Learning Your A,B,C’s
A Guide to Restaurant Grade Literacy
If you’ve spent any amount of time in school past the age of 4, then you’re familiar with the “Letter Grading” system. It’s the academic measurement that grants you merit for your performance, distinguishes you amongst your peers, and fetches you smiles and proud moments from your parents. A grade has the ability to define you as a student and as an individual.
Now years removed from any organized form of education, I look back and begin to wonder what grades really mean. The letters that once dictated the greater course of my childhood have muddled down to a dull, abbreviated scale of “Good, Ok, and Average”. So as I delve deeper into the world of food, I again question how much substance lies behind those big captivating letters. I challenge the credibility of the paperweight displays peering through the corner of a restaurant’s window.
There are over 25,000 restaurants in the 5 boroughs of New York City, and New Yorkers dine in them over a billion times each year. It’s important that we understand why these letters exist, how they’re assigned, and what they mean to us as diners. It’s time we learn (or relearn) our A, B, Cs. This is your guide to restaurant grade literacy.
1. Why the Health Department Grades Restaurants
The short answer is because the people we entrust with our food are dumb and dirty. It’s the first thing you’ll learn in culinary school, and the last thing you’ll forget with proper guidance: the majority of food-borne illnesses, bacterial or viral, occur due to poor hygiene and improper storage/handling of food. More often than not, it’s the irresponsible, lackadaisical cook not giving a fuck that’ll leave you sick and disturbed.
Poor food safety practices lead to more than 6,000 hospitalizations and 20,000 emergency visits in New York each year. In efforts to remedy the industry of poor practices and enforce food safety laws, the NY Health Department implemented the Grading System in 2010 requiring all restaurants to post grades. These letters are a summary of their sanitary inspection scores.
2. How the Grading System Works
The Grading System is a lenient program that encourages the improvement of food-safety practices, as opposed to the enforcement of critical violations. It runs a dual inspection process, which is equivalent to a test retake. If a restaurant doesn’t earn an ‘A’ on its first inspection, then the Health Department doesn’t issue a grade and returns to conduct a second inspection. The final grade issued represents the re-inspection.
Each grade falls within a range of points that accumulate with recorded violations. And violations can be anywhere between 2–28 points depending on the severity of their condition. There are 4 potential displays a restaurant can post: ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, and ‘Grade Pending’, and each of them can be understood as the following:
A = 0 to 13 points (Solid food-safety program. They care.)
B = 14 to 27 points (Took an ill advised jump shot…At least they made it.)
C = 28+ points (WTF mate?!)
Grade Pending = N/A (Awaiting Re-Inspection OR Appealed Grade Issued)
If you’ve been carefully following the simplified grading process above, then you too will find it difficult forgiving a restaurant that receives not one, but two consecutive ‘C’s. However, there are nuances of the city that can paint a slightly different picture.
The most publicized restaurant shutdown by the Health Department in 2013 was probably Danny Bowien’s Mission Chinese in the LES. After months of struggling with rampant rat infestations, management had to close their doors permanently. Danny, being the accountable guy that he is, will take full responsibility for the overrun, but what really escalated the situation was the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Underground sewers and habitats were flooded far beyond capacity, and the massive city rat population had no other direction to go but up. Construction on a nearby condominium only augmented dire conditions, and Mission Chinese found themselves as one of many NYC establishments battling the repulsive city rats.
‘C’ level violations should be taken seriously, but this is one example where a score doesn’t fully illustrate the capability of the staff, or the quality of their food. I say this with caution, but not all poorly rated restaurants should be on your culinary blacklist. There are exceptions to every rule.
3. The Social, Cultural, and Economical Impact
In 2012, over 70% of roughly 600 New York diners said they were either somewhat or very concerned about getting sick from eating out. 88% of the same pool said they consider the restaurant’s grade before making their dining decision. If there are any restauranteurs, chefs, students, or diners that don’t think these grades matter, then think again. The Health Department has successfully marketed letter grades to the consumer, and realigned the perception of what constitutes a quality restaurant.
For the most part, the realignment is a good thing. Restaurant sanitary practices have improved, and food borne infections like Salmonella
have dropped considerably. Restaurants with better scores have also drawn from larger markets -generally thickening their revenue streams. However, the standardization of sanitary practices may have effected restaurants in more ways than one. Take Mission Chinese as an example once more, and you’ll struggle to find any remnants of its past in their newly found home on 171 East Broadway. The once “takeout-chic, hipster cool mashup has been replaced by a luxe chinese banquet hall crowded by the same audience that clamors for Carbone”. The woks are now accompanied by a massive brick oven, and the menu is unrecognizable extending far beyond the humble samplings of its San Francisco origin.
Danny is a great chef, and an incredibly passionate dude, but Mission Chinese was exceedingly elevated to say the least. The vast collection of its roots, history, and cultural identity dissolved deep into the past, alongside the once menacing markings of mice.
4. What Grades Means For Diners
Restaurants grades should be best understood as the ‘+’ and ‘ — ’ trailing the letters on your transcript. They’re the relevant, yet secondary instruments accentuating a greater or lesser known. They’re the endnotes that add insight to detailed annotations. I guess what I’m trying to say is that for us as diners, restaurant grades shouldn’t really be grades at all. Our main objective when dining out is to simply enjoy a well prepared, creatively expressed meal. We’d obviously like to stay healthy doing so, but that’s an understood afterthought. The face value of a restaurant -its true grade- is predicated on the people, their story, and their food.
There are so many fantastic eateries in New York City, and we’re privileged to be surrounded by the fullest range. The rundown noodle shop in chinatown. The ostentatious mega institution in Midtown. The omnipresent sign on every street reading “$0.99 slice of pizza”. No other city has the ability to curate such a worldly collection of food in close proximity. It would truly be a tradgey to let any singular measurement of character lead to the misrepresentation of food and the homogenization of restaurants. Some of the best dishes from the best chefs escape those poorly graded kitchens. So let the letters and words guide you. Don’t let them deter you from the cultural offerings of this beautiful city.
T.H.B.
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