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Mayor's Favorite Upper East Side Diner Gets Multiple Health Violations

By Ben Fractenberg | November 12, 2010 1:58pm
Mayor Michael's Bloomberg's preferred eatery received 36 Health Department violations.
Mayor Michael's Bloomberg's preferred eatery received 36 Health Department violations.
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Mayor's Office

By Ben Fractenberg and Olivia Scheck

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER EAST SIDE — The mayor may be looking for a new neighborhood diner.

One of Bloomberg’s favorite eateries, Viand Café on East 78th Street, was slapped with 36 violations after its latest inspection by the Health Department, according to their inspection report on the department's website.

The restaurant could get a dreaded "C" rating under the new system, the lowest grade you can get without being forced to close, unless they shape up before their next inspection. Viand racked up negative points for having flies, "evidence of mice" and not being sufficiently "vermin proof," the inspection page noted.

But Viand manager Angelo Pelengaris defended the restaurant's cleanliness to the New York Post, saying, "Most of the violations were from a fridge in the kitchen."

"When they come back, we will get an A. It's a very clean place," Pelengaris reportedly added.

Asked by the Post if the mayor would stop frequenting the diner, a spokesman for Bloomberg said he wouldn’t rush to judgment before the restaurant's follow-up inspection, only after which it will receive a letter grade.

"The whole system was designed to avoid a rush to judgment, and that's just what the mayor will do."