Roaches running at Wendy’s. Rodent poop on a prep table. Bugs in flour. Inspection fails
The Sick and Shut Down List of South Florida restaurants that failed state inspection returns after a few weeks of technical difficulties with a list of nine restaurants from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
We’ve got a variety of restaurants and violations that got restaurants shut down for at least a day.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. We don’t control how strictly restaurants get inspected. If we see a problem while we’re out and about — say, a popular South Florida chain’s worker coming out of a stall, sneezing a few times, then taking two seconds to wash his hands, laughing when we suggest he go a little longer, then going into the kitchen after leaving the restroom — we might mention it to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
We report without passion or prejudice - but with a side order of humor.
In alphabetical order:
Aerojuice, 1179 S. Federal Hwy., Boca Raton — Which is worse? Two live roaches under a prep table or eight live roaches in a dishwashing area? The inspector saw both Friday. Five dead roaches behind chest freezers obviously gets the lowest spot on the podium.
Considering the roach count, “takeout containers and cups on the floor in dry storage,” “plastic water bottles on floor in front counter area” and “juice on floor in dry storage area” aren’t just your basic Basic violations.
This is a common Intermediate violation we don’t note often, but is a little jarring: “Certified Food Manager or person in charge lacks knowledge of foodborne illnesses and symptoms of illness that would prevent an employee from working with food, clean equipment and utensils, and single-service items. “
The Juice got back open after Saturday’s re-inspection.
Al Reef Hookah & Grill, 99 SE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton — “More than 25 flies through kitchen and landing on equipment, prep tables and cutting board.”
“Employee handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands. — handling meats, sauces, pita bread.”
Then again, there was no soap or no way to dry hands at the handwashing sink, which they couldn’t use anyway because of “soiled pots and pans covering handwash sink.”
The inspector also saw, “Food in contact with a surface that was contaminated and not cleaned and sanitized before use. Prep tables, cutting boards and counters have built up decomposed food residues and are used for thawing and storing foods.”
What’s worse than stuff being dirty? Maybe when that filth is frozen into place? “Interior of reach-in cooler soiled with accumulation of food residue. Reach-in coolers and reach-in freezer — all frozen solid.”
And, apparently, the person in charge didn’t know much. “Person in charge unable to answer basic Food Code questions pertaining to safe operation of establishment — basic hot or cold temperatures, thawing, and storage questions” and “Certified Food Manager or person in charge lacks knowledge of foodborne illnesses and symptoms of illness that would prevent an employee from working with food, clean equipment and utensils, and single-service items.”
That explains why raw chicken breasts and beef loin were thawing on the same plate at room temperature, a double no-no. They need to be segregated and thawed in a cooler, refrigerator or microwave.
“Pesticide/insecticide labeled for household use only present in establishment.” Raid’s fine for your home kitchen but not for a restaurant.
Al Reef partially passed Friday’s re-inspection, getting “time extended” to deal with its most persistent problems.
Basilic Vietnamese Grill, 200 S. Federal Hwy., Boca Raton — Water leaking into the wait station was “dripping onto cups, a spoon, a container of sugar, a scoop , a can opener, and a soda box. Observed second leak in wait station area by microwave and chip storage area.
“Leak in pathway area can not be avoided by servers walking with plated food.”
But setting the tone of basic cleaning failures, which led to several Basic violations for Basilic, was “Soil residue in food storage containers. Lemons stored in dirty container at walk-in cooler.”
The inspector piled all these under one Basic violation for “soil residue built up on nonfood contact surface:” Top of dishwasher; outside of chest freezer; dry storage shelving units; outside of microwave; shelving units by the dishwasher; walk-in cooler’s exterior, door and door handle (“heavily soiled”); cookline coolers and chest freezer gaskets; cookline cooler door handles; freezer gaskets; candy stove; wait station shelves; dry storage freezers (“heavily soiled); slicer...
