It has been revealed that the New York City Health Department photoshopped an overweight man's leg out of an ad tying larger portion sizes to Type 2 diabetes and limb amputations. We received a noble press release from the good folks at the American Beverage Association blasting the lying liars at the DOH: “This is another example of the ‘What can we get away with?’ approach that shapes these taxpayer-funded ad campaign." Or is it a reasonable tactic against the larded Leviathans and their relentless lobbyists? more ›

Restaurateurs, the City Council feels your pain. Though the Department of Health's restaurant letter grade program has proved popular among consumers, many restaurateurs are still not loving it. Some are even taking pains to skirt DOH inspections. But don't worry, 2013 election-ready Speaker Christine Quinn and her Council hears the cry of the common cook and is doing something about it! Why, they've even set up an online survey! more ›

Nanny Bloomberg's Department of Health is letting itself go this term! Just three years ago they were terrifying New Yorkers with soda that turned into human fat in the air and now they are resorting to fat chicks on scooters and expanding hamburger line graphs. Even compared the department's recent "casual smoking will KILL you" campaign this one seems lackluster. Still, they got us to talk about them? more ›

Restaurateurs aren't exactly big fans of the Department of Health (see: the guy who got big fines, he says, for photographing an inspector working) but the Daily News today notices an interesting way that some are getting out of the standard inspections entirely: Just claim to be a supermarket or a warehouse! more ›

According to a Manhattan restauranteur, a camera-shy health inspector fired off a litany of violations as soon as he began documenting the inspection. Bill Koulmentas, the owner of George's diner in Tribeca, tells the Post that because he pulled out his iPhone to document a visit from a DOH inspector yesterday, the inspector became angry and wrote him up for 65 points worth of violations, and shuttered the restaurant for the first time since September 11, 2001. "They can do anything they want, Koulmentas says. "Something's out of control here. It's lies, lies, lies." more ›

The rules for restaurants and bars, they are a changing. As the Times notes, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene today is set to approve a number of changes to Article 81 of the city's Health Code, the document that governs sanitation rules for food-service establishments (you can see the whole thing right here in this pdf). Finally, bartenders won't have to wear hair nets! Because, yeah, even if they so much as handled a lime they were supposed to. Now they tell us! more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] According to some people with Twitter accounts, Williamsburg's beloved Union Pool was shut down by the mean old Department of Health last night, a city agency that clearly can't appreciate life's more refined pleasures, like wine served in a cup and key bumps in a crowded bathroom. more ›

If you're a classic Jewish deli food fan, watch out for all the MealMart Kosher Broiled Chicken Livers floating around out there—they're probably infected with salmonella. First smoked salmon, now this—are no appetizings safe in this world? more ›

If you've wandered up Bedford Avenue lately in search of a cheap oversized margarita in a Styrofoam to-go cup, you've probably noticed, and been bitterly disappointed, that perennial dive-bar favorite Turkey's Nest Tavern has been shuttered since last week. It's a real blow to the neighborhood's legions of drunk McCarren park picnickers, and the cranky old men who stare at them. more ›

New York City has been waging a war on salt for a while, offering up statistics showing that we're mostly depraved saltaholics. Reiterating this point for the United Nations, Department of Health Commissioner Thomas Farley says, "Having a high-salt diet really does substantially increase your risk of heart disease and stroke," noting that 1,000 New Yorkers die every year from a high-salt diet. However, 500 of those deaths could be prevented if people just ate more fruits and vegetables. more ›

New York's restaurant letter grades have been around for a year now, most restaurants have been graded and a majority have gotten themselves A's. But along with the rise of letter grades (and the increase in fines for the city's coffers that have come with them) something else has been on the rise: attempted bribery. Yesterday the police arrested a restaurant owner in Queens for trying to pay off an inspector with $500. His was by no means the first such case this year. more ›

The epic saga of East Village dive Mars Bar finally appears to have come to an end, after a visit from the Department of Health and an overriding sense of ambivalence from the owner. more ›

