Letter Grades for Restaurants--Pass or Fail  By Andrew Knowlton
Dear BA Foodist,  I'm originally from California, and I recently
read that my new hometown of New York will require restaurants
to display letter grades like the ones I was used to seeing in
restaurant windows back west. What do the letter grades mean,
and how much cleaner can I expect the restaurants to be?
Clarissa Long, New York  Dear Clarissa,  Letter grades in
restaurant windows are becoming more popular. Shame a restaurant
by exposing its dirty laundry, the thinking goes, and it'll
quickly clean up its act. I know lots of friends and colleagues
in California who will eat only at restaurants with an A in the
window. They'll go to a B spot as a last resort. What about a C?
No way. But when I ask them what the letter grades mean in terms
of violations, no one has any idea. Without getting into it too
deeply, the world of restaurant health codes and inspections is
confusing and often mired in politics. And in practice, rules
are sometimes ign