By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
BATTERY PARK CITY — The popular downtown restaurant SouthWest NY isn’t just a hangout for local residents and workers — it’s also home to mice, roaches and flies, according to a recent Health Department inspection.
City inspectors slammed SouthWest NY with 70 violation points after an inspection last month, more than any other restaurant in Battery Park City.
In addition to evidence of unsanitary critters, the city also found SouthWest workers touching food with their bare hands, storing perishable items above safe temperatures and contaminating raw or prepared food.
"If it’s true, it’s pretty concerning," said Dan Edelstein, 31, when told of the violations as he was leaving SouthWest recently. "I don’t know that I’d want to have roaches in there — that’s disturbing."
Edelstein, a broker who works in Battery Park City, said he frequently eats lunch at SouthWest and even has a rewards card, but he likely won’t be going back now.
Neighborhood residents were also concerned.
"They should probably shut it down," said Rosemary Foreman, 37, who was pushing a double stroller past SouthWest recently.
Foreman said she sympathized with the restaurant’s management because roaches and rodents are a side effect of all the construction downtown, but she still thought the restaurant needed to do better.
SouthWest NY opened in the World Financial Center in 1999 and draws a steady stream of office workers during the day, a happy hour crowd after work and residents on nights and weekends. The modern southwestern food is one of the more upscale options in the area, with entrees like mojo marinated skirt steak and pepper crusted petite filet mignon medallions just topping $20.
The city’s inspection last month was part of a new effort to grade all restaurants on an A-through-C scale. Restaurants with 28 or more violation points get a C and are then subjected to monthly inspections until they improve or are shut down.
SouthWest’s score puts it well into C territory, but the Health Department has not issued a final grade yet, because all restaurants have a chance to appeal.
Staff at SouthWest referred comment to owner Abraham Merchant, whose restaurant group also runs Steamers Landing, Pound & Pence and several other local establishments.
Merchant did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
