“B”-sieged Cafe Clementine in Tribeca is fighting back against the city Department of Health.
Rather than hiding from a B grade, restaurant owner Barbara Stratton placed her inspection report prominently in the cafe window along with a sign, “How do you spell extortion??”
“We emphatically disagree with the NYCDOH [Department of Health] to put our ‘A rating’ on hold as they squeeze more money out of our business,” the sign reads.
Stratton’s notice invites patrons to tour the kitchen “at any time.”
The business owner said she was “horrified” to received the less-than-stellar grade, which she likened to “a scarlet letter, except it’s green.”
“After, I cried and kicked the wall and yelled at the person who was giving us the B in her smug little fashion. I just thought, ‘OK, let’s embrace the B because I know that my kitchen’s clean,’ ” said Stratton, who has owned the cafe on West Broadway for 17 years.
The Health Department dinged her during a January inspection with violations that included raw chicken in the refrigerator touching the side of a rack, Stratton said.
“That was the worst thing that happened,” she said.
Another more minor violation involved a plumbing problem. The restaurant was fined $800.
According to Stratton, the Health inspections were always frightening, but they have now become draconian.
“They’ll always find something,” she said.
The grading system is under fire from eatery owners who complain about overzealous inspectors and punitive fines. The de Blasio administration announced new inspection guidelines in March that will lower fines and clarify the rules.
No one had taken her up yet on the kitchen tour offer, Stratton said, but a customer did ask last week about the B grade.
She simply reassured the patron that she was meticulous.
“I had a German grandmother,” she said.