TRIBECA — The popular Bubby’s restaurant in TriBeCa is getting slammed with sanitary violations.

Health inspectors have visited Bubby’s, on Hudson Street, three times in the past month and issued multiple violations for flies, cockroaches and uncleanliness, according to the Department of Health’s website.

Bubby’s received 58 violation points on its most recent inspection, on Aug. 22, as inspectors found filth or food flies, workers with unclean clothing and contaminated food surfaces.

That was better than the Aug. 8 inspection, which yielded 68 violation points for issues including perishable food held at unsafe temperatures, but worse than the July 29 inspection, which found live roaches and resulted in 49 violation points.

A score of 28 points or more earns restaurants a C grade, but the grade for Bubby’s is still listed as “pending” on the Department of Health’s website.

A manager at Bubby’s declined to comment Monday.

Bubby’s Brooklyn, an offshoot of the original restaurant, was closed by the Health Department in July for having mice, roaches and flies, but it has since reopened and received just 3 violation points on its most recent inspection.

Bubby’s was one of TriBeCa’s first restaurants and has grown from a small pie-baking company into the neighborhood’s 24-hour go-to spot. The restaurant celebrated its 20th anniversary last fall.

Read more: http://174.129.17.12/20110829/downtown/popular-bubbys-restaurant-hit-with-sanitary-violations?r=#ixzz1WX7DCjG5

MANHATTAN — The proprietor of Nino’s on the Upper East Side can often be found in a natty pinstripe suit greeting people as they splurge on lobster fra diavolo or veal scaloppini.

But Nino Selimaj was nowhere to be found on Wednesday when DNAinfo called to discuss the restaurant’s Department of Health restaurant inspection score — the second worst in the 10021 zip code.

The celeb-heavy hangout at 1354 First Ave., near East 73rd Street, was hit with a whopping 56 points during an inspection on Monday, according to the health department’s website.

A grade higher than 27 points would merit hanging a C in the window, but the restaurant’s grade is pending as the department gives it some time to clean up their act. Restaurants with violations under 13 points get As.

Nino’s, a white tablecloth joint that’s very popular with Upper East Siders, also seems to have a spotty record. After scoring 21 points in January, it then racked up 37 points in a follow-up inspection a month later. But the month after that it scored an A-worthy 7 points.

“The Health Department may continue to inspect the restaurant roughly once a month until it scores below 28 or the department closes it for serious and persistent violations,” according to the department.

The 56-point score came on the heels of a July 29 inspection where Nino’s had scored 31 points, as first mentioned in a tweet by UpperEast.com, a website of Upper East Side business listings.

The health department found a range of violations, including evidence of rats and mice, roaches present in the food or non food areas, flies, cold food not stored properly and food surfaces improperly washed. Also, the inspector found the supervisor of food operations did not hold a Food Protection Certificate, which is required by the health department.

According to the Nino’s website, at any of Selimaj’s several restaurants you can find famous people. Recent diners have included Hilary Duff, Tony Bennett, Clint Eastwood, Regis Philbin, Chelsea Clinton and members of “The Sopranos,” it said. Selimaj himself attracted attention when he introduced a $1,000 pizza topped with six different types of caviar and Maine Lobster.

At Nino’s Positano in Midtown, Selimaj named a chicken special after regular customer Derek Jeter, after the Yankees shortstop reached his 3,000th hit. That restaurant, at 890 Second Ave., was briefly closed by the health department after a June 22 inspection tallied 72 violation points. The restaurant currently has a letter B grade.

His restaurant Osso Buco, at 1662 Third Ave. at 93rd Street, has a grade pending after a July inspection found 24 violation points, according to the Health Department, as does Scarpina, which scored 20 points. And while the health department site states that Nino’s Tuscany Steak House currently has an A, on its most recent inspection on Aug. 15, the restaurant scored 26 points.

“For now, I’m not at liberty to discuss [the restaurant score] until it is resolved,” a woman answering the phone at Nino’s remarked, saying that the owner was the only one authorized to talk.

