Health inspectors walked into an Upper West Side Sweetgreen on Monday and walked out having ordered it closed. The chain has several locations in the neighborhood, and the first violation on the report is the one nobody wants to read.
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The store is at 311 Amsterdam Avenue, between West 74th and West 75th streets. It was ordered closed following an Aug. 24 inspection that tallied 39 violation points across four sanitary violations, and the first violation listed was flagged in red, the designation the city reserves for its most serious findings: live roaches in the facility’s food or non-food area.The other three fill in the picture. Inspectors found the establishment wasn’t free of harborage or of conditions conducive to rodents, insects and other pests, which is the city’s way of describing clutter, gaps and debris that give vermin somewhere to live and breed. They also cited a plumbing category that covers several problems at once: an anti-siphonage or back-flow prevention device not provided where one is required, equipment or floors not properly drained, a sewage disposal system in disrepair or not functioning properly, and condensation or liquid waste improperly disposed of. Back-flow prevention is the hardware that stops dirty water from being pulled backward into a clean water line. The fourth violation covered non-food contact surfaces and equipment, which the code requires to be made of acceptable material, kept clean, and properly sealed, raised, spaced or movable so they can be cleaned on all sides, including above and underneath.
The 39 is worth putting in context. Under the letter grading system the city has used since 2010, a score of 0 to 13 points earns an A, 14 to 27 points is a B, and 28 or more points is a C. Points are assigned by severity, with a minimum of seven for a public health hazard, five for a critical violation and two for a general violation, and inspectors can assign more depending on what they find and how much of it there is.
Points alone aren’t what closes a restaurant, though. When an inspector finds violations that amount to an imminent public health hazard and that can’t be corrected before the inspection ends, the department can suspend the permit and order the place shut. An active pest infestation is one of the conditions that triggers it. To reopen, the operator has to correct everything cited in the closure order and request a re-inspection, and the department can keep inspecting as often as it considers necessary. Owners can also contest violations and closure orders before an administrative law judge at the city’s hearings tribunal.
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For comparison, the last Upper West Side restaurant the city closed came in considerably worse. New Asia, the takeout counter at 666 Amsterdam Avenue, drew 60 points across eight violations on an Aug. 19 visit, and that inspection report also started with live roaches.The full inspection history is available through the Health Department.
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