Olympia, WA Public Health Rules: Restaurant Grade Cards (2026)

The City of Olympia, in Thurston County, Washington, regulates restaurants through Chapter 8.08 of the Olympia Municipal Code. The text is short because the city adopted a national model instead of writing its own inspection manual. Section 8.08.010 says the inspection, grading, regrading, and placarding of eating and drinking establishments within the city, or its police jurisdiction, together with the issuing, suspension, and revocation of operating permits, follow the unabridged form of the 1943 Edition of the U. S. Public Health Service Ordinance Regulating Eating and Drinking Establishments. Three certified copies of that model are kept on file in the office of the city clerk-treasurer.

The Olympia City Council changed the model in several printed ways. The model's blank "city of" wording is read to refer to Olympia. All parentheses that enclose words referring to grading are deleted, so the grading language is operative text rather than an optional bracket. Sections 7, 12 and 13 of the model are replaced by OMC 8.08.020, 8.08.060 and 8.08.050. Itinerant restaurants must also secure a permit. The chapter adds a definition of "operator" that covers every person, firm, or corporation conducting the business of a restaurant, whether or not that person owns the premises, and it widens "employee" to mean anyone working in a restaurant, the operator included, who handles food or drink, touches eating or cooking utensils, or is employed in a room where food or drink is prepared or served, paid or unpaid.

Section 8.08.020 sets the grade requirement. No restaurant is operated within the city or its police jurisdiction except a grade A, grade B, or approved itinerant restaurant. When a restaurant fails to qualify for any of those grades, the health officer is authorized to suspend the permit or, in lieu of suspension, to degrade the restaurant and permit its operation for a temporary period not exceeding thirty days. Section 8.08.040 lets the board of health of the city modify the chapter for the duration of a local emergency. The chapter dates from Ordinance 2455 of 1944, so the 1943 model text is the baseline Olympia operators are measured against.