A South Beach staple, Einstein’s bagel problems, flies in the onions: failed inspections
Various problems with the baked products at Einstein Bros. Bagels, a restaurant with 265 live roaches and a restaurant that’s survived South Beach attrition are among the highlights of this week’s Sick and Shut Down List.
For newcomers, this is a list of restaurants in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties (the latter being the Florida Keys county) that failed state inspection and were closed until they passed re-inspection.
By the way, can anybody headed for Broward County take some Tupperware, Rubbermaid, Glad plastic containers, $1 aisle plastic containers or just some aluminum foil? As was the case with last week’s Sick and Shut Down List, several Broward restaurants got dinged for food left uncovered, which is pretty unnerving when combined with vermin violations.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. If you see a place you want inspected, don’t email us. Click here and file a complaint. We don’t choose who gets inspected or how strictly. We report without passion or prejudice, but with a breading of humor.
And, we go in alphabetical order:
Betty’s Restaurant & BBQ, 601 NW 22nd Rd., Fort Lauderdale: Betty’s Soul Food Restaurant is listed as also being at this address, but operating out of a mobile unit.
Funny how violations are classified. The two live roaches in dry storage? High Priority violation. The two dead mice on a glue trap in dry storage? Basic violation.
Another Basic problem on the glue trap were the 10 dead roaches.
You’ve got roaches, rodents ... and food stored on the floor. Containers of sauce and mayonnaise.
The dishwasher lacked sanitizing chlorine. The kitchen handwash sink didn’t have a way to dry hands.
Betty’s passed re-inspection on Tuesday.
Bento Asian Kitchen + Sushi, 5570 N. Military Tr., Boca Raton: Flies closed this place, last Wednesday.
Four flies on the prep table (four). A fly on a rubber spatula. Three flies landing inside a flip-top cooler and on a cutting board. Another 14 to 19 flies elsewhere.
There were only two other violations. The handwash sink at the open end of the cookline couldn’t be used for washing hands because it was used for rinsing rice. At the closed end’s handwash sink, there was no way to dry hands.
Bento got it together to pass Thursday’s re-inspection.
Einstein Bros. Bagels, 1499 SE 17th St., Fort Lauderdale: Things you don’t want to see on the inspection report for a place with “Bagels” in the name — “Stored food not covered in walk-in freezer. Observed open box of bagels with ice from condensation from freezer.”
That got a Stop Sale. As did the cookies, danish and croissants used as landing strips by the flies.
Speaking of flies, the inspector saw 46 flies, 25 of which were in the prep area, six flying around the bagel station and five landing on baked pastries on a rack in the kitchen.
With all those flies, you also don’t want to see “Food stored in dry storage area not covered. Cornmeal and sesame containers not covered under prep table.” Yeah, the manager covered them, but would that have happened without the inspector calling attention to it?
Einstein got things together later Thursday to pass re-inspection.
Jerk Machine, 4261 NW 12th St., Lauderhill: This week’s Wayne Gretzky Honor for three failed inspections goes to the Jerk Machine for stinking it up in September with sewage/wastewater; rodents, flies and roaches (with a roach egg sac on the wall) in November; and, Tuesday’s sequel of November’s triple shot of live problems (sans egg sac).
Like most sequels, it wasn’t as strong. Only 35 rodent droppings, including 15 under a prep table in the kitchen, one live roach on a kitchen wall next to that prep table and “five flying insects landing on clean utensils in the kitchen.”
Of course, with rodents running around on the floor, shouldn’t they be more careful about “cases with chicken stored on kitchen floor?”
Otherwise, the Jerk Machine seemed like it could use a wipe down.
“Wall throughout the kitchen soiled with old food residue.” “Interior of microwave soiled with encrusted food debris. Operator cleaned microwave.” “... interior on glass door cooler soiled with old food residue.”
The Jerk Machine got going again after Wednesday.
Super Dragon Chinese Restaurant, 4216 NW 12th St., Lauderhill: In November, Super Dragon was super poopy, the inspector counting over 405 pieces of rodent regularity.
This time, the Super Dragon got that count down to 20. Baby steps.
But they did have flies, which landed on the raw pork on the prep table. That earned the raw pork a Stop Sale.
Also, the can opener blade was “soiled with accumulated old food residue.”
Sum Yum Gai, 1403 Washington Ave., Miami Beach: Let’s start with the roaches in this longtime South Beach choice for Chinese food.
Which bothers you more about the 15 live roaches, the eight on a kitchen shelf or the five in the reach-in freezer gasket? Maybe the later group didn’t want to go in farther, spotting eight dead friends inside the reach-in.
