Some restaurant ABCs are MIA

As neighborhood cafes go, Julienne would seem to have it all—a charming setting in upscale San Marino with hordes of loyal patrons who throng the sidewalk waiting for a table at breakfast or lunch.

Julienne also has one of L.A. County’s most important food preparation status symbols: an “A” from the public health department. But you wouldn’t know it by looking in the café’s window.

Letter grades—displayed in restaurants and markets throughout Los Angeles County and soon to be posted on food trucks—are nowhere to be seen in San Marino. The same goes for Avalon, La Habra Heights, Sierra Madre and Signal Hill.

For Terrance Powell, those cities are the ones that got away.

Since the restaurant ordinance went into effect in 1998, Powell has been the public health department’s man on the front lines of getting municipalities within the county to adopt the law. Over the years, virtually every city with food-serving businesses has gotten onboard (with the exception of Pasadena, Long Beach and Vernon, which have their own health departments to inspect restaurants and don’t issue letter grades.)

That leaves the five holdouts, with about 160 eateries among them, including the lone food-serving establishment in La Habra Heights—the Hacienda Golf Club. Together, the five cities’ restaurants and markets represent a tiny fraction of the 40,097 establishments across the county that currently post letter grades.

Powell, a top official in the public health department’s environmental health division, said his persuasion initiative “simply stopped when we got to 99%.”

Restaurants in cities that haven’t adopted the ordinance still are required to be inspected by the county, and their grades are posted online. But no letter grades are displayed at the establishments—even if individual restaurateurs would like to do so—unless their city councils have adopted the county ordinance.

Explaining why San Marino hasn’t joined the crowd, Mayor Dennis Kneier said he’s not sure the measure is right for his city.

“Things are working fine the way they are,” Kneier said. He’s been on the council just 3 1/2 years, so he’s not sure why the county’s restaurant ordinance wasn’t adopted by his city in the early years.

But his personal opinion is that the letter signs would be “another ugly distracting thing sitting in a window. To me, it’s no class.”

While he said he doesn’t have any strong opinions on the issue one way or the other, he said he was “not going to be a champion” of bringing the matter before the San Marino City Council.

“If it came before me,” he said, “I would give it due consideration.”

Some local officials seemed surprised to learn that their city’s eateries and markets are not among those posting grades.

“Oh gosh,” said Gary Jones, Signal Hill’s community development director. “In my mind’s eye, I’ve seen letters posted in Signal Hill. But have I really seen letters posted in Signal Hill? Maybe not.”

He said the current city council would likely be amenable to adopting the ordinance—along with the new one requiring letter grade posting for food trucks.

“I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t want to adopt it,” he said. “Everyone wants to know what they’re eating.”

Powell, a county veteran of 23 years, has done his share of presentations before local city councils—and expects to do more in the weeks and months ahead as outreach on the food truck posting ordinance begins.

He figures it’ll be an easier sell than when the restaurant ordinance first was introduced 12 years ago. He said there are several reasons for that: the program has proven to be extremely popular with the public, studies have found fewer reported hospitalizations for food-related illnesses since it took effect and surveys indicate that the posted grades are good for business (at least for the eateries that rank an “A.”)

But that wasn’t always the case. Beverly Hills lagged behind other cities in adopting the ordinance, as did Duarte. And South Pasadena initially adopted the ordinance but then decided to opt out; the city since has opted in again.

As for the remaining holdouts? They’re welcome to join in any time, Powell said. “It’s an open invitation. The evidence is now overwhelming.”

And if they don’t, he believes the eating public deserves an explanation.

“If the public doesn’t see a grade,” he said, “they should ask their city if they’ve adopted it, and if not, why not?”

Posted 10/13/10