They entered swiftly and unannounced, like anybody on a surprise inspection. Point after point, everything checked out. But when the city inspectors reached the basement, they stumbled upon the hub of a painstakingly precise operation. The suspect in question was not some drug kingpin or organized-crime ringleader. It was Lula Cafe, a restaurant dealing in stuffed French toast and hand-cut pastas. And its offense? Canning.

The brigade of cooks was given no choice. They took turns lugging close to 200 quart-size glass jars from their subterranean pantry into the back alley, where an inspector watched as they emptied the contents of each into the Dumpster—not because anything was found to be harmful, but solely because Lula didn’t have approval to practice what the government calls “modified atmosphere packaging.”

Read more at Time Out Chicago