When a restaurant's "score" is not the score
A Tennessee restaurant should never score below a 90. Period. Any conscientious restaurant manager or fastidious health department inspector (they like to be called "environmentalists") will tell you that.
However, the fact is sometimes a restaurant's critical violation is really an environmentalist's judgment call.
Sometimes, they get it wrong.
Like the time a health department environmentalist slapped a Mexican restaurant with a critical violation for "improperly labeled" containers sitting on the pantry shelf with food items.
The containers' labels read "ajo" and "cebolla," respectively.
"Garlic." "Onion."
The restaurant's kitchen staff had labeled them in Spanish because, surprise, the staff speaks Spanish. You know, being a Mexican place and all.
But the environmentalist docked the establishment for not labeling the containers in English.
