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The Center for Science in the Public Interest has put out a report that says that many cities are not doing enough to inform citizens about the results of health inspections at restaurants. Predictably, the District is pretty high on the list of cities that the center feels need to be doing more.
The report scolds D.C. for forcing people who want to obtain restaurant inspection reports to file Freedom of Information Act requests. CSPI also says the ratio of inspectors to restaurants is not good: we only employ 21 inspectors for all of the city's 5,000 restaurants.
The D.C. Health Department released a statement that WJLA posted online (PDF), which doesn't say much of any substance. They told the news channel that patrons can always ask to see a restaurant's latest report when they are there, which should be kept on-hand by the restaurant. Closed or suspended restaurants are also published once a week in the Washington Post.
We agree with the CSPI, however, that there's just no need for patrons to do that sort of extra work to find out how a restaurant rated on their last inspection. Many municipalities have adopted the relatively simple method of posting large letter grades in the front window of every restaurant, so that customers can easily see how they did. In cities like Los Angeles, where this practice has been in place for years, restaurants with grades below a 'B' are often known to go out of business relatively quickly if they don't clean up their acts. It's hard to see a big, blue 'C' in the window of your favorite lunch counter and still walk in and eat there.
Do you think the D.C. Health Department ought to adopt posting food safety letter grades in restaurant windows, as the CSPI recommends?
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The thing with something like this is that you cannot screw it up. You can't give an establishment a 'C' or worse and then it turns out to be bogus because the inspector didn't know the regs, or a paperwork violation, etc., because once that 'C' goes in the window, it is a scarlet letter.
I wouldn't trust the DC government to not screw it up.
I just naturally assume that if I'm eating downtown, I'm going to be handed a bill for the month's rent and get violent explosive diarrhea, so I plan accordingly. I call Visa to have them up my credit limit, strap on a pair of activated charcoal Incredible Hulk Underoos, and snap the elastic with gusto. HULK SMASH! he said, grabbing the handicapped rails.
I dunno about DC, but all the restaurant inspections are available online in VA. I like checking out how badly some Chinese places rate, as well as the places that I truly loathe.
as much as i love Ben's Chili Bowl, i'm sure they'd be sporting a C, D, or F grade in their window. their cooking surfaces look like one giant scab.
I really hate this idea. If a place has passed it's health inspection, that should be enough. Otherwise, you could get inspectors who don't like an owner downgrading the place to a C which would still have it passing or accepting payoffs to move from a B to an A. Health inspections should just be pass fail.
So if they're getting graded on their cleanliness, what do they have to do to earn extra credit? Write an essay on why you shouldn't store raw meat and icecream in the same container? And by "raw meat" I mean "the prep cook's genitals."
CSPI needs their own tv series, where sexy scientists in suits crawl around restaurant kitchens with black lights and make halfhearted attempts at not being hot-and-bothered by their partners. And LOTS of funky MTV-style headache inducing jumpcuts. They could get the guy who does Jamie Oliver's show. I have to take a drammamine whenever I watch that crap. HOLD THE GODDAMNED CAMERA STILL!
While they're at it, they could put a sign with the price point next to the letter grade:
"$" ; "$$", "$$$", and "WTF?"
There are times when a place is inspected and violations are found and must be corrected within a certain number of days or else the place will be closed. How about posting the report during the window between the first and follow up inspection?
So how much would an inspector charge to bump a rating from a "D" to a "C?" A couple thou? Free eggrolls for a year? A lifetime supply of flied lice?
I like the idea of letter grades, but there really shouldn't be any need for them. The key is more inspections and higher standards. Any restaurant that would earn less than an "A" rating should just be shut down.
Pretty much any restaurant is likely to have a number of violations at anyone time. roll the dice.
Coming from L.A. I was surprised to see this wasn't a common practice. I do want to know if a restaurant I'm eating at got a bad score, but I agree that the chances of the DC government screwing that up are high because of personnel issues.
And maybe it's just me, but there always seems to be a higher instance of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours as well as personal vendettas within the city government... must be rubbing off from somewhere...
I'm not asking for a 2-foot poster or a sidewalk sandwhich board, just an 8x10 sheet of paper in the window. And no I shouldn't even have to surf the net to find it if I'm out walking around.
On my recent exploration of North Carolina, I observed that each eating establishment had a percentage grade displayed. FREDTERP
Instead of paying taxes for an ineffective D.C. Health Department I would rather see the DCRA launch a Kitchen Cam website with each licensed DC restuarant having their own page where you view 2 or 3 cameras and can judge for your self how clean the joint is. Non-paricipants would get an automatic "F" in the window. Audio would be optional.
Obviously my idea will never happen because the city will want to use the kids enrolled in the DC Youth Summer Jobs Program to mount and connect the cameras and develop the website.
many, many moons ago when i managed macon, georgia's solitary (at the time) junkpuncher's coffeeshop, all food establishments had to post their quarterly inspections within sight of the customers. as FREDTERP so eloquently stated above, it was based on a percentage rating there, too, and if any points were taken off, you could see exactly what the deductions were for. your establishment was screwed if you had below 85%.
believe me, i don't want to appear to wax nostalgic about ga., but this was a great way to know exactly what you were getting into before placing an order. and i like the percentage system better than letters, b/c 80% probably equals a B, and that's vastly different than an 89% B.
