When Katz’s Met the DOJ ~ Greenfield

[corbe]

When Katz’s Met the DOJ

The Justice Department spent 13 years investigating a neighborhood deli’s bathrooms.

January 3, 2025 by Daniel Greenfield

In 1888, Katz’s Deli opened on New York City’s Lower East Side. A century after it adopted its current name, the Obama administration began investigating it and other popular restaurants.

Most people know Katz’s from a memorable scene in When Harry Met Sally, but earlier generations on the Lower East Side knew it for its ‘Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army’ campaign during WWII when the owner’s three sons were all serving on the front lines. Presidents, from FDR to JFK to Reagan, members of Congress and all sorts of politicians stopped by for a snack and to get a photo at an authentic Jewish deli for their campaigns.

But the Justice Department’s targeting of Katz’s Deli not only lasted longer than When Harry Met Sally, but it also lasted longer than WWI and WWII combined, and no amount of salami could get rid of the greedy government lawyers who made for a much less romantic couple than Bill Crystal and Meg Ryan, and offered a much less happy ending than the classic movie.

While China, Iran and Russia hacked us, cartel members crossed the border, and terrorists carried out attacks, the Justice Department single-mindedly dedicated itself to the much more vital task of conducting inspections of Katz’s Deli bathrooms in 2011, 2018, 2020 and 2024.

Katz’s Deli is only 18 years younger than the United States Justice Department, but its claim to fame is serving pastrami sandwiches while the federal government’s skill is destroying all that it touches. The old school deli has hosted plenty of episodes of Law and Order, but under Obama, the law showed up not to have a sandwich in between takes, but to drag the deli into court.

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https://www.frontpagemag.com/when-katzs-met-the-doj/

[mountaineer]

After 13 years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which had also taken the lead in spurious investigations of Trump, celebrated New Year’s Eve with a settlement and a $20,000 penalty because the iconic deli, which has been around in one form or another for 136 years, had not sufficiently adapted itself to the 2010 version of ADA disability regulations

No disabled people had actually complained about Katz’s. While some eateries, especially on the other side of the country in California, have been plagued by serial ADA litigants, the only ones to object to Katz’s entrance, tables and bathroom were Justice Department lawyers.

Our lovely "We're too busy demanding hand rails in rest rooms to worry about terrorists" Department of Injustice.

[GtHawk]

Back in the day, unless you did remodel of a certain magnitude you were not required to upgrade the restrooms to meet ADA requirements, and that  was in California, and a major reason why the owner of the business only upgraded tables and seating and never removed any of the useless w ing walls and planters in the dining room.