uptowngirl
uptowngirl

City eateries to get visible grades

Come July and New York will follow the system which has already been in place in L.A. for over a decade as the city's many restaurants will receive sanitation letter grades which will be posted in restaurant windows. The A, B and C grades will indicate if the restaurant is adequately adhering to hygiene and food preparation requirements or is just plain sloppy. The L.A. experiment has resulted in a significant reduction in food borne illnesses. Wonder how the NYC restaurateurs will react/combat this?
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
Hey, Uptowngirl, that will be great. Perhaps when these restaurants, who are nasty, will shape up when they realize they are getting low grades.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted bet it will really embarrassing for restaurants in this city to have less than an A grade. I am sure they will pull out all stops to achieve and maintain that grade, will be interesting to see what happens.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl: Yes, it really will be interesting. I'll bet all hands will be on deck when clean up occurs. After all, who wants a bad rating.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted it will be like the kiss of death in a city where the residents tend to dine out a lot and are extremely knowledgeable about their restaurants.
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JenMac
JenMac 2yrs+
They do this in LA; and, it doesn't really seem to deter anyone from eating at places with less than an A.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@JenMac thanks for that insight.. hmmm but as you know people in L.A. are much more laid back than anal, uptight NYers.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl: You are right about New Yorkers. They want perfection. So if they see any restaurant with a rating less than an A, they may high tail it out of there.
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
I guess there are some good points to NYC's cutthroat capitalist streak....
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JenMac
JenMac 2yrs+
Yes, I agree, uptowngirl, but, LA people are also a lot more fickle than NYers. One person makes a move, in LA, away from a place and everyone is gone. So, it did surprise me that no one seemed to care about the restaurant conditions.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@JenMac: What do you mean "one person makes a move, in LA, away from a place and everyone is gone." Can you clarify what you mean. Thanks.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted I think she means a herd mentality one person boycotts a restaurant and others follow his/her lead.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Everyone apparently NYC's restaurant industry is bristling about this new proposal as they expect only 30% of the city's restaurants are expected to make the A grade. Restaurateurs want non-food violations removed from the criteria. http://www.metro.us/us/article/2010/03/24/03/4911-82/index.xml
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl: I see. What you said makes sense. But that is kind of stupid. Don't the others have any brain to decide for themselves.

As for your article, I can understand the people who own restaurants want no violations, especially if the do not involve food. What kind of violations do you believe could be accessed if it doesn't involve food. Any ideas?
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted I think issues like dirty restrooms, not properly sanitized counter tops, food storage issues and the like. I think restaurants are judged on a whole host of criteria obviously some restaurateurs believe that the whims and fancies of the inspector will also play a part in their grading.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@uptowngirl They should not remove non-food violations from the criteria at all. There's nothing more disgusting than a badly maintained bathroom, especially when you'll be eating shortly. The condition of bathrooms totally should count toward overall ratings!
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JenMac
JenMac 2yrs+
There are a lot of things that go into the criteria that are pretty ridiculous. A friend of mine owns a restaurant and he said it is mind blowingly easy to get a B. You can be docked for just about anything.
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
Indeed, @uraniumfish. This reminds me of the taxi fare scandal - cabbies were up in arms, then it turns out that once the GPS monitors were put in, they could see how the cabbies were cutting corners (although apparently the situations wasnt as bad as first thought)
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist Yes I believe the cabbies are now demanding an apology as apparently the equipment was at fault and not them.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Cabbies-Demand-Apology-for-Scam-Smear-89003972.html
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish I totally agree though I must admit some restaurants in the city do have lovely bathrooms. One which comes to mind is a Lebanese restaurant( Moustache) in East Harlem whose bathroom is spotless and is adorned with antiques . Dont know if the restaurant is still open though ...
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Everybody: I agree that a good, clean bathroom in a restaurant is important. I have seen that when the bathrooms are clean the restaurant is usually clean as well. But there are exceptions of course.
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NeverSleeps
NeverSleeps 2yrs+
I wonder if it's harder to maintain better restaurant standards in New York than in LA? I mean, does LA have rats and mice and roaches everywhere?
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@NeverSleeps The problem with how we're all packed on top of each other in this city is, even if you're clean, you still have rats and roaches if your neighbors aren't clean. So it goes. You need a couple of clean neighbors between you and the roaches in every direction before you can hope to have a clean kitchen.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish; That is the disadvantage of living in the city. That's why I prefer to live in the suburbs. At least I live on the first or second floor and have space between me and the next person.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
I remember the visible grade thing from when I was living in LA; I didn't really care if a place got a B, but C was pushing it for me... You have to wonder what's going on there.
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NeverSleeps
NeverSleeps 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish Exactly... LA is full of parking lots and some actual open space. So maybe the restaurant graders should be cutting them a bit of a break? Otherwise would anyone pass?

@everyone And this seems like the worst time to make places hang grades in their windows, what with the recession and all. What if a place that gets a B, and people assume that there is something drastically wrong going on and business plummets even further?
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
What if you found out your favorite eatery was getting a C? Would you stop eating there or just ignore?
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Neversleeps that would be catastrophic for many restaurants as several of them seem to be struggling in any case.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist aha that's a tough one , I can think of many dives in the city that I love which would probably only get a C ..but I don't think I would abandon them I go there mainly for their good food.
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