We knew that there were a fair number of restaurants around town who were hiding their letter grades, but the sheer number of them is still surprising. The Department of Health is currently going on a six-month-long unannounced inspection blitz to stop scofflaw spots from hiding (or, worse, not posting) their grades, and in the process they've caught 804 restaurants in the act. And nearly two dozen of them had A's!
Restaurants who didn't post their grades (all 704 of them) or tried to obscure them with things like plants (an additional 100) are being issued violations that can cost as much as $1,000 for the first offense. And 23 of the restaurant's caught didn't even have anything to be ashamed of—maybe they thought the A stood for Adulteress?
By law, letter grade cards must be on a front window, door or outside wall of a restaurant "where it is easily seen by people passing by, and within 5 feet of the entrance and from 4 to 6 feet off the ground or floor." So far more than three-quarters of the city's 24,000 restaurants and bars have been inspected under the new system and been awarded a grade.
If you notice that a restaurant has not posted a grade that it received or posted the wrong grade (you can look them up here) the Department of Health urges you to snitch to 311.
