After restaurant and bar owners pushed back against the Health Department's grading system last week, Mayor Bloomberg is letting everyone know that the DOH's red pen is wielded for our own good. "Kitchens across the City are cleaner," the mayor said in his Sunday radio address, pointing to 7% jump in "A" rated restaurants within a year. Salmonella infections are also at a 20-year-low. "That’s great news for everyone who lives or works in our City, or who visits us on business or on vacation." So they can stop salmonella, but not Dorito-based taco shells?

The mayor also responded to the 68% of owners who noted in an anonymous survey that the DOH's system significantly added to the cost of doing business. "New York’s restaurant business is booming…during the first nine months of the program—the period for which we have full figures—restaurant sales actually increased 9.3 percent citywide."

Perhaps the biggest issue owners have against the system is that it's arbitrary and inconsistent. Those claims are backed by a massive study of more than 500,000 inspections performed across the country, which stated that New York City failed to maintain a clear process for tallying violations and keeping the inspections themselves consistent.

We've witnessed two Health Department inspections firsthand and can attest that different inspectors can tell managers vastly different things—from where a hand-wash only sink can be to the temperature braising meats must be kept.

Also, when an inspection team enters a restaurant, you'd think they were INTERPOL. "When they come into my restaurant, there's fear in the restaurant," Dallas BBQ owner and 60-year restaurant vet Herb Wetanson said. "Even though we're A's. There's fear, and they want to generate that…These people come into our premises as enemies, not as friends, not correcting us…they want to catch you, and that makes money for the city." Indeed it does.

In his radio address, Bloomberg largely papers over the issues of inconsistent inspections and opts for the cheesy joke. "The proof is in the pudding—and more than ever, the pudding is being prepared according to the highest food safety standards." That must KILL at the country club where everyone drinks iced beer.