The only way a Kitchen Cam website would work would be if it involved after-hours stripper parties, sorority pillow fights, and giant rats.
Bonus points if the strippers work the rats into their poledanceing routines.
scores displayed in the windows is a bit ridiculous, but I can understand having percentage scores visible/available to the customer in the place with explanations for the violations, i.e. "signs of vermin infestation" or "is Steak n Egg Kitchen".
"The only way a Kitchen Cam website would work would be if it involved after-hours stripper parties, sorority pillow fights, and giant rats."
Ok then, maybe the Park Service can expand the Rock Creek turtle SWAT program to Rat Cams.
Anybody remember that fence on Pennsylvania Ave just before you get to Georgetown, where someone spraypainted, "THIS FENCE KEEPS RATS FROM JUMPING AT YOU"? That's the kinda signage we need more of in DC. Simple. Direct. Informative. Pre-emptive. They should have one in front of every Subway that says, "THIS PLACE SMELLS LIKE ASS." Lauriol Plaza's would say "WARNING: CROWDS OF INSUFFERABLE TWATWAFFLES INSIDE." Sequoia's would say, "POPPED COLLAR LNS DOUCHES WITHIN. JUST ADD LIQUOR."
Now that sort of protective labeling would be useful! If I saw a Twatwaffles warning, I would keep on walking.
Health labeling would drive a lot of great places out of business. If you like the place then eat there, if you are a germaphobe then stay home with your single use wet-wipes and defrosted meat packets- less crowds for the rest of us. If you are afraid of a little projectile vomitting and tropical sharts from a dinner out at the local hamburger/air borne illness joint, good- More for us (not diarhea and vomit, I mean more tables, yeah more tables).
I'm much more concerned about some disgruntled minimum-wage worker hocking a big loogey in my beverage than ... "working in the food service area fixing salads without proper hair restraints."
Wizzyliz - I used to feel the same way until I discovered that Wolfgang Puck's Source had the Taiwanese sommalier shake his dandruff into the Chinois-Style Chicken Caesar Salad in lieu of grating fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano.
What the Puck?
You gotta wonder about anyone using a "flying rat" as an avatar -- probably not worried about the health conditions of where they eat. Squab anyone?
At least at Señor Vomit's House of Explosive Diarrhea, you know what you're getting. PS7? Zengo? Oya? Legal Sea Food? What the HELL does that even mean?
"Health labeling would drive a lot of great places out of business"
A lot of cities manage it. What about DC makes you think we couldn't?
I'm really not sure why people object to this information...is it an "ignorance is bliss" concept???
I actually wondered why I had never seen the scores in DC (also being a Georgia-almost-native). The scores of 82 (on average) never stopped me from eating at my favorite margarita and burrito place in Athens, but at least I knew my level of risk and could use the "alcohol kills germs" theory appropriately to mitigate. I did stop eating at a local pizza place when the score hit 78 though...
I've seen the scorecards in North Carolina restaurants and let me tell you, they are scored fairly high. Anything below a 94 and you are eating in a toilet stall and all the condiments are from under the seat rim.
The numbering grade seems too complicated. To keep it simple and remove any doubt or confusion I think DCRA could simply use two grades: Gourmet and Gourmand.
Gourmet would be restaurants rated high - for the connoisseur; and
Gourmand would be restaurants rated a little lower - for the patron like me the common-sewer.
rugbykate--
Mexicalli Grille or Compadres?
Besides, the tequila in the 'ritas tends to kill most things
I dunno about DC, but all the restaurant inspections are available online in VA. I like checking out how badly some Chinese places rate, as well as the places that I truly loathe.
When I briefly lived in the Houston area about 10 years ago, there was an old fart on the local ABC newscast, Marvin Zindler, whose big claim to fame was that his reporting on a local brothel in the 1970s helped inspire the making of the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Anyway, for years he did a weekly "Rat and Roach Report" where he read off health inspection violations for local restaurants. The reports always included with him saying which places had "sliiiime in the ice machine." I think there was a cheesy graphic that went with that line.
Might be fun to see something like that on a DC station.
@MikeB We had Paul Berry circa the same era who did something similar also coincidentally on ABC7. I think the name of his report was different but it was similar.
I think it's better not to know how potentially disgusting the kitchen at my favorite resturant is. As long as the food doesn't kill me and I don't find suspicious items in it, then I am all for an ignorance is bliss policy.
DOH does kitchen health inspections, not DCRA. DCRA just does building code, CofO, etc.
That's what I'm saying sammantha! I just assume when i go out to eat that the kitchen's filth and hope they don't kill me, then can be pleasantly surprised when that's not the case. I've had too many friends in food and heard too many stories.
I think that's a fact that dinners should resign themselves to: most of your favorite places have violations that would make your skin crawl and never go there again. That's what an immune system's for.
Rub some dirt on it.
I know for a fact that most restrooms would benefit from a friendly sign that says "P.U." indicating that it was recently inhabited by someone with a digestive problem. I swear, there are SO many people in this town that need to see a doctor. A healthy person should not be emitting those kinds of odors or noises. The crapper in M&S Grill always smells and sounds like a mustard gas attack in progress. I keep expecting German troops in pointy helmets to come rushing out the handicapped stall and demanding the Kaiser's abdication.