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You’re always taking a bit of a gamble when you order spicy food at a restaurant. A tourist from Germany claimed he didn’t know what he was getting himself into when you poured some salsa on tacos he ordered in New York City, but his attempt to sue the restaurant over the level of heat says he ended up dealing with did not pan out as he had hoped.
If you ask someone who’s run a restaurant for some advice about starting your own, there’s a good chance they’ll respond with a single word: “Don’t.”
The idea of running a dining establishment tends to be much more glamorous than it really is for a ton of different reasons, including the sobering reality you tend to run into when you decide to turn a passion into a career.
“Serving good food” tends to be a prerequisite for a successful restaurant, and while chefs theoretically get to dictate the menu, they also need to cater to the tastes of the clientele they rely on to make money; just because you personally like something does not necessarily mean it’s going to land with the masses.
For example, there are a number of worldly cuisines that traditionally harness fiery ingredients that have the potential to ostracize diners with less adventurous palates. It’s no secret that many restaurants that specialize in Thai or Indian food tone down the default level of heat to avoid scaring away the kind of people who think black pepper is too spicy.
That can also be an issue with Mexican food, and one spot in New York City waged a successful legal battle against a patron who filed a lawsuit over some allegedly debilitating salsa.
A German tourist unsuccessfully sued New York City’s Los Tacos No. 1 over some salsa that supposedly left him incapacitated
I sort of danced around an issue I was addressing in the past few paragraphs by mentioning specific cultures by name while being somewhat vague when it came to kinds of eaters who aren’t prepared for the kind of kick their food can feature, a group that is commonly referred to as “white people.”
There are certainly exceptions, but the places where most people of Caucasian descent can trace their heritage are not known for making food that’s packed with heat, as “spicy” is not the first word to spring to mind when it comes to the cuisine of countries like the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
That last one is the home of a tourist who headed to New York City in 2024 and made an almost obligatory stop in Times Square that included a visit to Los Tacos No. 1, the chain that currently boasts nine locations around Manhattan.
According to Gothamist, the tourist in question, a German engineer named Faycal Manz, ordered a carne asada taco, another with chicken, and one more with adobada pork and opted to top them with some salsa. The last one was doused with “a lot of spoons” worth of the restaurant’s salsa verde, which turned out to be a mistake.
According to a lawsuit that was subsequently filed in a federal court in Manhattan, Manz “suffered severe physical and emotional damage” because of the salsa. He asserts “his tongue burned, his mouth hurt, his face turned red, and his heart rate soared” in the immediate wake of his initial bite, and he had to deal with “mouth sores and severe GI distress that lasted for days” as a result (it’s worth noting the red salsa he put on the other two tacos did not have the same effect).
Unfortunately, the judge overseeing the case did not sympathize, as he noted a restaurant “has no duty to warn a consumer of the spice-associated risks that come with consuming salsa.” He noted people who visit a Mexican restaurant should be prepared to encounter some heat, adding that a simple Google search “would have revealed that salsa can be quite spicy.”
Manz seemed to have a very eventful trip, as he filed a lawsuit against a Walmart in New Jersey for requiring them to enter a phone number based in the United States to access WiFi, alleging it was a violation of the Civil Rights Act (that one was also dismissed).
He also sued the city of New York in connection with an assault he witnessed, claiming the NYPD and a 911 operator “demonstrated deliberate indifference and discrimination” while “showing bias against international callers” while seeking a sum of $10 million over purported violations of the 14th Amendment. There is a chance he wins that one, as the case is still ongoing.