The name and shame of restaurant inspection disclosure results seems to be working in Sydney and still sucking in Melbourne.
Bills, the trendy Darlinghurst eatery that helped make ricotta hotcakes an inner-city breakfast staple, has become the first upmarket Sydney establishment named on the State Government’s list of restaurants fined for breaching food safety laws (right, actor Hugh Jackman and family headed to breakfast at Bills).
The Liverpool Street restaurant, one of three Sydney eateries owned by the celebrity chef Bill Granger, has been fined $660 for failing to comply with the food safety code.
Just two days after the NSW Food Authority began publishing a register on its website of restaurants caught breaching food laws, a City of Sydney inspector fined Bills for failing to have a thermometer in its refrigerator.
Last night, Bills said in a statement it was "shocked at this isolated incident and we took care of it immediately. … We do everything we can to do the right thing by our customers and to empower our workers to also do the right thing."
Try harder. And pay attention to the basics.