New York – New York City’s 24,000 restaurants include fast food outlets selling chicken by the bucket and temples of haute cuisine where multi-course tasting menus can cost hundreds of dollars per person — before the wine.
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But whether they have three stars from Michelin or three flavors of milkshake, all the restaurants soon will share some common ground — a letter-based A, B or C — grading system aimed at informing diners about cleanliness and food safety.
And it has some restaurateurs worried that restaurants that earn a B or a C will lose business or go out of business all together as diners flock to the competitor with an A in the window.
“Some will undoubtedly close if they get a B or a C,” said Robert Bookman, a lawyer for the New York State Restaurant Association, which vehemently opposes the letter grades.
Others say they accept the new system and will strive for an A.
“It is our goal always to get an A,” said David Chang, whose hotter-than-hot restaurants include Momofuku Noodle Bar and Momofuku Ko. “If we don’t get an A, we fail.”
Chang said he has sent his sous chefs to city Health Department workshops to get up to speed on the new system.
Health officials say they are changing the way they rate restaurants because every year 11,000 people go to hospitals in New York City for food-borne illness related to eating out, and that number is rising.
The letter grade system is similar to one that has been in use in Los Angeles since 1998, and public health authorities there say food-borne illness has declined as a result.
“If L.A. can to it, we can do it,” said Associate Health Commissioner Elliott Marcus.
New York City already inspects restaurants and gives them violation points for infractions ranging from mice and cockroaches to a refrigerator that’s not cold enough.
Inspection results are available on the Health Department’s website — if you know where to look.
“Most people walking down the street deciding where to eat don’t have access to the website,” Marcus said at a workshop on the new system in Flushing, Queens.
That will change when restaurants are required to post their grade in a prominent spot.
Restaurants that get fewer than 14 violation points will earn an A. Between 14 and 27 points will be a B, and more than 27 will be a C.
Restaurants that don’t ace their first inspection will have a chance to bring up their grade. A restaurant that gets more than 13 violation points will be reinspected within a month. If it still doesn’t qualify for an A, it must either post its B or C grade or display a placard that says “Grade Pending” while it appeals the bad grade at an administrative tribunal.
The appeals process is intended to give restaurateurs a chance to plead their case. But critics are not mollified.
“What’s the customer going to do then?” said Marc Murphy, the owner of Landmarc in Tribeca and at the Time Warner Center, plus a fish restaurant called Ditch Plains in Greenwich Village. “Grade pending. What does that mean? Is that bad or is it really bad?”
As a judge the Food Network’s “Chopped,” Murphy lowers the boom on chefs who can’t make tasty dishes out of mismatched ingredients. He is equally critical of the letter grade system, which he considers arbitrary and unfair.
“Either you’re clean enough to operate and you’re legal, or you’re closed,” Murphy said in an interview at his Tribeca restaurant, which, as it happens, earned a perfect score at its last inspection. “Close the restaurants that are dirty.”
Murphy complained that restaurants can get docked for things that are not directly related to food safety, like a poorly lighted storeroom or a leaky faucet.
“I would hate to see a restaurant close because they had a leaky faucet and a light bulb that wasn’t lit quite right and they got a C and they couldn’t end up staying open because the place next to them had an A,” he said.
Murphy and others also say the grades will be subjective because inspectors have different standards.
“The issue that may arise is the inconsistency from one inspector to another,” said Charles Masson of La Grenouille, the last of New York’s classic French restaurants.
After a dozen years, Los Angeles restaurateurs still are not fond of the system, said Madelyn Alfano, who owns nine Maria’s Italian Kitchen restaurants.
“If you don’t have hand towels in your restroom that’s points off,” Alfano said. “We don’t like it but we’ve learned to live with it.”
Letter grade systems also are in effect in North and South Carolina. Larry Michael, head of food protection for North Carolina’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the system works well.
