"Anyone can walk into my restaurant and see it's clean," says Ignatius Sono, the owner of Iggy's, who has been given a "Grade Pending" sign from the City as he chooses to appeal his "B" in front of a tribunal. He's had to hire a lawyer and a restaurant consultant to ensure that he's ready when inspectors come to reexamine Iggy's. While he's unsure of the exact amount their services will cost him, Sono is sure it won't be cheap, and the extra costs have left him with a sour taste in his mouth. "The system is all about the money," he says.

In the summer of 2010, Mayor Bloomberg assured restaurant owners that his new system was targeting unsafe kitchens, not owners' pockets. The numbers, however, tell a different story. In 2011, according to the mayor's 2012 preliminary budget report, the city levied $42 million in restaurant fines, a 145 percent increase from 2006 when the city collected only $17.3 million. Then, despite public assurances that the fines would not be used to raise city revenue, Mayor Bloomberg stated in his 2012 environmental health budget report that he chose to reduce the budget because of "increased revenue from restaurant inspections."

The city is also cracking down on restaurants that try to hide their grade. In 2011, according to The New York Times, the DOH issued 704 citations to eateries that hadn't posted their letter grades, and another 100 to restaurants that hadn't placed theirs in a "clearly visible place."

Aside from financial concerns, opponents of the system believe it has very little to say about the cleanliness of a restaurant. Owners and industry insiders complain about the unpredictability of an inspection. For example, an inspector can come one week and find five problems. A different inspector can then return a month later and find five more problems that went unreported during the first inspection. Restaurant owners are adamant that this inconsistency is unwarranted and detrimental to their grade. Why would they stop practicing good sanitary policies, en masse, that the first inspection said they were up to par on?

Sometimes, however, the re-inspection date isn't so predictable. While DOH policy states that "B" and "C" re-inspections should occur at least a week after the initial inspection, Iggy's "B" re-inspection did not take place until seven months after its initial exam, leaving the pizzeria saddled with a dubious "Grade Pending" sign.

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Prior to 2010, the inspections were numerically-based evaluations that scored for "critical" violations -- infractions that could get a restaurant shut down -- and "non-critical" violations that weren't severe enough to warrant a fine.

Under the current system, restaurants are inspected for public health violations, transgressions that can cause an immediate health threat and are serious enough for the city inspector to shut down the restaurant if the issue isn't immediately addressed, as well as for "critical violations" like the presence of vermin and the holding of food at improper temperatures, and finally for general violations, a long list of more minor no-no's such as improper thawing techniques and unclean bathrooms.