We Are All Taco Bell Now

After the Great Rat Uprising of 2007, many restaurant owners are noticing stricter health department inspections:

The owners of the Coffee Shop, a popular cafe on Union Square, say they had never failed a city health inspection in 17 years of business. So when inspectors came last week and shut them down — citing a number of violations that the owners say would have earned them a slap on the wrist in the past — they could think of only one thing: the KFC/Taco Bell rat video.

“We’re a clean operation,” a co-owner, Charles Milite, said in a news conference yesterday to announce that the violations had been corrected. “It’s clear to us we got caught in the cross hairs of this unfortunate Taco Bell situation.”

The “situation” is the widely seen news video of rats swarming inside a KFC/Taco Bell on Avenue of the Americas in Greenwich Village. It was broadcast Feb. 23, one day after the fast food restaurant had passed inspection.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been closing down restaurants at a furious pace ever since. Between Feb. 26, the Monday after the rat video made its debut, and last Saturday, the department closed 94 restaurants and take-out outlets.

Health department statistics show that closings have been on the rise for more than a year and spiked in October, when 58 restaurants were shut. Another 68 were closed in November, and in January, 75 were shuttered, the most since at least March 2005, the earliest numbers available.

Department officials say inspectors may be making visits with a more watchful eye since the KFC/Taco Bell rat video. But they say the increase is not part of an organized crackdown and is not intended to “save face or make examples,” as Mr. Milite wrote in a sign he pasted to his cafe windows after it was shut down last Wednesday.

So what is a restauranteur to do? Hire a public relations firm, of course:

The owners of Coffee Shop, the chic eatery here, decided to call in a high-powered PR firm — the Marino Group — and hold a press conference yesterday to announce that health code violations have been remedied and they’re open for business. They also coyly mentioned “several of our celebrity friends” are expected to dine there today to show support.

“We’ve always had inspections,” said co-owner Charles Milite, who has been running the establishment for 17 years. “This inspection was tough.”

. . .

Milite believes he was caught in the fallout of the rat infestation at a Greenwich Village KFC/Taco Bell.

“Obviously, that was a big awakening for the city. Obviously, they have tightened up a bit,” Milite said, though the city has denied these allegations. Since the KFC/Taco Bell incident last month through March 10, the health department closed 94 restaurants.

“People will see those stickers and put us in the same category as Taco Bell,” said Milite, explaining the press conference was “our chance to at least defend ourselves and say, ‘We are not Taco Bell.'”

What’s that about repeating the negative?