Skip navigation

Reader: Posted inspection grades mean clean restaurants

Editor, NRN: I am a regular reader of NRN and feel I must comment on the editorial, “Letter grading for restaurants in New York could set legislative curve for other states,” April 16, 2007.

As a restaurant owner in North Carolina, I am a bit perplexed by the uproar about posted sanitation letter grades for restaurants in New York. For as long as I can remember—at least the last 30 years—every restaurant in the state of North Carolina has had to post their letter grade, including the actual numeric value of the grade, prominently, where all customers can see it.

In North Carolina, there is no confusion on the customer’s part about what an A, B, or C grade means. This seems to be a concern on the part of at least some NYC restaurateurs. Trust me, ladies and gentlemen, your customers will come eat with you if you have a clean establishment, and therefore an A grade. If you have a C grade or, worse, a series of C grades, you will not see many customers, nor should you.

As for damaging business, another worry for some NYC restaurant owners, there is a distinct possibility that a B or C will cause customers to look elsewhere for their meals. In fact, in North Carolina, many restaurant owners won’t even eat at a restaurant that has a B rating. What tends to happen with a highly visible grading system like this is that the public is better informed, and the restaurants work harder to keep their sanitation at a high level for their quarterly inspections.

While I am sure that most of the restaurants in New York do receive high marks for sanitation, there are obviously some that have skated along for years with subpar cleanliness. As a diner, ask yourself why someone would not want you to know what a restaurant’s last inspection grade was. If my kid tries to hide his report card, I know the news is not good.

Kevin Westmoreland Owner The Corner Kitchen Historic Biltmore Village Asheville, N.C.

Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish