Sorry. I'm really tired.

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Googling turns up things like:

The story says that States including California, Illinois and North Carolina have enacted laws requiring that burgers be cooked medium to medium well, or to a temperature that reaches at least 155 degrees in the center of the patty for 15 seconds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also has issued guidelines for an internal temperature of 160 degrees for home cooking. California and many of the other states do allow restaurants to cook the burger medium rare or rare, if a customer so requests. But a fear of lawsuits has prompted many restaurants to ignore that exception and adopt a medium minimum, no exceptions.

and

...complains the LA Times' David Shaw, who is surprised to find that most restaurants won't serve him a hamburger cooked rare, or even medium-rare. With a little research, he finds that nothing in California law prohibits serving a burger rare if a customer asks for it, but he's bound to be disappointed when he discovers that that's not the cause: the chefs aren't obeying a bureaucrat's nanny-state directive, but orders from corporate headquarters to avoid lawsuits from customers who exercise their choice and complain later.

So I'll keep trying. Moe's. Burbank. Check.

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Moe's also has a fixins bar. With coleslaw and such. So freaking good.

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I can find still try to find the law, or more likely, regulation for you if you want, ita.

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Yes please, ma'am!

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Okay, I will.

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But steak tartare is ground too, so I wonder.

My hand wave on this basically comes down to the quality. Like having sashimi-grade tuna and then good tuna that you'd grill but not maybe eat totally raw. But, as I said, hand waving.

I don't see a diff if you grind you own from known meat but I'm more wary of restaurants.

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I always try ordering rare, and have been repeatedly told I can't have one. But I've never been sure if it's restaurant policy, or a bigger official thing.

This was the subject of an entire episode of "It's Like, You Know..." I even referenced said episode when we went to The Pantry a few weeks ago.

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The grindedness of burgers makes contamination waaaaaaay more likely.

Isn't the meat they make into burger the lesser cuts--the ones closest to the intestines which often get nicked in the butchering process, allowing for more likely e-coli contamination, etc?

Plus, lots of different cuts get tossed into the burger grinding process which makes it easier to contaminate than the pricier, special cuts.

I just know most of the e-coli cases seem to have come from burgers (and usually fast food burgers, for that matter). But I can see individual restaurants wanting to keep their liability to a minimum.

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I wonder if Zaphod Beeblebrox gets his headaches two at a time...

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