If You Don't Like Gov't Bureaucracy, Don't Read This Story About a Chinese Restaurant Trying to Help Sandy Victims

​This article by Henry Blodget originally appeared on Business Insider.

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Our Managing Editor [at Business Insider], Jessica Liebman, was driving from Manhattan to Brooklyn yesterday evening when she saw something that will make anyone who has ever been frustrated by government bureaucrats tear their hair out.

Somewhere in lower Manhattan, where the power has been out for three days, restaurants and stores are closed, perishable food is going bad, and there's little to eat, Jess came upon the following:

While in a traffic standstill on a pitch black corner in Chinatown, we saw an NYC food inspector bust down the door of a Chinese restaurant that was serving food to dozens of people even though they had no power and no running water. It was pitch black, and all these people were eating from a huge buffet...

I knew it was a food inspector because the guy was wearing a jacket that said "Department of Health" in big white letters on the back of it. He had a big flashlight and a headlamp. When he went into the restaurant with his two sources of light, you could see that there were little candles everywhere and people huddled at tables.

The restaurant was a tiny hole in the wall spot, with a yellow awning that said they served dumplings for $4. It had a "C" in the last inspection -- the NYC health inspection grade was taped to the door.

What happened next? From what I could tell, he was shining his flashlight all around (which is how I saw that there was a buffet of food) and right before we pulled away I saw him inspect a huge pot of soup that was near the door.

From the moment he walked in, it was clear that he wasn't letting anyone leave the restaurant after that.

A business without power going the extra mile to keep its doors open and help the community in a time of need.

Got to put a stop to that immediately!

​Front page image courtesy of Shutterstock.com.