California-based Hillstone Restaurant Group recently demonstrated new and improved loopholes around New York City menu labeling laws. Again, NYC passed legislation in May, 2008, requiring all chain restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus.
Hillstone, which owns the popular chain Houston's, has now changed the name of its two NYC spots from Houston's to Hillstone. Sound confusing? It is.
Apparently, the two Houston's restaurants in NY were charged with noncompliance regarding menu labeling laws and instead of caving and revealing their calorie counts, they simply chose to rename the restaurant, add a menu item here or there, and voila, they've now circumvented the entire problem. That spinach-artichoke dip you know and love? Don't have to know the calories on that one. Pretty sneaky, sis. . .
As I've written before, I'm not in support of posting calorie counts (see previous posts for my reasoning). To me, this switcheroo provides yet another example of why the law won't work.
5 comments:
I hate this law, too. The information is available (online or in pamphlets) for anyone who wants it, and shaming people into eating better doesn't work. For those of us with a history of EDs, it can backfire.
i never trust those calorie counts anyway. serving sizes vary, chefs add more or less topping, blah, blah, blah.
listing calories is all very Big Brother to me.
Why must we be so vigilant in monitoring our calorie intake? Can't we just enjoy a good meal out for what it is? I think this sort of hyper-vigilance contributes to women's problematic relationship with food. While the calorie count doesn't make value-judgments about the food it affords the restaurant the opportunity to cash in on customers interested in dieting and nutrition.
I just noticed you added "Does" before the old title... what is the reason behind this change?
I've searched for Houston's/Hillstone's nutritional information everywhere online, and can't seem to find it. It's one of my favorite (and most decadent) restaurants, but is probably not too theigh-friendly. The caesar salad is to die for, but who knows what's really in it. Recently I looked up the calories for a caesar salad at Capitol Grill and it was around 1000.... yuck!
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