How Much Stock Do You Put In Restaurant Letter Grades?

We noticed a post on Di Fara Pizza’s Facebook page on Thursday from a concerned Maggie explaining to fans that the always-packed institution (1424 Avenue J on the corner of E 15th Street) received a B on its most recent inspection as a consequence of too much seating without a restroom. She says:

As an established business of almost 50 yrs, the rule is that we are only allowed 19 seats unless we build a public, wheelchair restroom. It has never been explained to us clearly how the number of 19 is decided. A few years ago we purchased extra seats as we do get very crowded most of the time. We were always kind and would bring out an extra chair if someone asked. We were asked to remove the extra chairs from the premises as we will be inspected again. Those folding chairs caused us to get a B grade.

Since then, Di Fara has removed their extra seats, elaborated on what clearing the grade entails (attending a court hearing and fighting to have fines reduced or simply paying paying $1,600 without understanding the violation), and realized that because of their long run on Avenue J, they may not actually have to choose less seating or a restroom after all (Di Fara has been open since 1965, and the DOH site says the rule only applies to businesses opened after 1977).

However, as Maggie points out in her original post, a B grade can be temporarily or irreparably damaging to a food establishment’s reputation, as evidenced by the attention Per Se got for its most recent inspection results.

The grading system is a point system. It is easy to get a few points here and there. Feel confident when entering a place that has built a wonderful reputation through hard work… I am writing this in the hopes to speak for not us alone as we are confident in how we run our operation but for other businesses as well who also struggle to maintain stability without so many obstacles. It has been a horrific winter for food establishments with all the snowstorms and it is a hard time without all the negative attention on the fairly new grading systems.

The most recent inspection report for Di Fara on the DOH site is from August 2013, and a statement issued to Gothamist fails to mention if any factors besides the number of chairs/lack of bathroom caused the restaurant not to get an A–but as several restaurants we’ve enjoyed in the area don’t always seem to get a perfect score, we have to wonder how much letter grades impact your decisions on where to eat, and how much those decisions can hurt a business that may not actually be posing any health risks to its patrons.

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Photo via Di Fara Pizza