call me crazy or call me naive, whatever you wish. What’s an underground restaurant? What kinds of codes does a restaurant evade to classify as an underground/secret place? And more importantly how do they keep it a secret? If it’s a good thing, I am not sure how a restaurant continues to remain a secret place.

Personally I believe our society won’t be destroyed by underground restaurants. The idea of a secret place is very exciting and I know I am not alone on this. So what if these places don’t follow all the health codes and OSHA regulations? And what if they don’t pay their taxes all the time. If they serve food prepared in their “clean” kitchens and their servers wash their hands, as a general courtesy for others, who cares? Rules are meant to be broken and anyone that can do it on this level deserves some credit. I strongly believe government and law makers need to move away from regulating these things and concentrate more on important issues such as ensuring children and low income families eat a meal frequently and regularly.

* Chain restaurant employees — because corporate generica is the biggest winner when it comes to regulations. After all, who can better afford to navigate the obstacle course that is entry to the market than conglomerates with legal teams?

* Government employees whose salaries are paid in part by our taxes and in part by all those licensing fees and non-compliance fines that small business owners must pay.

* The purveyors of goods and services that help restaurants comply with laws and regulations. Their lobbyists worked with legislators for a reason — to protect their businesses.

Unless we want to allow independent farmers and restaurateurs and other innovators to establish a foothold in our communities, we must remain vigilant, enforce existing laws and regulations, and pass new ones!

For a start, isn’t about time we started regulating the blogosphere? I hear the PI’s circulation is down.

And then I heard that Mistral close two weekends ago.

Bleargh.