There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s cracking down on restaurants via your smartphone.
What The Health, a free app launched in Florida last week, grades restaurants based on health inspection data and makes the reports readily available to anyone with a smartphone.
“We were out one night (for dinner) and we happened to talk about how dirty these places around us are,” said co-founder Jake Van Dyke, 31.
Van Dyke said he and co-founder Chris Peoples, 31, whipped out their phones for an answer, but the search became time-consuming and complicated.
“So we made an app,” Van Dyke said. “Now you can say, ‘Here I am. What are the places around me, and how clean are they?’”
The app, originally launched in Georgia, is based on GPS location and is updated weekly.
Each venue receives a letter grade of A, B, C or U for unsatisfactory based on a point system. Violations are worth different amounts of points depending on their severity. Those points are then deducted from 100.
Most restaurants surrounding UF maintain an A to B average.
Some, however, like Tatu Sushi and Mother’s Pub and Grill — both on West University Avenue — received unsatisfactory grades.
Ada Cruz, a 22-year-old UF English major, frequently goes to Tatu for sushi.
“I ate there two days ago, and I was fine,” she said on Wednesday. “But I don’t know. That’s a little concerning.”
Tatu’s manager could not be reached for comment as of press time.
Trevize Nixon, kitchen manager at Mother’s, said the restaurant takes the violations very seriously.
“We actually welcome the health inspector because his point of view is showing us areas that we need to improve on,” Nixon said.
Among the violations, Mother’s is listed as having an accumulation of a black and green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine. They were also reported as storing some meats and produce at unsafe temperatures.
However, Nixon said that all of the violations from the most recent inspection have been fixed.
“It makes restaurants want to improve their quality because this is public information, and it’s more easily available to their consumer,” Cruz said.
A few of those on the A-list include Chipotle Mexican Grill, Karma Cream, Reggae Shack Cafe, Crane Ramen, Dragonfly Sushi and Piesanos Stone Fired Pizza.
Ryan Zachow, general manager at Piesanos, said it’s inexcusable for any restaurant to have a low score.
“I think it’s going to hurt more restaurants than help,” Zachow said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 1/30/2015 under the headline “App shows health inspection ratings of nearby restaurants"]
