Sweden and any kind of similar activity involving a services or goods for untaxed money is deemed illegal by Skatteverket ( the Swedish Tax Agency).
I cannot say bake pies at home and sell them regularly for cash hand in hand, they even have a "terrifying" term for it, it's called "svart inkomst " or "black income", it's passible of fines if you get caught or reported doing this. You must file it in your tax report and register your activity as some form of company. Technically it is deemed illegal unless it's billed on paper which implies a tax... For that reason, Sweden is among the countries pushing the hardest for cashless society very soon I think no shop whatsoever will take cash anymore, you won't be able to start a business without having a credit card reader for payments and within an near future banking notes will be removed from circulation all over Europe. It's all about control as you said.
I don't think the government of Italy is too dumb to pass regulations like this, they are probably considering it as we speak, I think it's actually because Italians are culturally stronger in this regard and your culture must first be weakened and watered-down for such a law to be accepted passively by the public. But it might just be a question of time especially with the EU. I have hope that it won't since such activities as backyard or home run restauration are still very difficult to track and the amount of resources put out to regulate it might outweigh the benefits for the government.
EatWith website is down, can't research it.
Well when you put it that way...
I bet these young hipsters are the ones who voted for this type of government.
It's a phenomenon that I once heard called "accidental libertarianism". I would say that only a select few people that I know personally are really all that conscious that they're thinking like a libertarian. Because being one is so built on following human nature and self-interest, people unconsciously work in a libertarian way without applying it to abstract philosophies floating around them, such as politics or economic policy.
"Eating out...". Ha...
Should the Gov't...
If the rest isn't "Go the way of the Dodo bird" the answer is HELL NO. Always.
False... Governments serves many purposes. However, this is far from one of those purposes.
TheWeakMinded
Government rules those who are enslaved.
***** And Anarchy enslaves and oppresses the weak. Shall we continue to make useless blanket statements?
TheWeakMinded
Anarchy is no rulers... So your statement is useless.
All society has "rulers." A system of Anarchy is either impossible to maintain or will have those who are subjugated. Take your pick on how you want to define it, but that is the result.
"OF COURSE they live in Williamsburg," said everyone.
Totalitarianism!
These rich posers need to be put in their place. Fine them, Tax them, Arrest them - AND their customers.
That dinner party you used in your featured story, is there some reason that the host couple as well as the guests,ALL comprise of Caucasian male and Asian female couples? Is that what you'd call niche or targeted marketing, wave of the future is it? Where does this need arise from? Are the needs of mixed race patrons or proprietors not being met in conventional dining establishments and mainstream F&B outlets for some reason? Problems with permits, bank loans, leases, customer bases, publicity? And that has to do with what again? Name me a successful restaurant being run by a mixed race team, where their client base has got nothing to do with ethnicity?
So, if I hear correctly, sounds like you favor less government control in your personal lives.
who the fuck would want to live in new York city anymore???? Fuck you Veronica lewis.