Posted: July 28th, 2010 - 12:46pm by Doug Powell

A small deli in Long Island City, Queens, will go down in local history as being the first business to earn a Grade A from the city's health department, which implemented its new restaurant inspection grading system on Tuesday.

Crain’s New York Business (photo from Crain's) reports the agency is holding a press conference Wednesday morning at Spark's Deli on 2831 Borden Ave., where health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley will laud the small business's accomplishment.

Co-owner Jose Araujo said,

“We serve a lot of hard-working people, construction crews and mechanics. And now they'll know for sure that I provide good food. … We've done well in past inspections. There's always something to fix or be done better, but we've never failed an inspection.”

On Tuesday an inspector visited his business, awarding him with a score of 10.

According to the new letter grading system, in which restaurants receive either an A, B or C grade (or fail the inspection altogether), a score of 0 to 13 qualifies as an A.

Other restaurants were inspected on Tuesday and earned A's, but Spark's was the first, according to health department officials.