Tale of Two Signs: Variety Cafe Closes for “Repairs”
48th St. between 5th and 6th was a madhouse today at lunchtime as shocked (and not so shocked), but mostly confused lunch’ers attempted to eat at Variety Cafe… which has been closed by the Health Department.
The funny thing is, they hung a sign next to the Health Department notice, claiming to be “closed due to improve our service”. The sign went on to implore eaters to “look forward to our updated look and quality service… We will re-open as soon as possible.” Apparently “updated look” will be the Variety Cafe, without a Health Dept. Closed notice on the front.
Apparently the two signs worked on one lady who walked away shaking her head exclaiming “Closed by the Health Department. I just don’t understand…” What’s there to understand lady. It means the big salad you ate last week, probably had more then just the 6 toppings you chose.
Nothing has appeared on the NYC Health Dept. website yet explaining specifics about why Variety Cafe was closed. Their last score was a 7 in 2005 (28 and above is failing).
EDITOR NOTE: We have created a new “Closed for Health Reasons” Category, which given our content, and location will probably have to be used more often then any of us would like. Hing Won, you’ve been warned. (Why are all my favorite places so dirty!)
Posted: 6:23 pm, July 12th, 2006 under 48th btw 5+6th, Closed by Health Dept..
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11 Comments
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John’s Shanghai on 46th b/t 6th and B’way got shut down as well this spring. It’s reopened, but I haven’t had the heart to go back, and it’s two doors down from my building.
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A few weeks ago, I got a picture of one of the employees carrying a fly swatter in his back pocket. Worst part was, he was the employee shuffling food between the kitchen & hot bar.
Disgusting – I guarantee you when we finally get the closure report it had to do with rats and insects.
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I have eaten there once in awhile. But from now on when I go, I will bring in my own food.
It is so crowded no one will ever know anyway. -
OMG yeah it’s sketchy how these places survive but I am faithful based on the high turnover – do you know how many people go in and out of these delis? Damn they must serve several thousand people. I only go to the middle eastern dude in the back anyhow.
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[...] Oh how news spreads fast in the blogsphere. I haven’t personally been down to Variety Cafe for sometime after discovering Duke Cafe on 51st. Check out this post by Midtown Lunch Blog. Yeah I have to say it’s quite a shock to hear about the closure (they are back open now) but I would think most of these delis in the Midtown NY area are safe. Just think of the thousands of people who go in and out of each of the delis each day. Then again I presume all the leftover food gets “reallocated” to the salad bar. I always go to the middle eastern guy in the back of Variety Cafe anyhow. I guess we Midtown Office Workers are creatures of habbit – got to get that mega deli sandwich sushi salad pizza fix every work day. [...]
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http://167.153.150.32/RI/web/detail.do?method=history&restaurantId=41062730
Wow, looks like a nice healthy record of failures for variety.
Mice, flying insects, and cross-contaminated food — who knew?
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[...] Continuing on this theme… Sapporo will also be closed, starting today for “repairs” (whatever that means). I thought maybe they were pulling a “Variety Cafe“- but according to the NYC Health Website Sapporo hasn’t had an inspection since last May. They expect the popular ramen spot to be back open on September 7th. Need a ramen fix between now and then? Try Men Kui Tei on 56th btw. 5+6th or Menchanko-Tei with two locations (one on 55th btw. 5+6th, and one on 45th St. btw. Lex & 3rd Ave.) [...]
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[...] This photo comes from the wonderful Variety Cafe (48th btw. 5+6th), a place I haven’t eaten in since they were shuttered by the DOH last July. Thankfully I have co-workers who drag me to generic delis, so I can experience something like this: [...]
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[...] it up by adding cheese, fried chicken and those fried chinese noodle thingys to it. Once Variety Cafe was closed by the DOH, that was the end of my salad eating days… until [...]
Makes me wonder why they got closed. :)