Health Department Reveals Restaurant Inspection Reports

The minutes of the McHenry County Board of Health reveals that restaurant inspection reports are being made available on the internet.

Here is the relevant portion of the March 23, 2015, minutes:

A. Food Establishment Inspection Search On The Web

Mr. [Dave] Hill explained that the special meeting went well on March 10th with everyone being able to have a hands on approach.

The Health department will have a soft release onto the website in anticipation of finding glitches and errors. If everything goes well with the soft release the Health department will then put out a press release announcing the addition to our website.

1776 restaurateur Andy Andresky of Crystal Lake made the motion.

With a little help from Departmental staff, I found the spot to look. (You can click on the Department’s main page “Environmental Health“, which will then show “Food Protection Program” heading and find this, too.)

The third link on the page with the helpful hint "new" next to it is where to click.

The third link on the page with the helpful hint “new” next to it is where to click.

That takes you to this page:

The next page in the finding restaurant inspection records.

The next page in the finding restaurant inspection records.

Here you can find information on what is a serious and what is a less serious violation.

Critical violations are required to be corrected immediately when possible. Non-critical violations are one and two point violations and typically have a lower potential to cause food borne illness,” reads part of the explanation.

There is a numerical rating score is issued. The highest is 100%.

The rating score is equal to the total number of violation points subtracted from 100. For example, if a facility is given a score of 100, no Ordinance violations were noted during the inspection. If a facility is given a score of 80, a total of 20 violation points were noted during the inspection.

  • 1 and 2 point violations are to be corrected by the next routine inspection.
  • 4 or 5 point violations are to be corrected immediately, if possible, or within 10 days unless an extension of time has been granted by the Health Authority.
  • When the rating score is 60 – 70 a Conditional Permit is issued. A Conditional Permit is valid for 30 days and suspends the regular health permit.
  • When the rating score is less than 60, the health permit to operate is suspended.

Down at the bottom of this page are instructions regarding how to access the inspection data.

I decided to look up all the restaurants in Crystal Lake, so on the search module page, I typed in *Crystal Lake*.

I figured that would give me all the food establishments in Crystal Lake.

Wrong.

I got a message saying,

Maximum results of ‘500’ reached. Please narrow your search criteria.

I figured that I could type in the zip codes 60012 and 60014 and that would cut each category low enough to find all the restaurants and other places that serve food.

But there was no search by zip code. (I did suggest that option be added.)

Here’s the top listings for the Crystal Lake 500 establishments.  This is not in order of cleanliness.  In fact, I cannot figure out what the order is.

922 – WEST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL – CRYSTAL LAKE – 08/23/2913
2393 – CRYSTAL LAKE CENTRAL HS BOOSTERS CONCESSION – CRYSTAL LAKE – 08/29/2104
305 – BENEDICTS LA STRATA – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/22/2015
38 – AROUND THE CLOCK RESTAURANT – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/10/2015
1740 – GAS DEPOT – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/10/2015
473 – LA BUENA VISTA MEXICAN STORE – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/10/2015
652 – PABLO’S MEXICAN RESTAURANT – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/10/2015
1070 – ST THOMAS THE APOSTLE CHURCH – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/10/2015
1340 – TOP BUFFET – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/10/2015
2235 – FIRE BAR & GRILL – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/09/2015
2349 – HEAVENLY HARVEST CATERING – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/09/2015
2156 – JAMBA JUICE #827 – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/09/2015
601 – MR A’S – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/09/2015
1914 – PHILLIPS 66 – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/09/2015
2216 – BUFFALO WINGS & RINGS – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/08/2015
642 – CAFE OLYMPIC – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/08/2015
2529 – MCC CULINARY MANAGEMENT – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/08/2015
1756 – PONTARELLIS PIZZA AND WINGS – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/08/2015
176 – LA ROSITA – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/07/2015
1340 – TOP BUFFET – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/07/2015
1752 – ANA’S CAKES & BAKERY – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/06/2015
1822 – PONTARELLIS PIZZA & WINGS – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/06/2015
740 – THE SALVATION ARMY GOLDEN DINERS – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/06/2015
2304 – BUFFALO WILD WINGS – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/02/2015
123 – CHEN CHINESE CUISINE – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/02/2015
182 – CRYSTAL PINES REHAB & HCC – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/02/2015
1740 – GAS DEPOT – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/02/2015
1206 – JEWEL #3517 – CRYSTAL LAKE – 04/02/2015

On the Health Department page from which this was taken, there are links to each of the establishments.  These links did not come through when I copied them above, so anyone wanting to see the ratings will have to do so from the Health Department web site.

There may be some order to the listing, but I can’t figure it out.

