If you recall a prior post from last August, I mentioned that the Thai restaurant Topaz had a Grade Pending. They had an inspection on 9/28 and it seems that they went from a C to a B (violation points between 17 and 27). This is what you can find on the website of the NY Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:
Violations recorded in the following area (s) and a Notice of Violation issued at the reinspection conducted on 09/28/2011.
"Critical" violations are displayed in red.
Violation points: 24
Sanitary Violations
1) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.
2) Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.
3) Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.
4) Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist.
5) Proper sanitization not provided for utensil ware washing operation.
Now, understand that restaurants can contest their grade in court. The NY Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released some statistics that can be scary!!!
For the period of July 2010 to September 2013:
- of the 12,503 hearings in court for restaurants with a grade B or C, 41% were able to contest enough violations that their grade was up by at least one letter.
- 261 restaurants with a C grade were able to improve to an A in court!
- At the time of inspection, the repartition of grade was:
- A: 60%
- B: 28%
- C: 12%
- Final grades:
- A: 78%
- B: 18%
- C: 6%
I am not sure if finally we were not better off without the grades!
For more information about grades, click here.
