A further thought... I don't know how these statistics were calculated, but I'd venture to guess that it was far from scientific. There's something wrong with NYC ranking 40 something cities below JC.

No matter what your impressions of nyc restaurants, unlike JC, they have a strict health code and it is more or less vigorously and evenly enforced.

Someone with a food handler's certificate has to be on duty whenever the kitchen is open. Getting such a certificate also requires a lot more classroom attendance than in NJ.... something like a week for a few hours a day (I forget the exact number of hours.) And the test is not a mickey mouse self-graded test like the one in NJ. You actually have to pay attention in class or have paid attention in culinary school.

At least one health inspection a year is required in nyc... more are done if any violations are found. Every inspection that I've been present at has been very thorough, often taking about 1 hour. Fail an inspection with serious violations xx number of times and the restaurant is closed.

I don't know about the rest of NJ, but JC inspections are subjective and anything but thorough. I'd also venture to guess that you'll find no one on duty at many restaurants who knows important safeguards, such as proper temperatures that foods must be kept at. This is the result of the lax rules and enforcement here.

Along the same lines, you don't have to go very far to find kitchens operating illegally. Next time you go to your favorite deli for an egg sandwich, take a look and see if there's a hood above the stove or oven, a requirement. How they get away with it is beyond me. Well, not really....

Edit to add: Most municipalities make the results of inspections public. Many (i.e., nyc, bergen county) have internet sites dedicated to this. In other counties, results are regularly reported in local newspapers. Not so in JC.

Quote:
I hope you told him he couldn't use it unless he bought something. It's for customers only.

The thing about JC is that the food codes are rarely enforced. You gotta sink to the level of a C-Town where the refrigeration units are rarely plugged in to save electricity. And then someone's gotta complain or die before the health dept. comes out. To the best of my knowledge, there are only 2 health inspectors in all of JC. That's absurd. For a period of time last year, there was only one because one was out sick for a lengthy period, probably from his wife's cooking. I know of a certain legendary cheesey defunct restaurant whose inspection consisted of stuff like the health inspector asking if there was a bathroom and if it was clean. (uh, yeah, we clean it every other leap year.)

The procedure for a restaurant owner to get a food handlers permit (a requirement) is a complete joke. The course is supposed to be 5 hours I think. When a certain restaurant owner went to take the course and test, it lasted 3 hours though on the certificate he got it sez he took a 5 hour state mandated course. And it consisted of oscar grade films, like a half hour film on washing your hands. Duh! At that point, this restaurant owner fell asleep. He awoke to take the test, scared sh!tless cuz he missed all the great films. But he ended up acing it, but then again, it was a self-graded test.

I don't see how these ratings relate to eating out in resturants. They are counting how many people got sick but they don't know where the contaminated food was eaten. Could be bad supermarkets, food processors or bad cooking/food storage habits at home.

Quote:

That's for damn sure. It's risky to even leave your apartment. There might be a guy in a bloody t-shirt holding a knife out there in the hallway. I'm not even going to leave my place anymore. I'd only lose my parking space on the street and then I'd have to yell at the mayor.

Quote:

Well, Mr Grieves would be the first to tell ya that some of the best food comes out of kitchens and restaurants that would get worst than a passing grade under CDC's rules.

I don't mean you should be stoopid, but risk is everywhere from crossin' the streets at Erie lookin' out for wanna be NASCAR blade runners, to pigeon poop droppin' on ya leavin' your new Zephyr loft. Still, I'd rather eat out in a C- restaurant in New York than some of those A grade places below:

1. Baltimore, MD A+
2. St. Louis, MO A+
3. Richmond, VA A+
4. Pittsburgh, PA A+
5. Tacoma, WA A
6. Virginia Beach, VA A
7. Chesapeake, VA A
8. Plano, TX A-

Gimme a break, you'd rather "eat" in Plano, TX,
Tacoma and Virginia Beach than NY and JC?NOT

Sounds pretty, Mickey Mouse to me.

JC ranked high because all of us already have intestinal
parasites and e-coli cultures living in us.
A few more bugs from the corner greasy spoon
won't change the stats none.

They give out paregoric at most local joints
instead of after dinner mints.

Most certainly!

Does this mean Mr. Grieves is vindicated?

Where the Food is Sickening
This month's Metrogrades report card reveals the cities where you don't want to eat out

Illustrations by: Peter Stemmler
Posted on 09/06/2005

You may tend to blame an illness on someone's errant sneeze or contaminated handshake.

But it could have been something you ate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than 250 different food-related maladies out there waiting to drop down your gullet.