Grab a broom, people. “Broken glass at glass door cooler in bar.”
When the inspector returned Friday, the problems weren’t corrected. Basilic got “time extension.”
El Pueblo Chapin, 1409 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth — “Fifteen-plus live roaches under wire rack shelve and flip top cooler near walk in cooler and stairs..”
Stop Sales got dropped on cooked beef, cooked chicken and pasta salad for temperature abuse.
And there seemed to be some handwashing problems.
“Hot water not provided/shut off at employee handwash sink. Hot water turned off at hand sink in restroom.”
“Handwash sink removed from food preparation/dishwashing area. Must be reinstalled in the same location where removed. No hand sink near three compartment sink.”
El Santo Coyote, 26115 S. Dixie Hwy., Homestead — Roadrunners (Swiftus Chapparalus) didn’t run at The Coyote (Inspector Disappointus). But the rodents did.
“Observed approximately six rodent droppings on preparation table at kitchen entrance, underneath the coffee machine. Observed approximately three rodent droppings at AC unit closet door and underneath AC unit. AC closet is separated from the kitchen.”
Well, surely the rodents will respect that separation.
What El Santo didn’t respect are the rules for food storage temperature. Maybe they couldn’t with a walk-in cooler only able to get down to 60 degrees.
So, a summer rain of Stop Sales came down on cooked potatoes, cooked beef, raw beef, raw porl, raw fish, seafood cream, baked peppers, flan and cooked beans.
Want a Coke? Sprite? “Soda gun soiled.”
We close with a little yucky laziness. “In-use tongs stored on garbage can between uses.”
El Santo passed Tuesday’s re-inspection.
Jade Garden Restaurant, 244 S. University Dr., Plantation — Here, we start with a pair of Stop Sales. Dried shrimp and cooked mushrooms each had “mold-like substance.”
Also getting hit with a Stop Sale was roast duck, not properly cooled after an overnight stay in the refrigerator. That’s not the same as the “cooked ducks not covered in walk-in freezer.”
Things weren’t pretty Tuesday in the Garden.
Take those eight live roaches, six of which were “over clean utensils on dish drainer by dishwasher.” Or the “one dead roach floating in water at the bottom of dishes by dishwasher.”
“Employee touching ready-to-eat food with their bare hands.” A different employee (we think) “dried hands on soiled towel and started to cook. Employee rewashed hands and dried properly.”
“Frigidaire reach-in cooler interior soiled. Observed all reach-in cooler interiors soiled.” Another problem with the reach-in cooler by the steam table was a temperature of 52 degrees, a problem if you’re supposed to be housing food needing to be kept under 41 degrees.
“Can opener with grease and old food build up.”
Thursday’s re-inspection didn’t go much better. Did they think the inspector would suddenly catch filth blindness before the re-inspection?
Not only did you have “seven live roaches over clean knives and forks on dish drainer by dishwasher,” but “one dead bug in container with flour.”
“Can opener still soiled.” “All gaskets still soiled. All shelves under prep table still soiled. Hood filter still soiled. Build up of grease still observed.”
The too-warm reach-in cooler was even warmer, 58 degrees.
Jade got the green light to re-open after Friday’s re-re-inspection.
Jimmys Diner, 11045 NW Seventh Ave., North Miami-Dade — Not to be confused with the “Moonlight” Jimmy’s East Side Diner on Biscayne Boulevard and not related, as far as we know.
Of the over 24 live roaches seen scurrying around six were inside a reach-in cooler and at least 10 were on the kitchen floor underneath a cookline reach-in cooler. Another six dead roaches, three inside the reach-in cooler. The inspector saw 10 pieces of roach poop on the top of the reach-in cooler located in dry storage by the office.
If you dined in at Jimmys before this inspection, you might want to know “food-contact surfaces not sanitized after cleaning, before use. . . . Observed employee washing dishes inside dishwasher machine with chlorine zero parts per million.”
