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Now you “C” them, now you don’t.
An astounding 800 restaurants across the city have been caught trying to sweep their health-inspection grades under the rug — either failing to post them at all or putting them where they won’t be easily seen.
Not surprisingly, 404 of the shamed restaurants received the lowest grade of “C” and 229 were slapped with a sub-par “B,” health officials reported yesterday after a six-month sweep that will hit each violator with fines of up to $1,000.
“It’s willful,” declared Dan Kass, deputy commissioner for environmental health. “If it was really about ignorance of the law, we’d expect proportionate results.”
Amazingly, 23 restaurants that landed “A’s” also faced hefty fines for not sharing that achievement with their patrons.
“That’s totally ridiculous,” complained lawyer Rob Bookman, who represents numerous eateries. “It seems to me they should have a right not to have an ‘A’ in the window.”
Bookman said one of his clients — a noted restaurateur he declined to identify — made a conscious decision not to put up his “A” as a way of protesting the entire system.
“What are they going to do, give me a violation?” Bookman recalled his client saying.
Apparently, they are.
Kass said the grading law enacted last July has no exceptions, even for those with nothing to hide.
Since November, inspectors have handed out a total of 804 violations, 704 for missing signs and 100 for signs not placed in conspicuous spots, within five feet of an entrance and four to six feet off the ground. The numbers were released two days after The Post found some well-known restaurants ignoring the law. With three-quarters of the city’s 24,000 restaurants and bars having received grading inspections, customers’ views of the system remain as varied as their tastes in food.
At Casa Havana at 19th Street and Eighth Avenue, a nearby shop owner shrugged off its “C” rating as irrelevant to culinary pursuits.
“It just doesn’t bother me because I know this place,” said Fernan Royo. “But I wouldn’t eat at other places that have a ‘C’ or maybe a ‘B’ either.”
Two miles uptown, outside the Pita Grill at 790 Ninth Ave., manager Kimberly Walker said a “grade pending” sign was having little impact.
“People have noticed, people have asked,” she said. “But there hasn’t been any change in business.”
Customer Tanzina Chowdhury agreed. “It doesn’t matter to me as long as they have falafels for $3,” she said.
Additional reporting by Danny Gold and Colin Mixson