Between hearings for deposed Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and accused CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, the U.S. federal court in Manhattan was recently asked to consider an important question: When is salsa too spicy?<\/p>\n
The precipitating event was a 2024 trip to a Times Square taqueria by a German tourist. The plaintiff, Faycal Manz, said he suffered \u201csevere physical symptoms\u201d following a single bite of Los Tacos No. 1\u2019s green salsa, and sued for damages.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt I was too hot. My mind, my head,\u201d Manz recalled in a phone interview from Schemmerhofen, a small farming village in the south of Germany. The engineer said he quickly sprang into action: \u201cI contacted my wife \u2014 I said there\u2019s a problem with the sauce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manz documented his alleged ailments in court filings, saying his tongue burned, his face turned red, and his heart rate soared. He said he suffered gastrointestinal distress and mouth sores that lasted for days.<\/p>\n
I told Manz I wanted to go try the salsa for myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease be careful,\u201d he warned. \u201cI had no idea. I put a lot of spoons inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
So on a raw March afternoon I visited Los Tacos\u2019 Times Square outpost. The taco chain<\/a> was started by three friends from California and Tijuana, and now has ten locations across Manhattan.<\/p>\n For the sake of journalistic objectivity, I ordered exactly what Manz said he had: one carne asada taco, one pollo asado and one adobada pork. Los Tacos No. 1 has a self-serve salsa bar with a red salsa, a green salsa and pico de gallo. They are not labeled to indicate their spiciness.<\/p>\n As Manz said he did, I spooned the red salsa onto two tacos and the infamous salsa verde onto the third. I put my paper plate down on the white tiled counter. The green salsa stared up at me \u2014 a toxic plasma of emerald tomato juice flecked with chili seeds.<\/p>\n I bit straight into the green-smothered taco. There was a flicker of fire on my tongue, and some numbness on my lips. But then it passed.<\/p>\n The salsa just wasn\u2019t that spicy.<\/p>\n I surveyed some of my fellow patrons for a gut check. \u201c\u200aTo be honest, it’s pretty mild,\u201d said David Boudreau, who was visiting New York from Boston. \u201c\u200aYou should probably try a sauce before you, like, dump the whole thing on your taco.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearby, Amanda Hosni dug into a taco platter with two church friends from Georgia. The three women were initially reluctant to try the green salsa but were captivated by the tale of Manz\u2019s lawsuit. Hosni agreed to sample it with a tortilla chip.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m a wimp, and this is not spicy,\u201d she said. She dipped another chip. \u201cI mean, it’s spicy, there’s some heat on my tongue, but I’m not gonna sue anybody for personal injury.\u201d<\/p>\n Things weren\u2019t looking good for Manz out in the court of public opinion. And back in the granite halls of the Manhattan federal courthouse, a judge ultimately sided with the restaurant.<\/p>\n In a 12-page written opinion, U.S. District Judge Dale Ho found \u201cthere is no duty to warn a consumer of the spice-associated risks that come with consuming salsa.\u201d<\/p>\n Ho, who also oversaw the botched corruption case<\/a> against former mayor Eric Adams, clearly had some fun with the ruling. He cited the 1985 case of a husband and wife suing a Bronx McDonald\u2019s because their coffee was too hot \u2013 not to be confused with the Albuquerque woman who won nearly $3 million<\/a> a few years later after spilling coffee on her lap in a McDonald\u2019s drive-through.<\/p>\n But Ho found Los Tacos No. 1\u2019s salsa fell within the \u201cnorm\u201d for products of its nature. \u201cIn fact, when it comes to salsa, the spice is often the point,\u201d he wrote. Ho denied Manz\u2019s claims and closed the case.<\/p>\n Los Tacos No. 1 did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n That was the end of the line for Manz\u2019s claim. But it turned out this was not the only lawsuit he filed after his 2024 trip to New York.<\/p>\n