“Consumers really pay attention to the rating cards,” Michael said. “The A, B, C system is familiar and it’s easy to interpret.”
This works very well in Los Angeles. Restaurant owners hate it, and there can be abuses, but all in all, I wouldn’t go into a place that doesn’t have an A.
I can think of one Kosher place in LA that has a B. Why eat there?
Restaurants are OK with being judged for taste, ambiance, and service. Why do the object to being judged for cleanliness too?
keep the place as clean as you would your own kitchen at home and you wont have to worry
This could have a real impact on the heimeshe restaurants in willy and borough park who may have hashgacha from well known rabbonim but whose sanitation is deplorable. I’d like to see some of the worst offenders shut down so that the remaining restaurants clean up their acts. At some of these places, when you walk in you see the mashgiach sitting in a booth or table in a corner of the restaurant oblivious to the filth around them.
For all those businesses that are worried that they will be closed due to the letter grading should get up to speed and clean up their act. Then they can get themselves an A and keep their customers! Problem solved!!
Here’s a novel idea: You want to stay in business, clean your act!
So B means only a cockroach`s, while C means that the restaurant has mice, and D means that it is infested with rats. Thank god for this signs I think it will make restaurants be a little more cleaner.
The grading system is the best thing to happen to the food industry in L.A. The owners that are opposed to it are just flat out unwilling to do the “right thing”. By raising the standards AND meeting those standards, business will inevitably increase. Your customers will apreciate your effort. Restaurant owners should get educated in food/health safety and not JUST making the restaurants ring. The resistance to the grading system clearly indicates that owners are willing to cut corners and jeaopordize the health of their customers.
glad to hear this. last time i used the restroom in a flatbush restaurant, the manager told me some excuse about his delivery of soap and paper towels not coming till the following day. he couldn’t go to the market and buy some soap and towels ?this is a win win for all consumers. no more abuse in bakeries, caterers, restaurants etc. if they don’ t like it, close up shop ! the restaurant association prez in the article should be ashamed of himself. the letter grading system here in l.a. started with tv news people going undercover w/ hidden cameras. some of the most famous places in town were as nauseating as the crummy places. yum , yum. ess gezunterheit in a reine establishment !
Whichever boss is worried and scared about this new law then…I don’t wanna walk in there
Before I go to a resturant,only kosher of course, I go online checking the Health Department reports http://167.153.150.32/RI/web/index.do;jsessionid=CB5612E75C81F6497B67B0CDA8E4079E?method=alphaSearch and if I do visit that resturant I go to the rest room and peak into the kitchen area viewing the cleanliness of the floor, the work area and if they use gloves. I report to the mashgiah if if anything is amiss telling him that is why people go UNkosher. ‘DIRT AND BUGS ARE TRIEF’. I care for my fellow Jew by telling you Mr. Mashgiah or Mr. Manager that this is unacceptable. I either stay or leave.
NOW LETS TALK ABOUT DIRT IN OTHER AREAS OF LIFE.
What are we doing about it to improving our mental state, about OUR SERVING THE ‘ONE GD OF ISRAEL AS ‘HE’ WANTS , NOT AS WE WANT.
If anybody here would know how crazy these inspectors are you would respond differently
If restaurants are angry that someone will find out how filthy they are those restaurateurs need to break out the soap or go out of business.
This system is wonderful for consumers! I lived in NC, which has this system. The inspections were “surprise” inspections–the restaurateurs did not know when an inspector was coming. If a restaurant is too filthy to earn an A rating, then I don’t want to eat in it–nor do I want my family to eat in it. Any restaurateur who can’t keep his establishment clean deserves to go out of business; those who do keep them clean deserve to have customers flock to them. Dirty restaurants are unsanitary and pose a health risk. Well-trained and honest inspectors, armed with a checklist, can be objective in their evaluations. Hurray for NY!!! They just need to make sure that the inspectors aren’t taking money “under the table” to change the true rating.