Unknotted Can Dine Unchecked

--Chicago restaurateur Billy Siegel wants people to savor the taste of freedom. So, if customers can produce their divorce papers on the day they untie the knot, dinner, too, is free. Siegel, 38, owner of That Steak Joynt, a posh Victorian-style eatery on Chicago’s North Side, says he has been divorced once and is going through a second. About 15 people have claimed divorce dinners, including Glenn and Carol Hugo, a divorced couple who came in with separate dates on the same night. “I think it’s a real good idea because that’s a time when you have a lot of mixed feelings about what happened,” said Carol Hugo, 31, a chief clerk for a railroad company. “It’s a very nice atmosphere, you have a nice dinner and it eases you right through it--especially after six glasses of wine,” she said. Under the offer, the newly divorced may order anything on the menu, from broiled or barbecued chicken at $10.95 to a large New York cut steak at $25.95. The free meals are not a gimmick, Siegel says. “I like to make the divorce situation a festive occasion, instead of an unhappy situation,” he said. Will Siegel offer his own wife a free meal if she comes in on the day their divorce is final? “Absolutely,” he said. “She’s a very nice lady.”

--Detroit Mayor Coleman Young wasn’t feeding reporters a line when he admitted that he didn’t have a fishing license when he went casting into western Michigan waters and came up with an 18-pound king salmon. “Nope. Never had. Don’t believe in them,” Young told reporters last week during his excursion on Muskegon Lake. But, it seems the mayor is now caught in controversy. State Department of Natural Resources Director Gordon Guyer said his department has been swamped with complaints about Young, and he has asked his investigators to discuss it with the mayor. “If there’s someone who has a complaint, we’ll go forward with this,” said department spokeswoman Susan Henry. “It will be treated as any other complaint would be of someone fishing without a license.” Young will not comment further until he talks with resource department officials, his press secretary said. A one-day fishing license in Michigan costs $3.75 and a full-year license for residents costs $7.25, plus $7.25 for a trout and salmon stamp. Fishing without a license is a misdemeanor. --Writer Alex Haley was named grandparent of the year by the National Council for the Observance of Grandparents Day, which is Sept. 14. “Alex Haley’s contribution to the welfare of the grandparent generation with his classic book ‘Roots’--and its subsequent film-TV version--is really beyond measure,” the organization said.