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Recently, Coffee Shop, a trendy Union Square restaurant, was closed for a few days when the Department of Health slammed it with 102 health violation points, the blog Gothamist pointed out. It found issues with its inadequate hand-washing stations for food preparers, contaminated food, food utensils not properly used, ‘choking aid poster’ not displayed, plumbing problems, and other concerns.
The abrupt Coffee Shop closing has raised eyebrows. “Even if it’s done as a scare tactic for the other restaurants in the area, I agree that it’s a severe health violation. Since I live in the area, I feel personally affected by what’s been in the news lately,†said Baruch senior, Glenn Geis who lives in Alphabet City, a neighborhood that is near Union Square.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been closing down restaurants ever since a video of rats invading a KFC/Taco Bell in Greenwich Village was released on February 26. City records show that at least 235 New York restaurants failed a health inspection in the nine days after the rats video, said the Associated Press.
With all these violations surrounding unsanitary restaurants, there is concern about whether the Health Department is trying fill overdue quotas or have began to crack down on restaurants?
The owner of Coffee Shop, Charles Milite told The New York Times that he felt the eatery was “caught in the cross hairs of this unfortunate Taco Bell Situation,” since Coffee Shop had operated for 17 years without incident.
Wow, this makes me wonder about where it is safe to eat in this city. i have personally stopped eating chinese food since the rat incident, it’s too scary.
Are high-end restaurants affected by these health inspections or are they up to par with health standards?
If this is what needs to be done in order for restaurant owners too shape up, then I support it 100%. The news recently named the top 10 worst restaurants in the city. To find out more you can visit the Department of Health website.
A state Senator of the Bronx, Jeff Klein released a report on how NYC restaurants are doing. The idea also consists of grading restaurants from A-F and these grades are graded by the Public Health Sanitarians.