“Interior of reach-in cooler and reach-in freezers soiled with accumulation of food residue.”
The inspector spotted an “accumulation of food debris” in both the three-compartment sink and the warewashing machine. Which brings the question, does that indicate proper use on cookware not properly rinsed or not nearly enough use because that should wash away that food debris?
The inspector returned Tuesday to find another 10 dead roaches and 15 live roaches (or, maybe the same live ones — not like they’re wearing name tags or racing livery) and declared, “The establishment will remain closed until the vermin issue is resolved and a satisfactory recheck is completed.”
Wednesday, they passed inspection enough to reopen, but still have “follow up inspection required.” And that warewashing machine was still yucky.
Taqueria Michoacana, 608 State Road 7, Margate: That’s not taco meat on the wall or shelf over the kitchen prep table.
“Two droppings, one on the wall and one on the shelf located over the prep table in the kitchen.”
Don’t know if they use Heinz 57 ketchup, mustard or steak sauce, but they had 57 live roaches, including eight in the dining room and 15 under a kitchen prep table. The dead body count was 21, with 10 perishing on the floor by the cookline. Six were under a container with onions in the prep area.
Which was better than “10 live flies IN the container of onions in the back prep area.”
We didn’t see a Stop sale for those onions, but did for a family picnic full of food that was supposed to be cooled to 41 degrees, but were anywhere from 46 to 78 degrees: sliced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, shredded chicken, mozzarella, chicken stuffing, cooked pork, sliced ham, cheese, tres leches, flan, salsa, salsa verde, salsa roja, beef soup and chicken soup.
Vermin on the floor and food on the floor, as in a case of lettuce on the kitchen floor and beef soup, vegetable soup and chili soup on the walk-in cooler’s floor.
And, this is Broward, so we’ve got food not covered in the walk-in cooler, sliced radishes.
You know how much gunk is in the little spaces between kitchen appliances and fixtures? “In-use knives stored in cracks between pieces of equipment. Knives between equipment located at three-compartment sink.”
One handwash sink was used for storing paper towels. Another had a case of tortilla chips on it.
“Grease, food residue on shelves in reach-in cooler, next to reach-in freezer in kitchen.”
“Standing water located under flip top make table/reach In cooler in kitchen across from grill.”
This place was back making tacos after passing Tuesday’s re-inspection.
Titie Restaurant & Lounge, 300 W. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale: This is why the three-compartment sinks are supposed to have indirect plumbing.
“Sewage/wastewater backing up through floor drains. Grey water backing up through three-compartment sink in the kitchen. I observed water spreading on kitchen floor area only. Employee walking on rubber mats.”
Next to this, the one live roach in the kitchen seems pretty minor. The inspector didn’t note if the roach was walking or swimming.
Apparently, there’s a Tupperware or aluminum foil shortage in Broward, seeing as how raw beef and pork weren’t covered in the freezer.
Handwashing, that best defense against hepatitis A, doesn’t seem like a big deal at the Titie. The handwash sink was blocked by pots and pans and didn’t have soap or paper towels anyway.
Titie got the break of a same-day re-inspection Thursday and passed it.
The Twisted Fish, 511 NE Fourth St., Boynton Beach: Operating a food truck in the South Florida outdoors frees you to move from place to place daily, not to flout food safety standards.
So, it still matters that the inspector counted 265 live roaches. They get tired of South Florida heat, too, judging by the 60 under the air conditioner and 60 behind the cooler. Others hung around the food, such as the 40 running roaches at the pickup window and 10 on bread and chips.
We didn’t see a Stop Sale for the bread and chips with the live roaches, but did for rolls with mold.
The inspector didn’t find basic elements at the three-compartment sink or the handwash sink. No soap or way to dry hands at the handwash sink, no hot water at either sink. And the handwashing sink drained onto the floor.
But the inspector did see the three-compartment sink had floaters — two dead roaches.
Yummy BBQ, 2350 N. University Dr., Sunrise: BBQ so yummy that we had a Roaches vs. Rodents vs. Flies turf war.
The Rodents marked their territory with eight droppings under a cookline steam table.
Most of the 15 live Roaches, 10 to be exact, massed at the cookline wok station. One tough sucker patrolled a chest freezer. Two of his comrades near the water heater didn’t make it.
You’d think the flies would dominate overhead, but, no, 50 of them clogged the airspace under the three-compartment sink and dishwasher. One went on a reconnaissance mission to the dining area.
Again with the uncovered food! Beef, pork and chicken in the walk-in freezer.
No hot water at the employee handwash sink in the servers station.
Yummy was closed until passing re-inspection Friday.
This story was originally published January 20, 2020 at 1:52 PM.
