Critics worry anything less than a perfect health rating will hurt a restaurant’s financial bottom line. But, nonetheless, it appears Baltimore will join a long list of cities already posting health ratings in restaurant windows.

Eat out in New York City and you can’t miss the letter grade posted prominently in restaurant windows. Soon, similar reports will be posted right in the window of every Baltimore restaurant, food truck and grocery store.

But instead of an “A,” “B” or “C” grade, Baltimore’s proposed new regulations would label a restaurant’s health ratings as “Excellent,” “Good” or “Fair.”

Dr. Leana Wen is the head of the city’s health department.

Valcourt: “Why is posting a restaurant’s health rating in a window so important?”

Wen: “It will give an additional incentive to restaurants to try even harder to make sure that they’re doing everything possible to be safe and healthy.”

“To characterize one restaurant as slightly better than another–that seems a bit unfair to me,” said Gino Cardinale, City Cafe owner.

Cardinale runs Mount Vernon’s popular City Cafe. He says most restaurants like his have nothing to fear from the ratings, but echoes concerns expressed by the Maryland Restaurant Association, which says the new ratings system may unfairly portray well-run restaurants as less than perfect.

Uh-huh.