Missing from the list is what would be of most interest to consumers–

the score achieved by the food server

There is obviously room to put it on the page of links, as you can see below, but, for some reason, the Board of Health has decided to make it harder to find.

If the computer program limits the amount of information that can be entered on this page, the inspection date could be eliminated, using that space to enter the score.  Perhaps the score could replace the date of the most recent inspection.

You can see that there is lots of space to the right to add the score.

You can see that there is lots of space to the right to add the score.  A commenter has figured out that this list is in descending order according to the date of the last inspection.  Would you prefer them to be in descending order of cleanliness?

This program is in use in the McHenry County Treasurer’s and County Clerk’s Offices.

I checked some of the places on the top of the Crystal Lake list.

McHenry County College’s kitchen scored a 96.

A couple of the establishments had “NA” where the score should be written.  That indicates a follow-up visit.

Mike Hill

Mike Hill

When one types in an individual establishments, one finds reports back to 2010.

That historical data was so readily available was impressive.

When asked about improving the format of the report, Mike Hill, the relatively new Health Department Director conveyed the following:

  1. This is an existing document management system that the County already uses (not purchased for this purpose).
  2. It is our intent to give consumers access to these records but we recognize it is not as user friendly as we would like. We are working with the County to get something better.
The Waffle House had its "A" rating taped right on a window next to the entrance.  McHenry County issues numbers which are not converted to letter grades.

The Waffle House had its “A” rating taped right on a window next to the entrance. McHenry County issues numbers which are not converted to letter grades.

It seems significant to me that this initiative has occurred since Hill has arrived in McHenry County.

I’m still hoping to be able to see posters on the doors or front windows of restaurants as I found at the Waffle House just across the Kentucky-Illinois line.

The sanitation rating in this part of Kentucky has the numeric score for the most recent inspection and the one immediately before.

The most recent grade is converted into a alphabetic grade.


Comments

Health Department Reveals Restaurant Inspection Reports — 17 Comments

  1. Correction: meant descending by date and ascending by their facility name.

  2. I go to Robert Walkers, Benedicts, Marzanos, Kyoto, and occasionally that Chinese buffet next to Josephs.

    All have had violations.

    Yuck.

  3. By the way, good job – this is tax money well spent.

    Keep it up, whoever you are.

  4. Don’t you think the extent of the violations is the important point?

  5. I do. I do, not all violations are the same.

    Uncooked bacon on top of ham sounds like a legitimate issue though.

    But even for the less serious violations, I imagine restaurant owners know the rules and they ought to follow them.

    When the Bull Valley cops gave me a ticket for going 5 miles above the limit, I said “thank you officer” and sent them payment.

  6. The restaurants with the most violations have some of the best food.

    This is a joke – who gives to the right politicians is the grading system.

  7. “Da baffone” is good.

    Score of 98.

    I have been there once.

    Their food and attitude is excellent.

  8. I’d bet $1000 that Mike Hill’s home kitchen and his family’s cooking would get an F-

    This is such a SCAM.

    Government is truly for LOSERS

  9. Well, I know my kitchen would get an F.

    But my kitchen is not a public establishment.

    I can touch my own food with my bare hands, and that is my problem but if the line cook does the same, it is not OK.

    A long while ago I worked for a couple of months in a restaurant, fairly fancy, one the expensive side, roughly 50 miles away from here (name goes unmentioned because i have not desire to be accused of libel).

    At an establishment of that type, i witnessed the chef and other employees coming out of the bathroom without washing hands (Yes, there are people like that.)

    Would you like those workers to touch your food with bare hands?

    I think the importance of these inspections lies in the fact that they serve as indicators of the culture of the food establishment.

    Places with multiple violations are places that don’t care about this stuff.

    If they do not care about keeping the soup at the correct temperature, they probably do not care about many other things.

    The probably do not care about handwashing either.

    Do not go there.

  10. Municipal and county government units should conduct ‘exit’ interviews for businesses leaving the area.

    Frequently I hear about the burden placed on them by the County Health Department.

  11. Cal is correct. K.I.S.S. should be employed in the form of a rating simple enough for the ‘ignorant’ to understand.

  12. McDonald’s in Crystal Lake on Rt 14 is DISCUSTING!!!!

    February 17, 2016 ordered a Big Mac thu the drive thru.

    I ate half my sandwich and found a long light hair strand in my Big Mac!!!!!

  13. Has anybody gotten sick off the Texan BBQ in Algonquin. I’ve gotten sick there twice off the ribs and my husband got sick off the pulled pork I don’t want to order from there anymore he’s the one that keeps insisting on it so I’m so glad he got the food poisoning this time the place is old run-down and dirty I don’t know why he would order food from there. Just wondering if anybody else has info. Thx

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