Allegheny Council again punts on restaurant grading system
Despite approval from the Allegheny County Health Department in September, the proposed system to rate restaurants with a posted A-B-C letter grade was once again sent to the health and human services subcommittee at county council’s April 7 meeting.
During public comment, only those representing restaurants or hotels spoke out against the measure and no one spoke in favor of it.
Nick Koustis, representing Atria’s and Ditka’s restaurants, said the grading system would be detrimental to Allegheny County food operators.
“The current system is working. If not, the newspapers would be filled with reports of people getting sick. A one-point difference can impact someone’s income. You get a 90 percent, you get an ‘A,’ and if you get 89 percent, you get a ‘B.’ One point can be insignificant for the reviewer, but for a customer, they’ll judge it negatively,” he said.
“In L.A., in Chinatown, no one cares if there’s a ‘C’ on the door if the food is good, but that won’t be the case here,” said Mike Chen, chairman of the Chinese Restaurant Association.
“Education is more important in this system, and we haven’t seen proposals like that,” he said.
Vince Sanzotti, executive chef at St. Clair Country Club, said the current system is working.
“This is a solution looking for a problem. This new system would lead to ill will toward all parties involved: customers, the restaurant community and regulators,” he said.
Jeff Coen of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association said the proposal is bad, but has appreciated how Allegheny County Council has handled the process.
“You’ve been listening and I think you understand the facts. Yet when you look at the grading system (proposal), there’s no talk about education or improving the current system. When New York went to a new system, they went from 60 to 93 inspectors. Look, if we don’t keep the restaurants clean, no one comes; not even us, because we eat there, too. This has been driven by the Post-Gazette and their editorial voice. It’s a bad deal.”