Yuck
Someone who works in a restaurant sent me a long and disgusting e-mail about conditions there. (I have no way of verifying the information, of course, so I won't mention its name.) I'm not the person to report these things to, but I went to the Baltimore City Health Department's Web site to see if I could forward it to someone there, and came across...
the list of food establishment closures because of unsanitary conditions. I think I'll check it every month and report back to you on some of the more surprising ones. For instance, in September, the last month on the list, Germano's in Little Italy was closed for "heavy mouse and fly infestation; unsanitary conditions"; Arcos in Upper Fells Point for "fly and mouse infestation; improper hand washing procedure; unsanitary conditions"; and J. Paul's in the Inner Harbor and Alissa's in Hampden for repeat violations of various unsanitary conditions.
Those were just the highlights. Be sure to check out the other places.
Comments
I check the health department restaurant closings frequently. Very enlightening and yes, yucky.
Posted by: Kathy | November 5, 2007 8:42 AM
The Healthy department needs an RSS feed or something more real time than a report every month in PDF format.
That being said I'm happy it this data is available online.
Posted by: Paul | November 5, 2007 9:32 AM
For those who live in Anne Arundel County, here's the Food Facility Inspection list as well: http://www.aahealth.org/envhlth_foodfacility.asp
This is great! Thanks very much.
Posted by: Alyssa K | November 5, 2007 9:35 AM
ON the positive side, I chatted with a commercial refigeration repair person who goes into many kitchens. And without any hesitation, the most consistent in cleanliness is Pizza Johns in Essex. He said regardless of when he has been in the back, they are alwys clean and working to keep it that way.
Posted by: Ed G | November 5, 2007 10:24 AM
I agree with Paul that automatic delivery (RSS or even an email subscription) of this list would be very helpful. I sent a request to the "Contact Us" email address on the page - we'll see if that helps.
Posted by: Andrew | November 5, 2007 10:26 AM
Does anyone know the link for Baltimore County? I couldn't locate anything on their website.
One of my Web Masters tells me that not all the counties have the information online.
Posted by: Christine | November 5, 2007 11:26 AM
The location of Howard County's is:
http://howard.md.gegov.com/howard/index.cfm
Posted by: Stephanie | November 5, 2007 3:54 PM
I might have to check out this list everyday. After seeing this list I feel sick, and I probably won't eat anywhere. I might drop some lbs.
I'd love to see the list for Baltimore County.
Posted by: C Double | November 5, 2007 6:09 PM
Sometimes, ignorance is bliss...
Posted by: Janet | November 6, 2007 7:34 AM
I was just in So. California, surrounded by wildfires, a couple of weeks ago and saw the letter grades on the restaurant windows. All of the restaurants I saw had an "A" grade so I'm curious how reliable those grades are. Also how come the fast food chains don't get the letter grades? Just curious to when they'll do that here.
I saw my favorite casual restaurant out there, Urth Caffe, get a B, and business dropped off so fast they quickly cleaned up their act and got their A back. I think it's pretty reliable. Don't know about the fast food chains. Anybody?
Posted by: Eric | November 6, 2007 10:59 AM
Letter grades in North Carolina are also printed with the exact score (90-100 by half points is an A). A 90.0 place is seen by the public as barely less suspicious as a B. The best grades are almost always earned by the fast foods places--they have institutionalized procedures for the most part.
Posted by: CP | November 6, 2007 6:39 PM