text: Most people know how to eat an artichoke: Using your teeth, you scrape the meat from the bottom of each leaf. 
   
   But Miamian Arturo Carvajal, a doctor with a family practice in Hollywood and a litigant in one of the stranger lawsuits we've ever seen, was mystified by the vegetable. 
   
   "It takes a sophisticated diner to be familiar with the artichoke," says Carvajal's lawyer, Marc R. Ginsberg. "People might think that, as a doctor, he'd know how to eat one. But he was thinking it was like a food he might have eaten in his native Cuba, where you eat everything on the plate." 
   
   In May 2009, Carvajal dined at Houston's in North Miami Beach. He order a grilled-artichoke special. It was a vegetable he had "never seen nor heard of previously," Carvajal claims in court filings. 
   
   The server "fail[ed] to explain the proper method of consuming an artichoke," he says, namely that the "outside portion of the leaf should not be eaten; rather, only the inside portion of the leaf was safely digestible." 
   
   Anybody who's ever eaten an artichoke knows the outside leaves are tough, brittle, and nearly dagger-sharp. But apparently, Carvajal courageously gnawed his way through every leaf on his plate. 
   
   You can guess the rest of the story. Carvajal suffered "severe abdominal pain and discomfort." He went to the hospital, where an "exploratory laparotomy" revealed artichoke leaves lodged within his bowel, he claims. 
   
   Among the alleged consequences of Carvajal eating an entire damn artichoke: "disability, disfigurement, mental anguish," and "loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life." 
   
   This October 27, he filed a lawsuit alleging negligence seeking unspecified damages. We've embedded the complaint below. 
   
   Riptide called Hillstone Restaurant Group, which owns the Houston's chain, for comment but have not heard back yet. A spokesperson for the group called Carvajal's claim a "silly notion," telling Business Insurance: "What's next? Are we going to have to post warnings on our menu they shouldn't eat the bones in our barbecue ribs?" 
   
   Arturo Carvjal sues Houston's Restaurant for not advising him on how to eat an artichoke. 
   
   
   
   Location Info More North Dade Restaurants Map Hillstone's 17355 Biscayne Blvd., Sunny Isles Beach, FL Category: Restaurant 
   
   Sponsor Content ||||| Are restaurants legally obligated to educate their customers about potentially dangerous vegetables? 
   
   That is the contention of a customer of a Florida restaurant, who argues that Houston's Restaurant in Miami should have taught him about the right way to eat an artichoke. 
   
   According to his Oct. 25 lawsuit filed in circuit court in Miami-Dade County against Hillstone Restaurant Group Inc., Arturo Carvajal said he was a customer in May 2009 when he was offered a house special of grilled artichokes, which was not on the menu. 
   
   Mr. Carvajal said he had neither seen nor heard of the dish previously, and his waiter never told him that the outside portion of the leaf is indigestible. 
   
   As a result, Mr. Carvajal began “experiencing severe abdominal pain and discomfort,” according to the suit. An exploratory procedure revealed artichoke leaves lodged in his small bowel. 
   
   Mr. Carvajal alleges that the restaurant and its manager were negligent in failing to train table servers to tell patrons about “the proper method of consuming an artichoke.” 
   
   He is seeking nonspecified damages for bodily injury, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, aggravation of pre-existing conditions as well as medical expenses, among other charges. 
   
   Glenn Viers, the restaurant chain's vp and general counsel, said while it is difficult to make light of a situation where a guest ends up in the hospital, “It's just kind of a silly notion” that the company has a duty to post warnings against someone eating an entire artichoke. “What's next? Are we going to have to post warnings on our menu they shouldn't eat the bones in our barbeque ribs?” 
   
   Mr. Viers said also the firm will defend the lawsuit “vigorously.”
target: – Just because Arturo Carvajal is a doctor, that doesn't mean he knows how to eat an artichoke—and he's suing a Miami restaurant for not instructing him on the proper method. Carvajal ordered the grilled artichoke (a vegetable he had "never seen nor heard of previously," according to court filings) and proceeded to eat the entire thing, rather than scraping just the meat off of the leaves. He later found himself experiencing abdominal pain, and doctors found artichoke leaves lodged in his bowel. He filed a suit seeking unspecified damages last month, the Miami New Times reports. In it, he complains that the server failed "to explain the proper method of consuming an artichoke." His lawyer explains that Carvajal thought "it was like a food he might have eaten in his native Cuba, where you eat everything on the plate." The restaurant's lawyer begs to differ: "What's next?" he asks Business Insurance. "Are we going to have to post warnings on our menu they shouldn't eat the bones in our barbecue ribs?" Click here for more wacky lawsuits.