If you?re planning to eat out for Thanksgiving, you might want to check the Baltimore City Department of Health Web site first.
The Health Department shut down 341 restaurants in fiscal year 2006 for a variety of violations, including mouse infestation, cockroach infestations and unsanitary conditions. Each month on its Web site, the department posts lists of restaurants that have been shut to keep the public informed.
Olivia Farrow, assistant commissioner for environmental health, said the city?s 14 health inspectors work around the clock to ensure that restaurant patrons stay healthy.
“We have people on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Farrow said.
Farrow said her staff is responsible for inspecting nearly 5,000 restaurants and eateries across the city. The high-priority locations, establishments that prepare and store food on the premises, are inspected three times a year. Inspections are usually unannounced, Farrow said.
To ensure public safety, Farrow said health inspectors have the authority to close down a restaurant immediately.
“If the violation is such a degree that we think they?re an imminent health threat, we close it down right away,” she said.
Farrow said that once a restaurant is shut down, it usually cleans up its act quickly.
“We find that the penalty of shutting the operation down is heavier than a citation. They?re losing thousands of dollars,” she said.
The current list on the city Web site features not just out-of-the-way greasy diners, but some well-known eateries at some of the city?s most famous tourist destinations.
In August, Paolo?s, a well-known Italian chain restaurant located in the Light Street pavilion at Harborplace, was shut down for two daysfor “unsanitary conditions,” according to the health department. The manager of Paolo?s restaurant, who did not want to give her name, said the establishment passed an inspection this month, a fact Farrow confirmed.
Farrow said the department is considering improvements to the Web site to get information out to the public faster. The department now publishes the list of violators a month after they are cited.
On the Web
www.baltimorecity.gov/government/health/foodcontrol.html
