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Housed in a long, squat building reminiscent of Soviet-era architecture, the city’s Department of Health is located several floors up, and requires passage through a metal detector and a labyrinth of dark hallways with overflowing water fountains, past offices with nameplates reading “communicable disease.” Yep, that’s what we expected.
But once inside the Department of Health’s main office, which includes the Food and Beverage Control Program, we were surprised to find a bright, airy space and friendly employees. In fact, our interview with Pam Walker, the City Health Director, and Pat Mahoney, an Environmental Health Supervisor, felt like a friendly conversation that would take place at a local pub.
Back in January, our editor recommended that we write about the then-new development of Yelp posting restaurants’ health inspection ratings in San Francisco and New York. Other stories took precedence, however, and when we read about how Noma, the world’s “best” restaurant (right), was recently involved in a norovirus outbreak, followed by a mouse appearing in an area restaurant’s salad several weeks ago, the focus changed from Yelp to local inspections—how they work, for example, and what data is available to the public. Thus, our meeting with Walker and Mahoney.
With stomach-turning anecdotes from Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential forever lodged in our memory, we expected Walker and Mahoney to have some great stories about what really goes on behind the scenes in area restaurants. While one involved standing sewage in a kitchen where workers obliviously continued to prep lunch service and a chained tiger walking up and down a bar (that was in rural Missouri), most violations result from what Mahoney calls “temperature abuse” and poor personal hygiene.
Although new restaurant owners might initially view the health inspector as the “bad guy,” many of them soon learn that he or she is there to help (and a number of the inspectors have worked on the other side of the clipboard, so they know the industry well). Toward that end, inspectors receive continual training in food safety—training they pass on to the restaurants’ employees. Despite the public's newfound fascination with health inspectors--as in Food Network's TV show, Health Inspectors (left)--Walker explained that “we try to add value to the restaurants rather than just coming in with a checklist and saying, ‘Gotcha!’” Moreover, she said, “The restaurant industry really is an important part of any city’s vitality and fun. The diversity of our neighborhoods is reflected in our restaurants. We understand how important restaurants are to the city.”
So you want to open a restaurant? Complex and often confusing, the process begins with business plans, occupancy permits, business and liquor licenses, and health permits, not to mention funding. Once the restaurant is ready for its initial health inspection, an owner or manager can request an official inspection or a “walk through,” wherein the inspector will make recommendations. At all times, someone working in the restaurant has to have his or her Food Safety Management Certificate, and the restaurant also has to show proof of hepatitis A vaccinations for its employees. After seeing some new owners fail because they could not secure the necessary permits, Walker cautioned, “If you buy a building, you need to put a condition in your contract that if you don’t get the permits, the sale doesn’t go through.”
While that advice might seem obvious to some, according to Walker, many people think that because they make great home cooks, they can easily open a restaurant without knowing anything about running a business. In one case—a barbeque joint that’s now defunct—the Health Commissioner visited the place because the owner was non-compliant. After stepping on a square of linoleum that oozed grease, the commissioner taped the “closed” order herself to the front door and went to her car across the street to catch up on phone calls. To her astonishment, she watched employees re-enter the restaurant to begin preparations for reopening. Pulling into the back alley, the commissioner then lay in wait for the owner.
Far less dramatic for most places, the inspection process is based on risk: high-risk places are inspected three times a year, medium-risk twice a year, and low-risk once a year.
Inspectors also investigate complaints and deal with recall issues. With 2300-2400 permanent and another 1000 temporary establishments in the city that need routine inspections, the nine full-time inspectors remain busy. Any place that serves food—traditional restaurants and bars, food trucks, universities, hospitals, movie concession stands, grocery stores, farmers’ markets, cooking demos, summer camps, and festivals—must have a permit.
Being labeled “high risk” depends on the degree of food preparation and the clientele. Fast food restaurants, then, are not necessarily high risk, but Tony’s is. Mahoney explained, “It’s because [Tony’s] prepares complicated foods and has a large clientele.” Other places like nursing homes and hospitals that serve food to elderly or sick people are also considered high risk. “It’s the food prep that’s the risk. The more you touch it, the more risk there is for contamination,” said Walker.
Both the city and the county use the same food code, and the public has access to restaurants’ inspection ratings and individual reports. Spend some time entering in your favorite or not-so-favorite restaurants and you can see when they were last inspected, what grade they received, and what violations were recorded.
Just as the restaurants are divided by risk, so are the violations. Before a couple of years ago, all violations were weighed equally; a dirty floor was equal to the wrong temperature in a fridge. Now, critical violations, like a turkey left to defrost in a garbage can (true story), are weighed more heavily than that dirty floor. One critical violation may shut down a place until it’s fixed, while a minor violation might mean the owner has two weeks to fix something with business as usual.
We spent some time prior to the interview searching city restaurants’ scores and saw only “A”’s. Mahoney explained that’s because a “B” is “bad, and they will usually work hard and fast to get that B removed.” We asked if there’s anything below a “B,” and Mahoney silently made a “C” with her hand in front of her chest, gesturing the rating that cannot be named. Walker then spoke the unspeakable: “If they get a ‘C,’ they’re already in the process of being shut down because they’re just not working with us.”
Although many owners of permanent establishments come to value their inspectors, those who need temporary permits for not-for-profits sometimes complain about the attendant fees. Once, Mayor Slay called Walker asking about the fees for a church picnic, with one of the event’s organizers—a nun—standing by his side. The conversation ended with the mayor writing a check for the event from his personal checkbook, and now when people try to get out of paying fees, Walker can say that if she didn’t exempt the mayor and the nuns, she’s not going to exempt them.
As the two women talked about their experiences with rodents, insects, sewage, and kitchen bathrooms with open doors, we wondered if, with all of their behind-the-scenes knowledge, they ever feared dining out. Like two “fast-talking dames,” the women could have come straight from a 1930’s screen comedy:
Mahoney: “I don’t stress about it. Obviously, I’m not going to a restaurant that has a ‘B.’”
Walker: “We see so much stuff that we really know what it takes to kill you.”
Mahoney: “And we’ve all had our hepatitis A vaccinations.”
Walker wrapped up the exchange by saying that sometimes she thinks, “I’ve seen much worse than this here; let me eat it.”
With all due respect to our editor, we now know whom to call when we need our next restaurant recommendation.
Ever wonder exactly what a health inspector looks for when inspecting a restaurant? See video below.
