Viand cafe. (Dan Brinzac)
Mayor Bloomberg’s favorite diner didn’t cut the mustard with the city’s Health Department.
Viand Cafe — the Upper East Side eatery where Hizzoner regularly noshes an extra-salty bagel or a juicy burger — was slapped with a dismal 36 violation points in its latest inspection.
If it doesn’t fix the problems over the next couple of months, it could be branded with a dreaded C under the city’s tough new letter grading system.
In that system, C is the worst grade a restaurant can get and remain open for business.
Viand, which normally gets a good rating from city inspectors, recently racked up points for a host of violations, including “evidence of mice,” facility not being sufficiently “vermin-proof,” and letting cold food get too warm, according to the department’s restaurant-ratings Web site.
The diner — on Madison Avenue between 78th and 79th streets — where Bloomberg has wined and dined everyone from Eliot Spitzer to then-Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, earned the dismal score after an Oct. 29 visit from the Health Department.
If it doesn’t improve, the restaurant will be hit with a C grade — given to eateries that have more than 28 violation points — and must post that score in its window for all to see.
“Most of the violations were from a fridge in the kitchen,” Viand manager Angelo Pelengaris said.
He claimed the repairman was at the restaurant when inspectors showed up.
“When they come back, we will get an A. It’s a very clean place,” he said.
Over the summer, Bloomberg said he wouldn’t patronize C-rated restaurants.
Yesterday, when asked if Hizzoner would shun Viand, his spokesman said, “The whole system was designed to avoid a rush to judgement, and that’s just what the mayor will do.”
But other customers were put off by the laundry list of citations.
“The violations definitely bother me. I would want to think the food I order is safe and well looked after. I usually do breakfast or lunch here,” said Carole Cusani, 52, who works next door.
“I don’t know if I’ll come back.”
Randi Weisberg, a retiree who hit the diner after taking in the nearby museums, said she would never eat at a place with bad marks from the Health Department.
“We were looking for the grade before we came in,” she said.
“We won’t come back until they have a good grade.”