Food and Drinq

You can't order foie gras anymore at Ansill.
"It's just not worth it," David Ansill told me. He says he's tired of the protests that have been clogging up his Queen Village corner, so the chef-owner of Ansill has pulled foie gras off the menu. He told me he's doing this to spare his neighbors -- not so much the ducks. "I just want to cook," he said. When I wrote in June about the foie gras protest group Hugs for Puppies, Ansill was at the fore of a small group of restaurateurs who proudly served the liver dish despite regular picketing. Hugs for Puppies had targeted not only Ansill's restaurant but his home. So he's caved. "Have they won?" Ansill asked. "Yes."

Of course, this raises other issues. While the "cruelty" issue of foie gras can be debated, there's ample evidence that other forms of food production are just as cruel. Go to any chicken farm, for example. Foie gras might be just the tip of the iceberg (to mix and mangle a metaphor) for eco-protesters.