Also re: the dishwasher: “Accumulation of lime scale on the inside of the dishmachine.”
Turkey bacon’s like the non-alcoholic beer of bacon — what’s the point? — but it’s still a shame to see it get hit with a Stop Sale along with raw shrimp and turkey slices for being way too warm in a reach-in cooler after a day’s storage.
Inside a cookline reach-in cooler, the inspector saw “a mold-like substance.”
“Encrusted material on can opener blade. Observed accumulation of old food debris on an opener.” Wipe it down once in a while, sheesh.
“Observed accumulation of dust and debris on kitchen ceiling vents.” That’s just what you want blowing into the air over your food preparation area.
When the inspector came back on Tuesday, more than five roaches crawling inside the wood wall crevices behind the kitchen reach-in cooler and more than two in the reach-in cooler gaskets. More than three dead roaches in the front area helped Jimmys fail the re-inspection.
Jimmys passed the third re-inspection on Wednesday.
Nikudo Japanese Buffet, 18812 S. Dixie Hwy., Cutler Bay — Where to start with the whopping 48 total violations from Wednesday? Let’s start with the most obvious concern at a buffet.
“Displayed food not properly protected from contamination...desserts and chips on buffet line not protected...at dessert station, chocolate fountain not protected from public.”
Now, let’s go to the piles of food higher than mountains near Nagano bombed by Stop Sales because none of the coolers — walk-in, reach-ins at the sushi bar, kitchen, cookline, hibachi station — were cold enough. And these are not foods you want to play with out of temperature: raw chicken, cut lettuce, raw beef, raw chicken, raw shrimp, pooled eggs, marinated chicken, chicken wings, popcorn shrimp, cooked noodles, krab salad, raw beef, marinated beef, cut lettuce, pasta salad, cut tomatoes and egg salad.
Oh, and nobody knew how long the sushi rice had been there. That got tossed, too.
On the buffet line, the cooked swai fish, cooked steak and cooked chicken breast were way below 135 degrees, but didn’t get hit with Stop Sales.
Back in the kitchen, “...soiled reach-in cooler by kitchen door...soiled ice bin...soiled white cutting board.” “Soiled gasket at hibachi station reach-in cooler...soiled reach-in cooler handles in kitchen...mold on front counter cooler at sushi bar.”
A handwash sink was blocked by a hand cart. It’s unclear if this was the same handwash sink used to store steel wool. Or, if it was the kitchen handwash sink into which an equipment drain line was draining.
“Open gas tank with gas in storage room.”
“Standing water by warewashing area.” “Employee with no hair restraint while engaging in food preparation.”
Give Nikudo credit for getting it together in time to pass Thursday’s re-inspection.
Wendy’s, 943 W. State Rd. 84, Fort Lauderdale — Again, what’s most bothersome to you? The half-and-half at the coffee station that was at 70 degrees near room temperature? The inspector dropped a Stop Sale on that before it curdled somebody’s insides.
Or was it the 20 live roaches, three of which were on the prep table by the walk-in cooler, nine of which were under the prep sink by the walk-in cooler and two on the exterior of the prep sink by the walk-in cooler?
The inspector saw a roach crawling on the prep table. “Roach was killed, area was clean and sanitized,” the inspection says, but when something is killed in the presence of the inspector, you’ve probably failed the inspection. The rest is just making things official.
Also, if you’re a hamburger place that plays up the fact that you don’t use frozen burger meat, you might want to keep your raw burger meat patties at a proper temperature. This place didn’t. The inspector let the manager put the raw burger patties that were at 44 to 46 degrees in the walk-in cooler (yeah, the one the roaches were hanging around) for a quick chill.
This Wendy’s was back pushing beef after passing Friday’s re-inspection.
This story was originally published August 5, 2019 at 1:09 PM with the headline "Roaches running at Wendy’s. Rodent poop on a prep table. Bugs in flour. Inspection fails."
