Ypsi Restaurant Inspections Started around WWII

Readers, do you, like me, enjoy reading restaurant inspection reports? Do you experience a frisson of horror to read about egregious violations? Moldy peppers? Drain flies? Slimy ice dispensers? Have you, via reading these reports, internalized all the little rules that must be in force in a restaurant? (cooler at 41 degrees, all food must be dated, sanitizing solution 200 ppm, how to quick-cool hot foods in a pan of ice in cooler).

Here's a gigantic list of recent restaurant inspection reports--choose "inspections" from the left-hand menu and then "Washtenaw" from the drop box. There are some doozies in there. Guess which one is the best of all, with almost no errors? Bill's Coney Dog on Michigan Ave (the li'l yellow shack). I checked it thinking it might be one of the worst--nope, it's tiptop. Another excuse to go there more often and nom down on coney dogs next summer! I ain't gonna say who's the worst, but you can read for yourself (shudder).

But when did it all start? Apparently around 1941. A November 25 Ypsilanti Daily Press story details what sounds like a new effort to examine "sanitary provisions and food serving methods." The article says the examination is "designed to determine how well food-handling facilities are standing up under increased patronage" from workers constructing the Ford bomber plant.

"A complaint charging local restaurants with serving too little food for prices set has been registered with the Board of Commerce by a bomber plant construction worker," notes the article. "The complaint has been referred to the county defense council, and is expected to be discussed at a luncheon meeting of the council in Hotel Huron Friday."