NYC Restaurant Statistics

[Fat Guy]

Does anybody know of an authoritative, independent organization that collects statistics about NYC restaurants, such as how many there are, what their ethnic breakdown is, how they're distributed geographically, etc.? I'm not talking about the survey summary data in Zagat. I'm looking for something more along the lines of a database maintained by the city or state, or an organization that monitors these things.

[elmo]

Internal Revenue System

[abbeynormal]

Internal Revenue System

System?...Oy!

FG: For the number of restaurants try New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Food Safety and Community Sanitation at (212) 676-1600. They should know since they hand out the permits. Whether they'll tell you or not is another matter. As for the rest, why not hire some college kid as an unpaid research assistant? Semi-seriously, the NYC.gov web site is a good place to start for this sort of thing.

Edited September 2, 2003 by abbeynormal (log)

[elmo]

oops. meant Service, although it isnt much of a service.

[reggie_212]

Internal Revenue System

As for the rest, why not hire some college kid as an unpaid research assistant?

Don't child labor laws exist to prevent this possibility?!?!?!? Besides, I doubt there would be many takers for an unpaid internship consisting of going blind counting the restaurant listings in the yellow pages. Although Fat Guy, Inc might look good on the resume of any aspiring investment bankers, hedge fund managers, etc.

[mjc]

Internal Revenue System

As for the rest, why not hire some college kid as an unpaid research assistant?

Don't child labor laws exist to prevent this possibility?!?!?!?

Only if you "hire" the doogie howser type.

[Suzanne F]

You'd be amazed at the kind of projects you can get graduate student to do for little ($10/hour or nothing), if you can arrange for them to get credit. This is the 4th year HWOE has had Research Assistants, and they can do very good work for next to nothing. As long as you approach the right school, and the right program within that school, you CAN find a really sharp kid who probably said "internet" before "mama dada."

Oh, btw: used to be you could work with "working papers" once you hit age 14 or 15. Restrictions did apply, but . . .

Edited September 3, 2003 by Suzanne F (log)

[Pan]

As for the rest, why not hire some college kid as an unpaid research assistant?

Don't child labor laws exist to prevent this possibility?!?!?!?

I see you consider college students children, but the law considers people over 18 to be adults. You knew that, didn't you?

[Suzanne F]

As for the rest, why not hire some college kid as an unpaid research assistant?

Don't child labor laws exist to prevent this possibility?!?!?!?

I see you consider college students children, but the law considers people over 18 to be adults. You knew that, didn't you?

College students ARE children, for the most part.

[tommy]

As for the rest, why not hire some college kid as an unpaid research assistant?

Don't child labor laws exist to prevent this possibility?!?!?!?

I see you consider college students children, but the law considers people over 18 to be adults. You knew that, didn't you?

College students ARE children, for the most part.

not when it comes to labor laws.

[alacarte]

Do any of the trade pubs conduct surveys or other research? (Nation's Restaurant, Restaurant News, Food Arts come to mind) Probably better to seek out the ones that focus on the business angle rather than the culinary angle.

[Suzanne F]

Does anybody know of an authoritative, independent organization that collects statistics about NYC restaurants, such as how many there are, what their ethnic breakdown is, how they're distributed geographically, etc.? I'm not talking about the survey summary data in Zagat. I'm looking for something more along the lines of a database maintained by the city or state, or an organization that monitors these things.

To get back to the original inquiry: Since the NYC Health Department inspects and regulates restaurants before and after opening, they should have raw data. And those data are a matter of public record. Which is not to say that they'd be easy to find. But they're there, somewhere. In fact, that's the kind of information a private firm would get for free under the Freedom of Information Act, then turn around and sell back to the City in a usable form.

So you really would need an intern or RA to locate it and wade through it to make it usable.

[abbeynormal]

Does anybody know of an authoritative, independent organization that collects statistics about NYC restaurants, such as how many there are, what their ethnic breakdown is, how they're distributed geographically, etc.? I'm not talking about the survey summary data in Zagat. I'm looking for something more along the lines of a database maintained by the city or state, or an organization that monitors these things.

To get back to the original inquiry: Since the NYC Health Department inspects and regulates restaurants before and after opening, they should have raw data. And those data are a matter of public record. Which is not to say that they'd be easy to find. But they're there, somewhere. In fact, that's the kind of information a private firm would get for free under the Freedom of Information Act, then turn around and sell back to the City in a usable form.

So you really would need an intern or RA to locate it and wade through it to make it usable.

Uh, Suzanne...you didn't actually read the post where I suggested Steven start off by contacting the city, did you?

Edited September 3, 2003 by abbeynormal (log)

[Suzanne F]

Yes, I did. But I was just restating, because it seemed to have gotten lost in the discussion of whether or not college students are children and are subject to child labor laws. No offense meant to you.