A Restaurant by Any Other Name

The Missouri Board of Pharmacy is alarmed that Justus Drugstore: A Restaurant doesn’t employ a licensed pharmacist. In case you’re wondering, the unusual name refers to a drugstore that once existed where the restaurant now stands. The restaurant doesn’t employee a pharmacist because you don’t need one to prepare food, but the Board of Pharmacy says that if you’ve got “drugstore” in your name, you’d better have a pharmacist on site.

Here’s the reasoning behind that:

Several speakers representing pharmacist trade groups said the law was necessary to prevent unlicensed people and potentially illegal Internet drug retailers from fooling customers into thinking they were regulated businesses.

I would expect people to realize the restaurant isn’t a regulated drug retailer when they see the menus, plates, and napkins. Or when they see the word “restaurant” in the name.

Here’s what the restaurant has to say:

We believe real food raised with painstaking care by local small farm producers, prepared lovingly by skilled artisans served in an ambient beautiful space is an experience everyone should enjoy. If we can’t make it from scratch, we won’t serve it.

Doesn’t sound like a pharmacy to me.