Add this one to the gamut: The Silicon Valley Business Journal published an article this week ranking several (but not all) Santa Clara County cities with the most and fewest restaurant health violations of the year.
The list was compiled with data from the county's Department of Environmental Health, current as of Nov. 15.
You can read article in full here, plus a few highlights below:
- The Department of Environmental Health handed out 1,454 major violations to the county's 6,052 restaurants in the last year, coming out to an average of 0.24 major violations per restaurant, according to the Business Journal. "Major" violations mean a restaurant must immediately correct the violation or find a "suitable alternative" and otherwise face closure.
- The most common major violation for the year is "improper hot and cold holding temperatures," which accounted for 37 percent of the year's total.
- Santa Clara stole the number one spot for the city with the most violations: 0.37 major violations per restaurant (214 major violations, 579 restaurants).
- Mountain View clocked in at number seven with 0.11 major violations per restaurant (42 major violations, 378 restaurants). The city's most common violation type by percent was improper hot and cold holding temperatures at 48 percent; Food contact surfaces unclean and unsanitized came in at 24 percent.
According to the Department of Environmental Health's website, the following Mountain View restaurants had permits suspended in 2013 for health code violations:
Togo's on 1955 El Camino Real didn't have any hot water, closed and reopened on Oct. 1; Workshop Burger on 126 Castro St. had "live cockroaches observed in facility" and no means to sanitize, closed and reopened on Aug. 21; Himalayan Kitchen on 820 El Camino Real didn't have any hot water available, closed and reopened on Aug. 12.
- Palo Alto reportedly had the lowest number of violations in 2013, coming in just below Mountain View with 0.07 major violations per restaurant (26 major violations, 351 restaurants). The city's most common violation type by percent was also improper hot and cold holding temperatures (31 percent); Food contact surfaces unclean and unsanitized for Palo Alto totaled 27 percent.
According to the Department of Environmental Health's website, Madame Tam on 322 University Ave. in Palo Alto closed for two days in July to deal with a cockroach and rodent infestation and "unsanitary equipment condition."
- Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Stanford ? as areas with fewer than 200 restaurants ? were not included.
