C-ing is Believing (if You Can See the Health Department Grade That Is)

So the New York Post is reporting what many of us might already expect – that restaurateurs who just barely passed their health inspections are embarrassed about having a grade of C on their establishments. However, what they found really disturbing, (though not really shocking) is that a number of restaurants decided that they didn’t have to follow the law. They actually went and hid their reviews somewhere away from the public eye!

How it Works

For those wondering what we’re talking about, New York City recently imposed a letter grade system similar to those used in a number of other cities to grade restaurants in town. The idea is that a restaurant gets granted a grade of A, B or C (anything lower and they get shut down) by the health department.

They are legally required to post their grade prominently where people can see it so that they can decide if they want to eat there. It’s the same idea as the system we recently reported on that Los Angeles is insisting street vendors will now be required to follow. However, some New York restaurateurs decided the law didn’t quite apply to them.

“Grade Pending”

One restaurateur, at a place called the Bread and Pastry Shop in New York’s Greenwich Village went so far as to tell the Post that it was his choice to decide whether or not to post the grade. He had posted instead a note saying “Grade pending,” claiming that he expected to have a new inspection soon and that he was expecting to get a higher grade this time.

After a city health inspector dropped by, the cowed restaurateur decided to confuse his customers even more by posting his C grade next to a note saying “grade pending.”

$1,000 Fines For Failure to Comply

Restaurateurs who fail to comply with the new rule face fines of $1,000 for failure to post the sign, so we are expecting to see more establishments comply with the rules. However, we’d also like to offer this advice to our readers: It’s not worth ending up with a bad reputation for having a bad grade.

If your city requires letter grades (and more and more cities do), don’t worry about hiding the grade after the fact. Just go ahead and make sure your place is spotless to begin with so you can proudly display your “A.”