New York's restaurateurs have been in a tizzy for the past six months as the city's health department transitioned to a new grading system -- one apparently with some teeth.
Gone are the confusing numerical codes that listed "violations" but gave you little idea how to compare your corner pizza place with the Plaza as far as cleanliness was concerned. Now it's simple. You get a certain number of violations, you rate either an "A", "B" or "C" rating. Too many, they still shut you down.
The city has been more than fair during the transition. Restaurants that scored horribly -- and a lot of good, well-known ones did -- got two chances to fix things and eventually score an "A" score.
Well this month the fun begins. All the restaurants have pretty much exhausted their second and third chances, and are having to post their scores. Most of us know the "A" restaurants -- they're the ones who wasted no time putting their big blue "A" stickers on the front windows. The ones who didn't? Well, we kinda knew they were still having to get their acts together, and we started getting nervous about eating there.
This week, we noticed a new sticker in the window. "Restaurant Grade Pending." This was the slackers' attempt to avoid having to post that dreaded "C" in their restaurants. But, as the New York Post today noted, they don't have that option. They're supposed to put it up. And the Post has posted what they're calling the dreaded "Filthy Fifteen," the 15 restaurants with the worst scores. And -- surprise, surprise -- eight of the 15 didn't post their scores as required by law.
One nice resource that's always been useful is the city's online restaurant inspection guide. You can key in a restaurant name, type of food or location and get a rundown of scores and violations. It's like the Zagat Guide for people who don't want food poisoning. Not that at least one enterprising blogger hasn't already started to promote living on the edge by writing the "Guide to the Best C Restaurants" blog.
It's worth checking out the scores before you go eat in the city. Many of the places I thought were top-notch quite frankly aren't.
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