Health letter-grading rules ready for NYC restaurants

Is your favorite restaurant as clean as you hope it is? Soon it'll be as easy as A-B-C to find out.

The New York City Department of Health yesterday finalized rules for its new restaurant letter-grading system, which assigns an A, B or C to eateries based on health inspection violations.

"Letter grading enables diners to make more informed choices about where to eat," Dr. Thomas Farley, the city's health commissioner, said in a statement.

Officials will start rolling out the grades in late July, giving them first to restaurants that are due for their annual inspection.

By September 2011, all 24,000 city eateries will be graded.

To address owners' fears that grades may drive some out of business, health officials said Tuesday that only those restaurants with 0 to 13 violation points - which amount to an A - would be posted immediately. On re-inspection, scoring 14 to 27 points would get establishments a B, and those with 28 or more would get a C.

- amNewYork

How they would fare

amNewYork took a look at which well-known eateries would top the class if the grading system were applied to their latest inspections:

- Minetta Tavern - A

- Gray's Papaya (Eighth Avenue) - A

- Nobu - B

- Daniel - B

- Momofuku Ko - C

- Nathan's Famous (Coney Island) - C