Selimaj, however, didn’t return calls.

Read more: http://174.129.17.12/20110825/upper-east-side/ninos-racks-up-56-violation-points-on-health-inspection#ixzz1WX7nprmv

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A popular fast-food restaurant in southwest Albuquerque was hit with a red sticker recently.

A citizen alerted the Albuquerque Health Department after they said they got sick after eating at the Sonic Drive-In located at 531 Bridge Blvd. SW.

When inspectors arrived on Aug. 4, they said they observed cold holding issues. The inspector observed that the walk-in cooler temperature was 45 degrees and the preparation table was at 44 degrees, which are incorrect.

The manager called in a work order and the routine food inspection resulted in a downgrade.

Hand wash facilities were inaccessible, an inspector said. The inspector observed boxes in and on the hand-washing sink, which was corrected on site by management.

There was also evidence of insects. The inspector said there were numerous flies in the facilities during the inspection.

The manager on duty said the restaurant has been upgraded, but a check of the city’s online records didn’t show that.

For more, check out: http://www.koat.com/news/28937680/detail.html#ixzz1WX5ZIH7n

Sobelman’s @Marquette, the third burger restaurant by Dave and Melanie Sobelman, finished up its last-minute work with contractors and cleared final city inspections to open Monday.

The new restaurant takes over the building occupied for decades by Angelo’s, at 1601 W. Wells St.

Dave Sobelman said this morning that business was brisk after it opened at 11 a.m., even though the restaurant opened quietly. “We did very well — 470-plus burgers on our first day,” he said.

The number at the Marquette restaurant is 933-1601; it takes carryout orders.

The couple’s other restaurants are the original location, Sobelman’s Pub & Grill, 1900 W. St. Paul Ave., and Sobelman’s Tallgrass Grill, 1952 N. Farwell Ave.

For more, check out: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/128245628.htmlr

AMARILLO— An alleged salmonella outbreak at an Amarillo restaurant continues to be the center of a lawsuit, three years later.

The victims in the lawsuit allege they became ill after eating at the IHOP on Western Street in the Summer of 2008. According to some of the victim’s lawyer, Dean Boyd, the type of salmonella stemmed from fecal matter because employees did not wash their hands after using the restroom. That summer, the restaurant was shut down three times.

Monday, NewsChannel 10 spent the day going through the city’s health inspection records to see how the restaurant has done.

According to city reports, in the past three years IHOP received an average amount of infractions. There was one time, in march of this year where the restaurant was given a large amount of demerits. The high number of infractions resulted in a health inspector returning the next day for an inspection. City records report those violations were cleared up that day.

For more, check out: http://www.newschannel10.com/story/15311441/restaurant-being-sued-for-alleged-salmonella-outbreak

Chris Woolston, “the Healthy Skeptic,” reports that restaurant inspections are a snapshot of some health issues but they may not really indicate one’s likeliness to become ill from eating at a particular establishment.

“Cleanliness matters. Restaurant inspections have definitely helped prevent outbreaks across the country, says food safety expert Margaret Binkley, an assistant professor in the department of consumer sciences at Ohio State University in Columbus. But the grades hanging in the window — or even a full report on public health websites — offer only a vague glimpse of the real risk of foodborne illness, Binkley says…And snapshots can be misleading: You can’t know what’s happening at a restaurant on any particular day…Out of necessity, inspectors tend to focus on things that can be easily checked…But these factors may not have much to do with actual diseases, says Benjamin Chapman, a food safety specialist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh…He notes that noroviruses — a leading cause of foodborne illness — are spread primarily through contaminated hands…A study of restaurant outbreaks in eight states in the early 2000s found that noroviruses accounted for nearly half of all cases, with salmonella bacteria a very distant second…Restaurant inspection practices vary widely from state to state and from county to county. The often-emulated program in Los Angeles County uses a 100-point system…Los Angeles inspectors make one to three unannounced visits every year.