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Today Chicagoist launches "Current Conditions." In this new weekly feature, we'll be taking a look at the most recent health inspections of a series of restaurants on file at the city Health Department, so you don't have to.
For this week's foray into restaurant health inspection results, we're looking at a few places near the Art Institute. It's Tuesday, admission to the Art Institute is free, which gives visitors more money to spend on food when they find themselves hungry. How have these popular establishments (Park Grill, Russian Tea Time, and Exchequer Pub) fared in their most recent inspections?
Park Grill's latest inspection resulted with a pass, though they did have a few minor violations in regards to the construction of their floors, the cleanliness of their silverware and our favorite, Violation #36. The city of Chicago's food inspection system requires that "(a)ll rooms in which food or drink is prepared, or in which utensils are washed, shall be lighted so that a minimum of 50-foot candles of light is available on all work surfaces. [And] shielding to protect against broken glass falling into food shall be provided for all artificial lighting sources in preparation, service, and display facilities. " Yikes, broken glass in your pork chop!
Walking in the opposite direction from the Institute the whole family might consider stopping in at Russian Tea Time. The establishment's latest inspection, in June, resulted in a "pass with conditions". Seems their silverware may not have been in good enough condition for the city. There was also Violation #14: "A separate and distinct offense shall be deemed to have been committed for each Serious violation that is not corrected upon re-inspection by the health authority." This leads us to think that the proprietors at Russian Tea Time, can be, on occasion, a little slow to fix a problem. Though in its report it says that whatever this serious violation was was fixed during the inspection.
We were happy to find that one of our favorite places to get a number of drinks (and baskets of fries) downtown, Exchequer Pub, was, as of April 2007, free of all violations. Huzzah! Not a dirty spoon or faulty air duct to be found!
Have you had your own horror (or glory) story eating near the Art Institute with your out-of-towner relatives? Was it a dirty spoon? A dustful cleaning method? What are your own personal definitions of cleanliness? And where do you go to eat after taking in a hall full of armor, rooms full of paintings and culture seekers?
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This is awesome, I love this new feature. Yet I'm slightly afraid of it.
"Yikes, broken glass in your pork chop!"
man, this feature is begging for a libel lawsuit.
Yeah, well, I don't like this feature. Please don't turn me off to my favorite restaurants. Thanks.
Gleam: I seriously doubt anyone could get a libel suit out of that comment. I don't think you know much about libel law. My apologies if you were joking--tone is hard in blogs.
Great feature, perfect for these types of Web sites.
Free Tuesdays were cancelled over a year ago.
Admission is free on Thursday nights, as previously mentioned right here on Chicagoist.
nice work, editor at large!
matty: mmk. don't come crying to us if we warn you about fruit flies or warm freezers in your favorite restaurants (if they happen to be there) and you still become ill. sometimes ignorance isn't bliss, especially if it's writhing around in your colon.
I didn't say a successful libel lawsuit, just a libel lawsuit.
The owner of the Park Grill might be inclined to send Chicagoist a nastygram telling them to please not imply that broken glass ever fell into any food prepared at the restaurant without evidence.
That's all :)
Gleam: OK.
Yeah, a lawyer might try that stunt, but I cannot see how it would ever get anywhere, unless Chicagoist is easily scared. Trust me, that comment you question is far from being anything that approaches libel.
There's a saying: "You like a good steak but you don't want to know how it got to your plate."
Keep in mind that the official violation can sound a lot more ominous when you're only talking about something minor like a lettuce leaf found in a hand washing sink... Eh, as long as the place can meet safety regulations enough to manage to not get shut down that's good enough for me. Apparently our colons could use a bit more of a workout anyway.
This is a neat feature.
In California (I'm sure other cities/states also do this) restaurants are required to post health inspection results in a conspicuous place. In CA, the score is indicated with a letter grade which is typically posted in the front window of the restaurant. I wonder why all states don't do something similar.