The Independent Café

• gradeGrade A
• inspection score9 pts
• critical violations1
• last inspectedSeptember 22, 2026 →
• address61 West 62 Street, Manhattan 10023
• cuisineAmerican
• phone2128755263

Is The Independent Café clean?

The Independent Café is currently Grade A from NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), from an inspection on September 22, 2026. Inspectors wrote up 1 critical violation — the kind most directly linked to foodborne illness. On Cooked's ladder that reads clean 😇.

What did inspectors find at The Independent Café?

These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on September 22, 2026, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.

• 🍽️dishwashing setup off
  Single service article not provided. Single service article reused or not protected from contamination when transported, stored, dispensed. Drinking straws not completely enclosed in wrapper or dispensed from a sanitary device.
• 🍽️food left out / unprotectedcritical
  Food, supplies, or equipment not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display, service or from customer’s refillable, reusable container. Condiments not in single-service containers or dispensed directly by the vendor.

When was The Independent Café last inspected?

The Independent Café has 4 inspections on record going back to August 2, 2023, averaging 21 points.

Graded visits shown below · newest first · tap a date for the record

The Independent Café vs Lincoln Square

Lincoln Square runs 86% clean across 225 tracked restaurants — 173 clean, 6 mid, 23 cooked.

Against the 225 spots Cooked tracks in Lincoln Square, this one comes out cleaner than 64% of them.

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See every restaurant inspection in Lincoln Square →

How New York grades restaurants

New York City health inspectors score violations in points, and lower is better: 0–13 points earns an A, 14–27 a B, and 28 or more a C. Every restaurant is inspected at least once a year, and the letter has to be posted in the window. A restaurant that scores 14 or more on the first inspection of a cycle does not get a letter right away — it stays “Grade Pending” until a re-inspection settles it, which is why some spots here show an hourglass instead of a letter. Cooked only ever shows a letter the city actually posted; we never infer one from a score.

Read the New York ratings guide →

Inspection findings and available history come from the authority’s published records. Cooked checks daily; publication can lag behind an inspection. Read the date on each result and check the official source for newer information.

Source: NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) via NYC Open Data. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated September 22, 2026. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.

check your own block 📸

Cooked covers 10 cities on official inspection data — see who's clean, mid, or cooked near you.