Health Concerns

Forage Forced to Stop Foraging

Forage
Forage Photo: Forage

Silver Lake’s Forage debuted in February with a cool new concept: Guests would bring their own grown or gathered fruit and sell it to the restaurant, who would cook the produce in a range of dishes. This resulted in “home growers from 11 neighborhoods across Los Angeles [bringing] in more than 300 pounds of produce,” says the restaurant. So what’s gone wrong?

Eating L.A. reports that this symbiotic relationship has come to an end for now, as inspectors from the Health Department came to the restaurant on the heels of an anonymous snitch complaint and banned the restaurant from getting food from uncertified sources, i.e. home-growers. In a looooong letter on Forage’s website, the restaurant explains that “the health and safety” of dining is its highest priority, so while pained, Forage will continue serving its dishes, but will now source everything only from area farmer’s markets. Meanwhile, we are adding foraging to a long list of everything from Oaxacan cheese, Sonoran hot dogs, and rice noodles to smoking and trans-fat that the municipal government is currently saving ourselves from.

Forage puts foraging on hold due to yet another arcane city regulation [Eating L.A.]
Earlier: What to Eat and Sell at Forage [Grub Street]

Forage Forced to Stop Foraging