Ever wanted instant, online access to the city’s inspection reports for all restaurants licensed to operate in Dallas? Maybe yes (seems like it would interesting info, right?) and maybe no (how many of are are really going to check something like that out every time we dine out?).
Well, if we lived in Fort Worth, we would have instant, online access to that city’s restaurant inspections, according to the Dallas Business Journal. So I could, theoretically, drive over to a Cowtown restaurant, fire up my in-phone web browser while sitting outside, go to the Fort Worth website, and find out what’s happening at Dutch’s, a hamburger spot that a friend has been talking up. And if I did that today, here’s what I would find out: bad canned goods, outdated lunchmeat "in use", chipped cutting board, "cheese stored in contact with or under the raw hamburger meat," and a few more demerits from the city’s Nov. 28 report, which listed 22 demerits. What I don’t easily and quickly see, however, is any relative comparison to what 22 demerits means — is 22 abnormally good or bad? So while the inspection report sounds bad, maybe it isn’t on a relative scale. But I would think twice about exiting the car and entering the restaurant after reading this report.
We don’t have that option in Dallas yet, although it has been discussed a few times at City Hall. Currently, the city doesn’t have the software or the manpower to quickly post inspection results and, even more important, quickly post the follow-up inspection results. After all, a bad city inspection — circulated widely and quickly — could shut down a restaurant before the owner even has time to fix the problem. And a misconstrued inspection report — circulated widely and quickly by a sloppy blogger — could close a perfectly good restaurant for no good reason. And given the subjective nature of "inspecting", what if one city employee is particularly harsh (or having a bad day) and another one is pre-occupied or not that interested? On the other hand, who isn’t in favor of full disclosure?
Guess we’ll see how the Fort Worth experiment goes…
