Roosevelt Island Restaurants Rat Free Says Report - Really, Is That True?

The Roosevelt Island Twitterverse reacts to our local rat free restaurants:

Congratulations, @Rooseveltisland. If you can only be good at one thing, I guess this is a good one. http://t.co/1jBsfYFgVp
— Elizabeth Hodges 2.0 (@eljhawk) February 18, 2014

Roosevelt Island is a rat-free oasis. Shut down the incoming trams! http://t.co/p52Q09QYkE
— Nick Turner (@SFNick) February 18, 2014

Downtown Manhattan & Roosevelt Island are completely rat free? How can that be? Both surround by water! I might be moving! Thos
— RMGA (@blacbyrd) February 18, 2014

Gothamist explains how the NYC Restaurant Rat Map was created:

... Steven Melendez took the restaurant inspection data from the Health Department and looked at all the inspections since Jan. 1, 2013. Then he counted the total number of inspected restaurants and number of restaurants that received citations for "evidence of mice or live mice" or "evidence of rats or live rats" in that time period for each zip code. Then, for each zip code, he added to the info window any restaurant that currently has a C grade and was cited for mice and/or rats in its most recent graded inspection.

While some neighborhoods came out critter-free—you go, Roosevelt Island!—others had some pretty nauseating stats....

Do you think Roosevelt Island restaurants are rat free? Here's the most recent NYC Health Department Restaurant Grade inspections for Roosevelt Island.

Good news. Everybody got an A.

No Major Health Code Violations At Roosevelt Island Restaurants - 4 Have Even Received Letter A Grade From Health Department - Others Not Yet Received Grade

Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Common Council Delegate from Southtown Dave Evans forwards this AMNY article on New York City Restaurant Health Inspections and notes that Roosevelt Island restaurants come out pretty good on the Health Inspection ratings regarding major health violations. Mr. Evans writes:

ROOSEVELT ISLAND RESTAURANTS ARE NOT THE WORST--AREA CODE 10044 RATED BEST?

While in attendance at a RIRA-Common Council Committee meeting, a colleague (I think it was Lynne) asked if I'd taken note of the NY Health Department's ratings posted in windows of some of our Roosevelt Island eateries.  Well, I checked out an  "am New York" article on 9 February and was duly impressed just as she was.  Look, we are better than many others in NYC, with eight of ours having ZERO, NADA major violations right alongside restaurants found in Battery Park.  OK, maybe there is aesthetic work to be done and this could happen with anticipated and hopefully forthcoming updates to Main Street businesses.  So, in the meantime, perhaps we shouldn't knock our on-Island eateries too much, just occasionally give 'em some business.

Click on image above to enlarge and note on chart near bottom of page that restaurants in zip code 10044 (Roosevelt Island) had zero major health code violations. Major health code violations are defined as having 16 or more points as determined by the Health Department.

To date, four Roosevelt Island restaurant have received Restaurant Inspection letter grades of A from the Health Department. They are the two Subway Restaurants, the Trellis Diner  and Starbucks. Nonnos, Riverwalk Bar & Grill, China One and Fuji East have not yet received a letter grade.

More on Roosevelt Island restaurant health inspections as well as an explanation as to how the restaurant letter grades are determined from this earlier post.

The most recent Roosevelt Island Restaurant Inspection Information Reports are here. Just plug in the 10044 zip code for results and explanations.

Letter Grades For New York City Restaurant Health Inspections - Roosevelt Island's Trellis Diner Gets An A, Others Not Graded Yet

The New York Post reports on the New York City Health Department's recently enacted letter grading system for restaurant inspections.

Now you "C" them, now you don't. The Health Department has identified the first 15 restaurants branded with a lowly C since the city's A-B-C grading system was launched more than three months ago -- but more than half of those eateries were caught hiding their lousy grades from customers....

According to the NYC Health Department Restaurant Inspection Information page:

... Starting in July 2010, New York City is requiring restaurants to post letter grades that correspond to scores that it receives from its sanitary inspection. An inspection score of 0-13 is an A, 14-27 points is a B, and 28 or more points is a C. Grade cards must be posted where they can easily be seen by people passing by...

How did Roosevelt Island restaurants do on the grading system? Well, the Trellis Diner had the most recent inspection on November 4, received 12 violation points for a grade of A and like a parent proud of a child's Report Card, posted the A grade on their window for all passing Roosevelt Island residents to see.

Trellis Diner Received An A Grade From NY Health Department Restaurant Inspection

None of the other Roosevelt Island restaurants have yet to receive a letter grade though their most recent Restaurant Inspection reports are here. UPDATE 4:40 PM - Extension of the Trellis Lease is on the Agenda for the November 17 RIOC Real Estate Development Committee Meeting.