Food & Drink Sep 6, 2011 at 1:07 pm

"A Brilliant/Useful/Spooky Map of Seattle Restaurants' Health Inspections"

Bethany Jean Clement
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Comments

1
I have gotten food poisoning from the Elysian Brewery...it was the Mac and Cheese
Cato the Younger Younger on September 6, 2011 at 1:21 PM Report this
2
obviously not enough of a genius to know how to host a website
Swearengen on September 6, 2011 at 1:41 PM Report this
3
Swearengen: That kinda hurts. Its my first site in AWS and I didnt configure apache with a max instance. I put it on the larger clouds. It should be up.
dinegerous on September 6, 2011 at 1:48 PM Report this
4
Why can't we have them post this information at the restaurant like they do in New York? From "You could eat off the floor" to "You will probably throw up later."
Andy on September 6, 2011 at 1:48 PM Report this
5
Sort it out by top scores. You can see the worst restaurants in the region (100+ score). Only one is in the city.
Joe Szilagyi on September 6, 2011 at 1:50 PM Report this
6
Also, lol, Chinatown. And I say this as a Chinese person.
Andy on September 6, 2011 at 1:53 PM Report this
7
Nice work B...
artzt on September 6, 2011 at 1:54 PM Report this
8
Swearengen: I was about to make a comment about how easy it is to criticize things that others create in lieu of crating them yourself, but then I clicked on your profile and saw the thread of insightful comments you have left for others. Keep up the good work.

Dingerous rocks.
blizzo on September 6, 2011 at 1:56 PM Report this
9
Damn, Shitty Market Deli is "spotless?" So glad to have some new ammo to defend against the Shitty Market Deli naysayers! Though I must say, I am both unsurprised and disappointed by In the Bowl's sad showing.
More, I Say! on September 6, 2011 at 2:01 PM Report this
10
I like how if you zoom out, Mercer Island is labelled "East Seattle." I can see some shitfits by shitheads concerned about rebranding and property values...
carnivorous chicken on September 6, 2011 at 2:05 PM Report this
11
Ok, seriously, this rocks. No more chow and hurl!
Milesward on September 6, 2011 at 2:07 PM Report this
12
@10, MI used to be called "East Seattle" if I recall correctly -- not the whole thing, just the cluster around where the ferry used to land. It was the original business district, though of course it's mostly mega-houses now.

Personally I believe that if you don't occasionally eat at a non-compliant restaurant you lose immunity to the bad stuff. If you don't push your luck a little, you'll never get anywhere.

Plus, of course, food inspection is just rank soshalism, the kind of intrusive big-government regulation that is ruining America. Those closed-down restaurants create jobs, you know, not just by hiring staff but by killing off their weaker patrons, leaving their jobs open.
Fnarf on September 6, 2011 at 2:20 PM Report this
13
My only complaint is in some cases the balloons don't really line up with restaurant locations. In dense areas, like the U District, that can make it hard to figure out which balloons correspond with which restaurants.
Orv on September 6, 2011 at 2:46 PM Report this
14
@13: First, all you have to do is zoom in and you'll see the locations are pretty much spot on (assuming the addresses are entered correctly in the database).

Second, you can mouse over the icon to get the restaurant name and score, or click on it to get detailed info.

This is all standard Google maps behavior. Nice job, dinegerous.
bigyaz on September 6, 2011 at 2:51 PM Report this
15
@5: Can you explain how you came up with this? Because I see a whole lot of restaurants in the city with very high scores.
bigyaz on September 6, 2011 at 2:52 PM Report this
16
@15, he said "100+ score". There's a slider on the top of the map. The red markers in the map are for 46+, which is bad but not closeably bad. A restaurant has to score 90 or more to be closed (or 120 if less serious "blue" violations are counted).

There are actually three restaurants scoring 90+ in the City of Seattle, but none of them met the combined 90-red or 120-red+blue criteria to be shut. The only restaurants that do are "Spiced", in Bellevue, and Victoria Taqueria in Renton Highlands.
Fnarf on September 6, 2011 at 3:04 PM Report this
17
Damn... Tamarind Tree! :)
Beetlecat on September 6, 2011 at 3:13 PM Report this
18
@16: Thanks for the explanation.

Not sure @5 should be feeling all smug, though. Plenty of those in-city scores (and descriptions) were enough to make my stomach queasy.
bigyaz on September 6, 2011 at 3:17 PM Report this
19
Hm. Should I be concerned if a place has no score shown? Does that mean it's not being inspected?
Orv on September 6, 2011 at 3:22 PM Report this
20
Oops, never mind, I found the places I was concerned about. Their bubbles were just a half block away from the building they're in.
Orv on September 6, 2011 at 3:23 PM Report this
21
Orv: try looking them up on the actual search page: http://info.kingcounty.gov/health/ehs/fo…
stinkbug on September 6, 2011 at 3:25 PM Report this
22
I can't afford restaurants. But the Elysian Brew co. is just a block from me. I see the place is always full so it shocks me it is rated so badly.
Vince on September 6, 2011 at 3:57 PM Report this
23
It looks like a good start now that the site is up again. This would be very useful as a mobile app *winkwink*
suddenlyorcas on September 6, 2011 at 4:15 PM Report this
24
Not surprising at all about The Elysian. The food there is disgusting. What a shame since the beer is pretty delicious. I always hoped that place would step up its food game.
Njoy on September 6, 2011 at 4:20 PM Report this
25
Holee Sheet- Bastille 65!
ejamadoodle on September 6, 2011 at 4:21 PM Report this
26
Oddfellows at 40. I'm not eating there anymore.
ian on September 6, 2011 at 4:51 PM Report this
27
Belltown restaurants are surprisingly sanitary. Nothing in the neighborhood is even in the "danger" category.
ian on September 6, 2011 at 4:59 PM Report this
28
Kingfish? Seriously? That just ruined my day.
ERIN! on September 7, 2011 at 12:54 AM Report this
29
I did a public data request about a year and a half ago and wrote this viz using Tableau Software, you can see it here:

http://www.alansmitheepresents.org/2010/…

It's an interactive viz which accurately shows the violation point scheme according to the King County guidelines. No geocoding, but instead I focused on accuracy and temporal/timelines.

Of analytic note is that of the thousands upon thousands of inspections over a five year time period, only a few select places ever had to close down.
northwestcoder on September 7, 2011 at 9:13 AM Report this
30
This is seriously awesome - thanks, dingerous! I also love the little tracker line that shows their score history, that is important to know.

Also, DAMN JAPONESSA! We love to hit the museum and go for sushi, but improper cooling is a serious issue with raw fish.... ~sigh~ the more you know....
vavavarooooom on September 7, 2011 at 11:20 AM Report this
31
Thanks so much for putting this together! I use it regularly. And, wow! there are some surprises!
civicann on October 16, 2011 at 5:57 PM Report this

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