TwitterLady Gaga's father Joe Germanotta took to Twitter last week to express his frustrations after his Manhattan eatery, Joanne Trattoria, lost its A rating due to various health code violations—which Germanotta himself helpfully listed.
The biggest violation—or at least the one that docked his place the most points out of a 100—was a 7-point wrist slap for having a "bad potato in a storage bin," according to Papa Gaga, "that shifted us from an A to a B or Grade Pending, inspector said it was our choice [which to display]."
"Seems a little harsh," he added.
Germanotta first tweeted last Wednesday following the health inspector's visit: "Great story of NYC making progress, money and corruption. We had a bad potato in a bin with 40 good potatoes."
"It wasn't being served to a customer, it was raw, and when the inspector pointed it out we threw it away. How many bad veggies do you toss?" he added. "I'm sure Bloomberg should toss more than 1 a day."
In addition to name-checking the inspector and posting the badge and phone numbers of others from the Health Department that he spoke to, Germanotta sought to clarify the violations: The potato wasn't going to be served, a potato peeler left out was being cleaned, a sink they use as a water station was misidentified by inspectors as a hand-washing station and tagged for not being properly labeled, etc.
All violations were doled out 40 minutes after the kitchen had closed and they were in the process of cleaning up, Germanotta wrote.
"What do you think? Post your messages to Mike Bloomberg, the root cause," he asked of his Twitter followers, adding, "Sorry guys and gals, Mister G is angry."
But Germanotta hadn't lost his sense of humor, retweeting the following from a fan on Thursday: "@germanottajoe Just be glad Gaga wasn't in there wearing her meat dress. Lol. Trying to give you a little humor there. They are BULLIES!"
He returned to his bully pulpit on Twitter today, however, writing, "Here is the filthy thermometer used by the health inspector. Nice," along with a pic of said device.
There's been no additional word from his daughter, whose namesake wine is proudly mentioned on the Joanne Trattoria homepage.