Eateries incorrectly downgraded

The city Environmental Health Department incorrectly downgraded 13 restaurants and other food-serving sites in February and March because of a computer error, the department said.

As a result, 10 of those businesses incorrectly appeared in February and March issues of the Journal’s Business Outlook’s list of downgrades.

Consumer Health Protection Division manager Lorie Stoller said the facilities were in compliance with the city food sanitation ordinance, but were incorrectly downgraded in February and March.

She said she detected the error last week.

“It was incorrect tallying with the computer software … so we went back and regraded everything by hand and those 13 should not have received the downgrade after all and we want to correct it,” she told the Journal on Monday.

The violations reported for the eateries were accurate, Stoller said, but they were incorrectly tabulated. She said it was the first time there had been a problem with the software and that it has been fixed.

In a letter, Stoller said, “The city of Albuquerque Health Department sincerely apologizes for this mistake and any negative impact caused to these food facilities.”

A spokesperson for Chili’s Grill & Bar, one of the wrongly red-tagged restaurants, reported no lost business related to the mistake.

“The downgraded inspection score issued incorrectly by the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department did not stop guests from coming in to enjoy their favorite Chili’s menu items,” the spokesperson said via email.

Here are the restaurants and other locations that should not have been downgraded. The top 10 appeared in the Outlook’s list of downgrades:

♦ Albuquerque Grand Senior Apartments, 1501 Tijeras NE.

♦ Chili’s Grill & Bar, 10021 Coors NW.

♦ Godiva Chocolatier, 6600 Menaul NE.

♦ Harold’s Laundry, 2701 Cutler NE.

♦ IHOP #1550, 5221 Ouray NW.

♦ Imbibe, 3101 Central NE.

♦ Louie’s Pub & Grill, 5603 Menaul NE.

♦ Phillips 66, 1517 Gibson SE.

♦ Salsita Express, 5010 Cutler NE.

♦ Subway #34313, 6200 Montgomery NE.

The city also incorrectly downgraded these three, but the Journal received the corrected list in time to prevent them from being published in Monday’s Outlook:

♦ China Best ABQ Inc., 8201 Golf Course NW.

♦ Sunrise Lotus Group LLC, 9109 Galaxia Way NE.

♦ Vista Sandia Residential Care Inc., 8604 Camino Osito NE.
— This article appeared on page B1 of the Albuquerque Journal