Miscellaneous

Nanny state, Virginia 1934 edition

By Walter Olson, Ted Frank, and David Nieporent

An Alexandria tapas bar was cited for serving sangria—which violates a 1934 Virginia law against mixing wine with spirits, with penalties of up to a year in jail. Virginia Spanish restaurants, so warned, now only serve a bowdlerized version of the drink, to the dismay of customers who can get the real thing a few miles away in DC or Maryland. The legislature is contemplating a change, though a pending bill would fail to exempt the similarly illegal kir royals or boilermakers. (Anita Kumar, "Virginia's Sangria Ban At Issue in 2 Hearings", Washington Post, Jan. 24). (According to Instruction 33 on this bulletin, Virginia also appears to ban the pitcher of margaritas the local Mexican restaurant serves.) Left unspoken: when is someone going to bring a consumer class action against the Spanish restaurants serving faux sangrias without warning customers?

(ObJingoism: At least Virginia still has better Thai, Indian, and Vietnamese food than DC or Maryland.)

For more on the more modern food police, see Overlawyered's Eat, Drink, and Be Merry section or my article, A Taxonomy of Obesity Litigation.

Full post as published by Overlawyered on January 25, 2008 (boomark / email).