A Dunkin’ Donuts, a Wendy’s and a Pollo Tropical among 9 restaurants failing inspection
Not saying the roaches took the week off from South Florida’s restaurants. They just didn’t bring the volume found in 169 flies or 123 pieces of rodent poop.
Or, one kitchen employee not washing their hands after using the restroom (we can all agree one counts as high volume).
Welcome to the Sick and Shut Down List, packed with vermin and, this week, chain restaurants from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. The Keys got off clean again.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. A restaurant that fails inspection remains closed until passing re-inspection. If you see a problem and want a place inspected, don’t email us. Go to the Florida DBPR website and file a complaint.
We don’t control who gets inspected nor how strictly the inspector inspects. We don’t include all violations, just the most moving, whether internally or literally moving (because it’s alive or once was alive). We report without passion or prejudice, but with a doggy bag of humor.
In alphabetical order:
Aroma Indian Cuisine, 731 Village Blvd., West Palm Beach: The inspector counted 47 rodent droppings on the floor and shelves. In the air and on clean plates, the flying insect count reached eight.
“Encrusted material on can opener blade.”
Aroma didn’t stink it up on Wednesday’s re-inspection.
Beach Pizza, 3009 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale: Those dark spots weren’t the spots of 101 dalmatians or even 101 pieces of sausage, but 101 pieces of rodent dung. And, like so much in South Florida, you have to check out location, location, location.
Such as, 30 on the floor in an “area where pizza boxes and other supplies are kept.” Or, another 30 on the floor of an office/prep room “where plugged-in slicer, the prep table for the slicer and a chest freezer are stored.” Or, one on the leg of a mixer in the kitchen. Or, another 30 on the front counter shelf with the cash register.
Why do the rodents running free always seem to go with violations such as “a case of raw chicken and a bag of onions on the floor in the walk-in cooler.”
Bathroom located inside establishment not completely enclosed with tight-fitting, self-closing doors.
Beach pizza was serving for the weekend after passing Friday’s re-inspection.
Dunkin’ Donuts, 18801 NW Second Ave., Miami Gardens: Let’s give a Sick and Shut Down List welcome back to the Dunkin’ Donuts location that clearly could give two clucks to a duck about flies sitting and who-knows-what-else on the donuts they want you to buy.
Flies-on-donuts caused an inspection fail in July 2019. Swarming flies on a donut tray got them again in September.
Tuesday, of the 19 flies the inspector saw, two of them used an uncovered tray of donuts for landings and takeoffs. That brought down a massive Stop Sale on the whole tray of cop snacks.
Tuesday’s inspection oxymoron goes “Observed a clean food tray that has a build up of food debris.”
“Interior of front reach-in cooler soiled with accumulation of food residue” and a dead insect.
“Observed exterior of donut holding units has food debris.” In September, we called that “weak.” Now, we’ll progress to “lazy.”
“Interior of front reach-in cooler soiled with accumulation of food residue.”
Dunkin’ limited the holes in its cleanliness to Tuesday and passed Wednesday’s re-inspection.
Grecia Enterprises, 3600 W. Commercial Blvd., Lauderdale Lakes: Here’s this week’s Sick and Shut Down List Gretzky Award winner, a restaurant that came up small and dirty on a hat trick of inspections.
In addition to the 15 live roaches, 13 dead roaches, one dead cricket. and 26 “small, flying insects” zipping around the place, there were “three gnats observed in chocolate dipping sauce next to milkshake machine.”
Stop Sales hit the chocolate dipping sauce.
“Panini press encrusted with old food.”
“Interior of reach-in freezer soiled with accumulation of food residue and frozen over layers of ice.”
“Slicer blade guard soiled with old food debris.”
“Floor soiled with built up food debris of ice cream toppings.”
“In-use utensil used with moist food stored in running water with insufficient velocity to flush food particles away.”
They failed two re-inspections, staying closed over the Thanksgiving weekend, before passing on Wednesday.
Hollywood Hoagies, 1920 Tyler St., Hollywood: Not much handwashing in the employee restroom, seeing as how there was a “leaf blower sitting on hand wash sink in employee restroom.”
That’s the one place you’d kind of want that handwash sink clear for use.
“Container of cooked pasta and container of breaded chicken in upright glass front cooler with no date marking.” The manager said they’d been there two days, but, who knows?
Maybe the six live roaches in the restaurant knew.
Stop Sales hit some damaged eggs. As for the cooking of eggs, the inspector saw the cook fail to wash hands and change gloves after cracking raw eggs. You probably don’t do that at home. You also probably don’t have the public eating what’s coming out of your kitchen.
After failing a re-inspection, Hollywood came correct the third time.
Hook Fish & Chicken, 6201 W. Sunrise Blvd., Sunrise: The six pieces of rodent poop hinted there might be a furry, four-legged problem.
The “one dead rodent in a trap” confirmed it.
Walk-in cooler shelves soiled with rust and encrusted food debris.
The Hook passed a same day re-inspection. Because, surely, the rodent poop came from that one dead rodent.
Pollo Tropical, 2635 Weston Blvd., Weston: The inspector found only three violations. But one of those violations came in 123 pieces of rodent regularity.
That includes “50 rodent droppings under the front counter where canned sodas, ketchup and register tapes are kept in front of the steam table” and “10 droppings under the drive-thru’s cash drawer shelf, where single service containers are held” and “over 20 rodent droppings on cases of syrups used to make soda next to the ice machine in the prep area...”
Pollo either got rid of the rodents or laced food with immodium to pass re-inspection on Tuesday.
Tucker Dukes, 1658 N. Federal Hwy., Boca Raton: No soap at the bar handwashing sink. No way to dry your hands at the dishwasher handwashing sink.
Plenty of flies, though, about 67, including 15 on a clean glass rack at the bar’s triple sink. And “ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents soiled with mold-like substance” in the dishwashing area.
Tucker Dukes failed two re-inspections on Tuesday before passing to get back open on Wednesday.
Wendy’s, 1532 NE 163rd St., North Miami Beach: “Employee used the bathroom and then engaged in food preparation, handled clean equipment or utensils, or touched unwrapped single-service items without washing hands upon returning to employee area.
“Observed kitchen employee coming from the bathroom, entered the kitchen and began to serve food at the drive thru window. No hand wash.”
Two flies and a Stop Sale landed on the bacon in a hot holding unit while another 167 flies zipped around the restaurant, 100 of which were “on the ceiling tiles in the dining areas, at the front counter wood frame and mobile app sign.”
“Interior of reach-in cooler at the front counter is soiled with accumulation of food residue.”
Wendy’s came correct on Wednesday’s re-inspection.
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 1:19 PM.
