Questions and answers
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$149/month per territory. 14-day free trial, no card.Where does the data come from?
City health departments and license offices: Chicago CDPH food inspections, Chicago BACP business licenses, and NYC Health restaurant and rodent inspections. Owner names in New York City come from NYC PLUTO. Each line links to the government record.
Does violation 38 mean the place has pests?
No. In the Chicago records we counted, pests were noted at 67 of the 148 places with a violation 38 write-up. Most of the rest were door gaps, proofing or a missing pest-control log book, and some were other things, such as a fly trap hung over a prep table. We label each one.
How accurate is it?
We print what the record says, with the inspector's words, and link the record. Before a list is published, every finding is compared with the saved government record, and a run with any mismatch is not published. City records do contain typos, and we show them as the city wrote them.
Is it legal to use these records for sales?
They are public records. Chicago and New York City publish them as is, with no ban on commercial use, and Chicago requires the disclaimer that is in our footer. We contact no one for you. If you email prospects, CAN-SPAM applies to business email too. Not legal advice.
How fresh is it?
Records post late: a Chicago violation 38 write-up can appear days or weeks after the inspection, and NYC rat inspections arrive in batches. So each Monday list covers the newest complete week that ended at least a week before.
Which areas do you cover?
The City of Chicago and New York City's five boroughs. No suburbs, New Jersey or Long Island yet. If your shop sits just outside the city, look up the city ZIP codes you service. Elsewhere, leave your email and we'll tell you when your area is in.
Do you give contacts?
NYC restaurant records include the business phone, and we show it. Chicago records have no phone; we show the license holder's company name when a second field in the record agrees. We never print a person's name or a homeowner.
Will chains show up?
Yes. Chain locations are marked "national account" and ranked lower, so independent businesses tend to come first. A chain with pests noted can still rank above a quieter record.
Will my own customers show up?
If the city writes one up, yes. You hear about it from the record, not from the customer.
What does it cost?
$149/month per territory. Founding firms pay $79/month for 12 months. The trial is 14 days free with no card.
Can I cancel?
Yes, any time. The trial takes no card, so nothing is charged when it ends. A paid plan runs month to month, with no contract.
What happens when the trial ends?
Nothing is charged, because we never took a card. Your feed on the web, with past weeks, stays readable. Paid plans aren't open yet, so for now your Monday email and CSV export keep working after the trial; once they open, an unpaid trial's Monday email stops and export locks.
How big is a territory?
A circle around your shop (1, 2, 3, 5 or 10 miles) or a set of ZIP codes, inside Chicago or New York City. The Monday email shows the top records, ranked; the web list and the CSV have every record in the area.
Will I look like I'm chasing a citation?
You choose who to call. Chicago lines show whether the inspection was a Pass or a Fail, and a line shows a later inspection that didn't repeat the citation when one has posted, so you can skip places that already fixed it. Chain locations are marked national account. A new license is a business just starting out, so the talk is about prevention. You never have to mention the record: you can simply offer an inspection. In an independent re-check, 37 of 37 sampled findings matched the live city records.
Is my territory exclusive?
No. Another firm can watch the same ZIP codes. The records are public, so anyone can look them up.
Source: City of Chicago, all ZIP codes, counted by the pestcite engine from city records, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026; data as of Nov 8, 2026. Records: Food Inspections, Business Licenses. How we count
Source: A separate check, with code that shares nothing with our engine, of sampled findings from that day's run against the live city records, Nov 6, 2026. Records: Food Inspections, Business Licenses, DOHMH New York City Restaurant Inspection Results, Rodent Inspection. How we count