One year ago today New York City's ban on smoking in beaches and parks kicked in. So how's that going? Really, really great, if you ask the Department of Health. So how to explain why the police this year have actually started getting aggressive about issuing tickets for the offense, despite saying they wouldn't? Because we still see smokers in parks on a regular basis. more ›

The battle against childhood obesity continues, with...breakfast? A number of the city's public schools have joined cities like Los Angeles and Chicago by serving breakfast in the classroom, providing children from low-income families with a meal they might not have at home. Breakfast has been offered in all public school cafeterias for a while, but in-classroom meals served to all students is seen as a way to make all kids get the most important meal of the day. more ›

Would you be surprised to learn that Subway, the restaurant franchise with the most locations in the city (372 or 430 depending on who you ask), has had more of its franchises shut down by the Department of Health than any other chain in the city? True story. The Daily News crunched the numbers and found that 55 Subways have been shut down for violations in the past five years. But that doesn't necessarily mean it is the grossest chain in the land. more ›

But, but, but! Where will West Village romantics go for date nights now? The neighborhood's much loved, super quaint, corner Mediterranean restaurant The Little Owl was shut down by the Department of Health last night. Maybe they should have called it The Little Mouse, instead? Wocka, wocka, wocka! more ›

The New York Times rolled out a nifty interactive map cataloging restaurant sanitary inspections, putting all the dirty details at diner's fingertips. The vast majority of restaurants in our fair city receive high marks from the Department of Health, a good chunk don't—and now you can search through those by specific violation. Because you can still earn an A after evidence of rodents and roaches is detected. Would you be surprised to see that hundreds of restaurants across are home to furry frenemies? more ›

When it comes to suicide, the Big Apple is not top tomato. According to a new report from the city Health Department [PDF] New Yorkers are less likely to successfully kill themselves than the average American. Still, every year an average of 475 New Yorkers kill themselves and more than 3,600 are hospitalized with self-inflected injuries. more ›

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 ›