Foie Gras Won’t Be Outlawed in NYC — Yet

The foie gras ban will not go into effect on November 25 as previously planned, the New York Times reports. A New York State Supreme Court judge issued an injunction regarding the ban passed by the New York City Council in 2019, when over 1,000 local restaurants served foie gras. New York joined California in the ban; foie gras is also banned in the UK, Germany, Denmark, and India, among other countries.

The court ruled that the upstate farms that sued over the ban, La Belle Farm and Hudson Valley Foie Gras, can continue to sell foie gras to restaurants in New York City for now and issued a preliminary injunction on enforcing the law while the matter goes through the courts; who knows how long that will take.

The passage of the ban pitted animal rights activists against farmers who have made their living selling foie gras; in addition to citing economic hardship, the farmers claimed City Council exceeded its authority since the law affected farming practices outside the city. Activists object to gavage, where ducks and geese are force-fed to engorge their livers over a 20-day regimen.

Another potential City Council ban, this one against fast food companies

The New York City Council is considering a bill that would ban fast food companies that repeatedly violate workers’ rights, Gothamist reports. The bill would allow the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to order the Health Department to suspend, revoke, or deny food service establishment permits if a company has had to pay $500,000 or more over a three-year period for violations of the Fair Work Week Law. Chipotle would be under the gun, having had to pay $20 million to 13,000 workers in a settlement agreement last month.

California has a similar statewide law, the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, enacted to fight low pay, poor working conditions, and a lack of safety protections. The Guardian reports that the fast-food industry has put resources toward overturning it.

Nene’s to open a second location

Nene’s Deli Taqueria from Andrés Tonatiuh Galindo Maria, who worked at places like Oceana and Jean-Georges, is opening a second location today in Park Slope at 660 Degraw Street, at 4th Avenue. The destination birria place first opened in Bushwick in fall 2020 and relocated within the Eric Star Market at 14 Starr Street.

Cocktail bar sibling to Noda opens this week in Flatiron

Michelin-starred sushi bro destination Noda from Shigeyuki Tsunoda is opening Shinji’s, a cocktail bar named for the Tokyo fixer Shinji Nohara connecting travelers to food and restaurants in Tokyo for 20 years — including the late Anthony Bourdain. The location at 37 W. 20th street near 6th Avenue, debuts Wednesday, September 21, with a menu of nostalgia cocktails served at the bar and at tableside bar carts. A spokesperson says that Ken Fulk designed the space, which includes a gold-granite-topped bar with a bronze octopus that hangs overhead. The partners include David Hess, architect Aiden Carty, and Justin Hauser, also of Noda.