that the simple act of sitting at a restaurant table is a matter of human dignity or a constitutional issue? It is precisely in this apparent triviality that the risk of common sense lies: reducing the right to its immediate surface, without realising that small gestures — the invitation to the table, access to the dish, the refusal of the customer — are concrete symbols of inclusion or exclusion in communal life. When a couple is barred under the pretext of a “dress code” that actually hides class filters, or when the excuse of “fully booked” suddenly arises in front of certain faces, what is at stake transcends the mere consumer relationship. 2 The restaurant is, by definition, a paradoxical space: private in ownership, but public in operation. It crystallises the tension between the contractual freedom of the supplier and the duty of non-discrimination imposed by the constitutional state.3 It is not a question of inventing a “right to dine out”, but of affirming something more radical: no one can be arbitrarily deprived of access to society’s common table. It is at this threshold that constitutional hermeneutics meets everyday life: in the glass of water that is denied, in the door that does not open, in the chair that is not offered. We are not alone in this reflection: the emerging field of droit de la gastronomie, consolidated in works such as those by Alexandre Quiquerez, demonstrates that the intersection between law and spaces of commensality deserves serious legal treatment.4 This article arises from this provocation. The central question is simple in its formulation and complex in its implications: is there a fundamental right of access to restaurants? And, if so, what would be its constitutional and international foundations? The answer requires a method that rejects decisionism and arbitrariness, drawing inspiration from critical hermeneutics — which, in dialogue with Gadamer and Lenio Streck‘s critique, rejects the comfort of apparent solutions of ‚weighting‘ and demands consistency and integrity in the application of law.5 The relevance of the issue manifests itself on two fronts. Domestically, it challenges us to rethink the application of consumer law and constitutional principles in situations that are seemingly mundane but laden with symbolism. Internationally, it connects to the debate on human rights and the fight against 2 DILOY, Christel. Droit des débits de boissons, de la restauration et de l’hôtellerie. Brussels: Bruylant, 2019. pp. 45-47. 3 BOSSIS, Gaëlle. Food safety in international and community law. Brussels: Bruylant, 2005, pp. 112-115. 4 QUIQUEREZ, Alexandre. Gastronomy and law. Paris: Larcier–Intersentia, 2022, pp. 21–23. 5 STRECK, Lenio Luiz. Verdade e Consenso: Constituição, Hermenêutica e Teorias Discursivas. 6. ed. São Paulo: Saraiva, 2020, p. 133-140; GADAMER, Hans-Georg. Wahrheit und Methode. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1960, p. 305-312.. 586 RUI AURÉLIO DE LACERDA BADARÓ
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