Restaurant letter grades have been the law of the land in New York City for a year now, though not every restaurant has gotten a grade yet, and many C-graded spots are not loving it—just look where some of them put their grades! "It's killing us," a host at a Washington Heights restaurant told the Daily News. "People see the C and they walk away." But not everyone is as worried about bad health scores. At least not when there is a celebrity chef attached. more ›

Russian billionaires and bleak buildings aren't the only things the Atlantic Yards project is bringing to Brooklyn: the construction is reportedly stirring up a large rat colony, some of which are "the size of cats." At a recent meeting to address the issue, two Downtown Brooklyn residents said that the rats got into their cars' engine blocks, "leaving behind chicken bones and aluminum foil, all the while chewing on the wires." One neighbor tells City Room, "We don't have a normal rat problem, we have a rat tsunami." more ›

As we well know, all restaurants in the city get letter grades from the DOH, whether or not they decide to show them. Some have even suggested that supermarkets should get them as well. But do Broadway theaters really need grades too? more ›

The saga of DOH-shuttered East Village stalwart Ray's Candy Store continues today, with owner Ray Alvarez saying he's brought in exterminators to rid his Avenue A storefront of the "extensive mice infestation" that led to its closure and a promise to prove to the Health Department that he's cleaning up his act. more ›

Yesterday we reported that beloved Ray's Candy Store on Avenue A was shut down by the Department of Health for a number of violations, including but not limited to an extensive mice infestation. But omnipresent East Village denizen and excellent photographer Bob Arihood reports that after the inspectors shut him down, owner Ray Alvarez went to sleep... and his employees opened for business, even serving two cops who made purchases despite the big yellow DOH sticker on the door. Unsurprisingly, the DOH wasn't too pleased about this. more ›

Since New York started handing out letter grades with their Department of Health inspections, a number of college cafeterias have been performing quite poorly and students and their parents are not amused. Today the Times catches up with the story, and though the schools are rushing to fix things ("We let the students down,” one admin said) it is too little, too late for some. Why bother with school food, these kids want their Five Guys, and they want it now! more ›

Yesterday, we were very sad to report on a cat-astrophe at McSorley's Old Ale House: Minnie the Second, the latest in a long line of cats who have lived at the East Village institution since 1854, has been banned from the bar during drinking hours. We talked to Minnie, and she clarified a few things about the ban and her place at the bar: "I would hate for the DOH to think I'm still up in the bar during business hours. I did not mean to imply that I am in any way violating the rules of mouse or men, no matter how silly and unjust." more ›

Today the NYC Health Department is relocating to new offices in Long Island City, and officials are doing their best to start things off on the right foot with new "Guidelines for Life in the Cubicle Village." As you can see from the rules below, village life here is a Utopian paradise where conscientious villagers refrain from "shouting" from hut to hut, or eating food outside of designated areas, or displaying potentially offensive "non-work related items" such as photos of loved ones. In addition, the department has updated its guidelines for food and beverages served at agency meetings and events. This means our tax dollars will no longer go toward deep fried Oreos—or fried anything, for that matter. Here are the ten important rules for proper village etiquette: more ›

The Health Department has been giving restaurants letter grades for nine months now—so how're our eateries doing? A-OK, actually. Health Commissioner Thomas Farley showed up at City Council yesterday to tout the good news that more than half of the 15,000 restaurants the department has inspected since the new system was put in place are now sporting blue A's in their windows. more ›

Mulberry Street bar, open since 1908 and "Home of The Sopranos," has reportedly been closed by the Health Department because a "temporary license it was operating under since Dec has expired." NewYorkist posted this picture of the bar on Twitter. However, according to one employee, it's just temporary! more ›

Street vendors are so hot right now, street vendors. And you know what is also, in most cases, hot? Street vendor permits. The Journal today takes a look at the crazy black market out there for street vendor permits and the numbers are, well, crazy. Though the city only charges $200 for a two-year permit, on the black market they can go for upwards of $20,000. more ›