NYC restaurant sanitation (inspection, restaurants, floor)

[palomalou]

The Magnolia Bakery (where I've never been, BTW) rodent infestation got me wondering about all NYC restaurants. I found the map listing their grades. What I don't understand is why many places that showed evidence of rodents got an "A" and a number of the "B"s seemed to me to have less worrisome reports. How do they do this and how the devil do ones with rodent evidence make an A? I had felt pretty comfortable eating in "A" establishments--no more!!

[brooklyn1234]

I've sat in on the NYC restaurant tribunal hearings where restaurants come in and try to defend their scores/provide proof that they did not commit alleged violations. You would be SHOCKED- SHOCKED to hear some of the things that people get in trouble for. I'll never forget- one Chinese restaurant got a C- they were storing meat that was waiting to be cooked in black garbage bags on the floor next to the stove all day. So gross. At the same time I also saw a well-known restaurant that got a B because they had one cutting board in the kitchen that had groove marks on it from knife use and because their bar had a few fruit flies around it.


But anyway if you want to understand it a little better check out this page:
The Inspection Process

I actually think their system is fair- if you have evidence of rodents in a non-food area (i.e. basement area where no food is stored, you have proof that you are working to get rid of them (i.e. have hired a reputable exterminator and are actively exterminating) then you shouldn't be penalized as heavily as someone who has evidence of mice in food areas.

In the case of Magnolia it was a few things that had them shut down, not only the evidence of mice. To put it in perspective I looked up their inspection score- it was 49. They had a LOT of other stuff going on to get that score. 0-13 points is an A, 14-27 is a B and 28+ is a C.