These top chefs haven’t passed the mustard.
The Health Department’s new letter-grading system has some of the city’s best known kitchens in hot water – en route to earning lowly Bs and Cs for cleanliness. On track to receive a B for dirty or unsafe kitchen conditions are: celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s flagship brasserie, Les Halles; Upper West Side staple Shun Lee; Dylan Thomas’ favorite pub, the White Horse Tavern; and Di Fara’s Pizzeria, often hailed as the city’s best slice.
The 540 Park Restaurant at the Regency Hotel and at the iconic McSorley’s Old Ale House, Manhattan’s oldest bar, are two of the more than 100 restaurants that racked up so many violation points last week that they currently qualify for a cold C for health violations. Eateries that earned a B or a C have one last chance to contest the grade before receiving their scarlet letter.
The newest branch of Danny Meyer’s popular Shake Shack, set to open this week on East 86th Street, received 30 violation points in an initial inspection last week. That translates to a C.
But the burger joint was checked before food had arrived on the premises, and city inspectors will regrade the branch before giving it a letter grade, a city spokeswoman said.
Last week, health inspectors started doling out letter grades for inspections. The letter grade will be required to be displayed prominently in a restaurant’s front window.
“I run one of the cleanest kitchens in the city,” the executive chef at the Regency Hotel, Stephen Crocker said. “You could eat off the floor here.”
So why did he get slapped with 44 violation points?
“The inspector found one egg out of 21.2 dozen . one egg in the middle of the stack . that was cracked. He said, ‘Chef, you’re supposed to check all of these.’ “And we got points because one employee put on rubber gloves to split a strawberry with a steak knife to garnish a yogurt and he didn’t have a hairnet on. That counted as a critical violation.”
Crocker’s kitchen was also found to hold cold food above 41 degrees and have dirty kitchen surfaces and inadequate workspace, according to the Health Department. Inspectors will regrade the restaurant by Tuesday, a hotel spokeswoman said.
Inspectors are out in the field every day, grading the city’s 24,000 restaurants.
Bourdain’s Les Halles earned a B for evidence of mice, problems with plumbing and food left out unprotected from contamination.
McSorley’s owner Matthew Maher shrugged off the C.
“They come in on a busy Friday afternoon. What do they expect the place to look like?” he said. “We had a few flies in the kitchen. What are you going to do — chase flies around with a net and keep crowds waiting?”
Yecch, please!
Last week, the city’s health inspectors began grading each of the city’s 24,000 restaurants. Eateries that earned low grades have the right to appeal before the grade is final.
McSORLEY’S OLD ALE HOUSE
15 E. 7th St.
Unprotected food; smoking, eating and drinking in food prep and storage areas; not vermin-proof; cold food above 41 degrees; evidence of roaches
Grade: C
THE REGENCY HOTEL
540 Park Ave.
Eggs dirty or cracked; hairnets not worn; spoon improperly stored; cold food above 41 degrees
Grade: C
DI FARA PIZZERIA
1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn
Evidence of rats and roaches; not vermin-proof; plumbing problems; light bulbs not shielded or shatterproof
Grade: B
SHUN LEE
37 W. 65th St.
Cold food above 41 degrees; evidence of mice; not vermin-proof
Grade: B
WHITE HORSE TAVERN
567 Hudson St.
Food contact surface not properly washed; food not protected from potential source of contamination, pesticide use not in accordance with label, open bait station used.
Grade: B
LES HALLES
411 Park Ave. South
Evidence of mice; not vermin-proof; plumbing problems
Grade: B
akarni@nypost.com