But if you live in Baltimore, our top-ranked city, your stomach can rest easy. Baltimore has managed to avoid major outbreaks of foodborne diseases despite its obsession with seafood--a common culprit for illness. Citizens of last-place Lubbock, however, should order their Texas steaks well done--the city has seen more foodborne-illness outbreaks per capita than any other on our list.

We arrived at our ratings by looking at data compiled by the Community Health Status Indicator Project to determine outbreaks of E. coli?, salmonella-, and shigella-related infections, three of the most common foodborne bugs. Then we checked the CDC's Wonder database to see how many people died from tainted food. Finally, we found out which states have adopted the current version of the FDA's uniform Food Code, which contains the most up-to-date rules for keeping restaurant kitchens clean.



1. Baltimore, MD A+

2. St. Louis, MO A+

3. Richmond, VA A+

4. Pittsburgh, PA A+

5. Tacoma, WA A

6. Virginia Beach, VA A

7. Chesapeake, VA A

8. Plano, TX A-



9. Arlington, TX B+

10. Fort Worth, TX B+

11. St. Petersburg, FL B+

12. Riverside, CA B+

13. Fort Wayne, IN B

14. Lexington, KY B

15. Las Vegas, NV B

16. Dallas, TX B-

17. Garland, TX B-

18. Colorado Springs, CO B-

19. Boise, ID B-

20. Jersey City, NJ B-

21. Washington, DC B-

22. Detroit, MI B-

23. Indianapolis, IN B-

24. Des Moines, IA B-

25. Norfolk, VA B-



26. Birmingham, AL C+

27. Wichita, KS C+

28. Raleigh, NC C+

29. Sacramento, CA C+

30. Louisville, KY C+

31. Greensboro, NC C+

32. Durham, NC C+

33. Laredo, TX C+

34. Tulsa, OK C+

35. Shreveport, LA C+

36. Toledo, OH C+

37. New Orleans, LA C

38. Honolulu, HI C

39. Fresno, CA C

40. Columbus, OH C

41. Anaheim, CA C

42. Akron, OH C

43. Spokane, WA C

44. Memphis, TN C

45. Miami, FL C

46. Bakersfield, CA C

47. Buffalo, NY C

48. Portland, OR C

49. Houston, TX C

50. Charlotte, NC C

51. Mesa, AZ C-

52. Phoenix, AZ C-

53. Scottsdale, AZ C-

54. Seattle, WA C-

55. Grand Rapids, MI C-

56. Kansas City, MO C-

57. Nashville, TN C-

58. Cincinnati, OH C-

59. Little Rock, AR C-

60. San Antonio, TX C-

61. Long Beach, CA C-

62. Los Angeles, CA C-

63. Madison, WI C-

64. New York, NY C-

65. Newark, NJ C-

66. Orlando, FL C-

67. Aurora, CO C-

68. Atlanta, GA C-



69. Milwaukee, WI D+

70. Philadelphia, PA D+

71. Providence, RI D+

72. El Paso, TX D+

73. Anchorage, AK D+

74. Tampa, FL D+

75. St. Paul, MN D+

76. Minneapolis, MN D+

77. Modesto, CA D+

78. Albuquerque, NM D+

79. Omaha, NE D+

80. Oklahoma City, OK D+

81. Montgomery, AL D+

82. Austin, TX D

83. Baton Rouge, LA D

84. San Diego, CA D

85. Denver, CO D

86. Chicago, IL D

87. Rochester, NY D

88. Stockton, CA D

89. San Jose, CA D

90. Salt Lake City, UT D

91. Yonkers, NY D

92. Jacksonville, FL D

93. Lincoln, NE D

94. Fremont, CA D-

95. Oakland, CA D-

96. Tucson, AZ D-

97. Cleveland, OH D-



98. Corpus Christi, TX F

99. San Francisco, CA F

100. Boston, MA F

101. Lubbock, TX F



You can check up on a restaurant by barging into the kitchen. Or go to spiesonline.net and click on "Restaurant Inspection" for a listing of state health department websites, where you will find either a direct link to city restaurant inspection reports or contact information so that you can request a report. A restaurant's inspection score doesn't tell the whole story, so focus on the severe violations, often highlighted at the end of the report.



CLEANUP TIME

Food-inspection rules vary so much that the FDA is trying to get all states to use a uniform rule book. The Food Code has been adopted by 45 states, but not all use the most recent version, written in 2001.

Go to www.cfsan.fda.gov/~ear/fcadopt.html#adopt/ to find a link to the list of states and what version of the code they've adopted. If your state isn't on board with the latest version, contact the state health department and ask why.

Locally, inspectors can dig up the most dirt by talking to employees--something that's not always done. Ask your local health department to use this commonsense tactic.