Roaches near sushi. Rodents pooping over a food can. Restaurants closed by inspection
Things run in twos this week on the Sick and Shut Down List of South Florida restaurants closed by inspection.
Two counties represented, two counties came off clean. Two failures in Sunny Isles Beach, two in Delray Beach, two in West Palm Beach. Two flies got two dozen bread products tossed at a place with “Twins” in the name.
What follows comes from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. If you see a problem or want a place inspected, don’t email us. Click here and file a complaint. We don’t control who gets inspected or how strictly. We report without passion or prejudice but with a side dish of humor.
In alphabetical order:
Bagel Twins, 5130 Linton Blvd., Delray Beach: Two dozen bialy went basura after two flies landed on them.
That was part of a 47-fly swarm, six of which landed on the food contact surface of the bagel machine, one landed on a cutting board, four in the dining room, nine on the wait station walls and 7 cooling their jets on a walk-in cooler door.
Guess that torn screen door the inspector saw really was a problem, huh?
“Floor/table fan has accumulation of food debris/dust/grease/soil residue. Floors throughout kitchen. Cleaning service called.”
“Accumulation of food debris/grease on food-contact surface. On all pieces of kitchen equipment. Cleaning service contacted.”
How bad is it that the Twins had to call in a cleaning service? Some Lysol and elbow grease can’t knock this out?
The inspector didn’t detail the flies found on Tuesday’s return, but gave the Twins longer to get rid of them. Which they did to the inspector’s satisfaction.
El Tropico Cuban Cuisine, 17020 Collins Ave., Sunny Isles Beach: The inspector saw “15 rodent droppings over a food can at the dry storage room” but didn’t hit the food can itself with a Stop Sale?
El Tropico knows it’s got rodents, but stored cooked pork uncovered in the walk-in and tomato sauce and gallons of milk on the floor.
If utensils are in-use, they’re supposed to be stored in water that’s above 135 degrees. These were stored in 84 degree water. We’ve seen worse, but that’s still lukewarm.
El Tropico passed Wednesday’s re-inspection.
Laborejo, 7800 NW 25th St., Doral: Which bothers you more? Six live roaches in the kitchen next to the stove? Or, three live roaches in the sushi area? Or 25 dead roaches in the kitchen area?
With all that crawling around, what do you not want to see? “Food stored on the floor...walk-in cooler container with carrot, lettuce vegetables on the floor.”
All the reach-in cooler gaskets were “soiled with slimy/mold-like buildup.”
Floor problems proliferated: standing water in the front, “soiled/accumulation of debris” underneath equipment and the unusual “floor not cleaned when the least amount of food is exposed” by the walk-in cooler.
Wash your hands at the kitchen handwashing sink, you’re flapping your arms or using your shirt to dry them.
When the inspector returned on Friday, there was a live roach on the front counter, one in the kitchen and the cutting board was still stained.
Whether the inspector didn’t want to work the weekend or wanted to give Laborejo a shot at being open for the weekend rushes, there was a second re-inspection Friday that Laborejo passed.
Mr. Cobbs BBQ, 3699 NW 135th St., Opa-locka: OK, the bad news is there were over 30 live roaches in the walk-in cooler. The good news is the walk-in doesn’t work, so there wasn’t any food there.
No way to dry hands at any of the handwash sinks and no handwash sink in the BBQ room. When the name of the room is in the name of your restaurant, you probably should have some way to engage in basic foodborne illness prevention.
Orange soda anybody? “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine.” Or not.
Take a long look at the narrow spaces between appliances and counters in your kitchen, then read “In-use knife/knives stored in cracks between pieces of equipment. Located between prep table and cooler.”
Hope they weren’t cutting your ribs.
Some things just scream “cheap mutha (shut yo’ mouth).” Such as no food thermometer.
The fry baskets got Mr. Cobbs dinged for “Food-contact surfaces encrusted with grease and/or soil deposits.”
Standing water in a reach-in cooler, which also had soiled gaskets.
“Cutting board has cut marks and is no longer cleanable.”
“Floor/table fan has accumulation of food debris/dust/grease/soil residue.”
Wednesday’s re-inspection went well enough to get Mr. Cobbs back open, but the inspector will be coming back to check on a few things.
Philly Grill, 14860 S. Military Trail, Delray Beach: They don’t play up in Delray.
On a live roach count of eight — three under a kitchen reach-in cooler, one in the men’s restroom — a dead roach count of four and too little chlorine sanitizer in the three-compartment sink got the Philly Grill closed for the rest of Thursday.
A Friday re-inspection and they were back shoving out cheesesteaks.
Star River Restaurant, 5774 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach: The rodents ran free here, too. Of the 12 pieces of rodent dung, nine were behind a back room freezer.
Four dead roaches.
Another water violation, with the in-use utensil in water that’s only 77 degrees, which is tepid at best and well under the 135 degree threshold.
The handwash sink was blocked by plastic buckets on an aluminum rack.
Star River flowed again after passing a same-day re-inspection.
Thelimon Calix, 1412 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth: Roaches, we get regularly, and Thelimon had 13 live ones, “too many to count dead roaches and egg casings throughout the establishment.”
OK, that’s two demerits. But bad plantains? That’s almost a jailable offense from about Pembroke Pines on south.
Cooked plantains in hot holding measured only 109 degrees. They needed to be at 135 degrees, as did the spaghetti (122 degrees) and legumes (89 degrees). But it was the plantains that the manager voluntarily tossed.
The inspector left the manager no choice on the 5-gallon bucket of cooked spinach that cooled overnight, but not enough to prevent being hit with a Stop Sale.
The kitchen hand sink had flies, but no way to dry hands before the manager put some napkins there.
Remember the roaches? Of course, these folks also stored a box of eggplant on the floor.
Thursday’s re-inspection went more favorably for Thelimon.
Very Crepe, 17026 Collins Ave., Sunny Isles Beach: El Tropico (see above) has rodents. Very Crepe’s next door. What do you think they have, other than five dead roaches by the back door?
Try 17 rodent poop pieces, five on the floor of the bathroom inside the kitchen and two under kitchen shelves.
Very Crepe got things wrapped up by Wednesday’s re-inspection.
