Restaurant Forced to Shut Down Patio Over Lack of Plants

A restaurant in Minnesota was forced to shutter its patio for not having enough plants. According to the Star Tribune, the front patio of Blue Bricks restaurant in Mankato was closed by the city's "plant police" for not meeting the foliage requirement. KTTC writes that a new rule put into place last summer dictates that all businesses with patios should be at least 25 percent covered with live plants.

Mankato city manager Pat Hentges tells the paper that the "landscape edict" was put into place last summer in an effort to spruce up the downtown area. The city also hopes the plants will prevent patios from becoming "drinking corrals."

Last month, the city sent the restaurant a notice that said it would have until the end of May to increase their shrubbery count. The "inspector's patience was running a little thin," when the restaurant did not comply by three days past the deadline, so he had two police officers shut down the front patio.

To please the plant police, owner Marty Lewis ran out and purchased some "landscape material and installed it immediately." Luckily the story has a happy ending: The patio was reopened a day later. The world can breath easier now (thanks in part to the increased number of plants.)