Owner Doubts Authenticity
Of Images; Insists Place Is Clean
By Odelia Bitton
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
WILLIAMSBURG — The time-honored Peter Luger Steakhouse in Williamsburg is disputing the truth of a rodent problem, after Inside Edition this week aired footage of rats scurrying though the recently renovated restaurant.
The popular syndicated newsmagazine has conducted a months-long, extensive investigation into restaurants across the country as part of their “Rat Patrol” series. This summer, they took to 22 of the city’s most popular restaurants, including the legendary Peter Luger among other celebrity and tourist hotspots, and uncovered rats feasting in the wee-morning hours in restaurants across the city.
An Inside Edition cameraman pointed his lens and flashlight into the window of Peter Luger at 178 Broadway, and on two separate nights apparently digitally recorded rats frolicking in the kitchen. These images have been posted online as well as having been aired on TV.
But Marilyn Spiera, president of Peter Luger Inc., isn’t convinced. “It doesn’t look like our place,” she said. The footage, said to have been taken sometime between 1 and 4 a.m., is largely obscured. But the “brand new” stainless steel kitchen, where the camera focuses, is illuminated. “I don’t see the waiter stand [where the waiters congregate] outside the kitchen,” Spiera said.
Soon afterward, Spiera was visited by an investigator from Inside Edition, who showed her the footage. “He didn’t want to hear anything good,” Spiera said about her visitor, calling him a “scandal monger.”
Peter Luger Steakhouse, which boasts a Zagat rating as New York’s number one steakhouse for 23 years in a row, celebrates its 120th anniversary this year. Spiera says that the place has only been improving over the years. The restaurant underwent extensive renovations three years ago, she said, and is currently undergoing more minor renovations.
Spiera insisted that her business keeps the bar high. She noted that there is a large cleanup crew that works overnight. She also noted that an exterminator, sticky traps and cage-based squirrel traps help to keep the problem in check.
“I wouldn’t say that we have never had anything, but it’s not in our control,” she said. “It’s possible for this to happen any place,” because “no building is a closed system,” she said, noting the drains in the restaurant that run through the street.
Even the mayor’s house and fancy hotels can’t escape the pest problem, Spiera said.
Spiera will endure the current publicity. “It leaves a bad taste, but people who know us know we have a clean place. It’s as clean as anybody’s home, and we try to keep it that way.”
A Health Department spokesperson said, “Rodents are an unfortunate fact of city life. Although there has been progress, restaurants need to do more.“
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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