Darien Health Dept. Rates 3 Food Places Poor, 3 Fair [UPDATE]

Update, 11:38 a.m.:

The Convent of St. Brigitta was incorrectly described as having a "Poor" rating for the last quarter of 2012 on the Darien Health Department website.

"In fact, the Convent has been nominated to receive a 'Certificate of Excellence' due to the extraordinary efforts exhibited in the preparation and service of food over the past several years," Darien Health Director David Knauf writes in a comment posted on this page. "Our deepest apologies for the incorrect posting!"

Original article (corrected):

Darien Health Department inspectors try to visit each restaurant or other food-serving establishment in town at least once each three months, and here are the inspection results from the last quarter of 2012:

One Plate—Poor

• Atria Darien, 50 Ledge Rd. (last inspection: Oct. 16; inspection history)

• Duchess Restaurant, 306 Post Rd. (last inspection: Dec. 21; inspection history)

• Jimmy's Southside Tavern, 340 Heights Rd. (last inspection: Dec. 27; inspection history)

Two Plates—Fair

• Chuck's Steak House, 1340 Post Rd. (last inspection: Dec. 6; inspection history)

• Tengda Asian Bistro, 25 Old Kings Hwy. N. (last inspection: Jan. 3, 2013 [also Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, 2012]; inspection history)

• Wild Ginger, 971 Post Rd. (last inspection Nov. 6; inspection history)

Three Plates—Good

All other food-serving establishments in town.

How Health Department 'plate' ratings work

On its Web page, the Health Department describes how it rates the establishments:

"This is a program designed to provide the public with some basic information about the sanitary conditions observed in the facility, not just at the time of the inspection, but over the past year.

"Ratings are provided by the department to the food service establishment with the inspection report during each inspection and are based on the following factors:

• The absence/presence of 'critical violations' that are likely to cause food borne illness,
• The absence/presence of chronic violations as noted in past inspections,
• The facility inspection history and efforts to correct previously noted violations,
• The training and demonstrable knowledge of food service personnel, and
• The overall sanitary conditions in the facility at the time of inspection."

The ratings system classifies food-serving establishments into three categories:

Three plates—Good: "A food service establishment shall receive a Good Rating when safe food handling practices with no critical violations were observed at the time of inspection and the facility was found to be in considerable compliance with the factors outlined above."

Two plates—Fair: "A food service establishment shall receive a Fair Rating when the minimum requirements of the Connecticut Public Health Code were met at the time of inspection but improvements were needed in the food handling practices of food service personnel and the factors outlined above."

One plate—Poor: "A food service establishment shall receive a Poor Rating when chronic or critical violations that are likely to cause food borne illness were evident at the time of inspection, or the facility received a score below eighty (80) or had one (1) or more four (4) point demerit items in violation, or was not in compliance with the factors outlined above."

Correction: The initial version of this article listed the Convent of St. Brigitta as having a "poor" rating. In fact, inspectors gave it a rating of "good" but the Health Department website posting was incorrect. See the 11:38 a.m. update above and the comment from David Knauf below for more details.