A Domino’s Pizza. A live dog. A dead rodent. Elements of restaurant inspection fails
Looking at this week’s Sick and Shut Down List, you might question why dogs aren’t allowed in restaurants, but you really should ask why cats aren’t all but required. Some of the furry vermin can get really cocky.
Three of the four South Florida counties we check are represented on this week’s list. Everybody’s got holiday stuff to do, so let’s tarry no longer.
Boiler plate: 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 side dish of humor.
And we go in alphabetical order:
Domino’s Pizza, 900 S. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale: Though nobody goes to a Domino’s to stay, you still need at least one working Porcelain Reading Room.
“The only restroom in establishment, the toilet has been removed from plumbing due to tile work. Employees use restrooms at nearby establishments if needed.”
The inspector also noticed “In area by office and entrance to kitchen, observed exposed concrete due to installation of new tile flooring.’
The inspector passed this Domino’s on the re-inspection despite that last problem remaining.
King Fish Wave, 1351 SW First St., Miami: Whoa, there, King Fish, over 40 rodent pellets will get you closed, especially if “20-plus rodent droppings were on the floor underneath shelves with bags of rice.”
The furry critters probably got in through the hole in the ceiling or the one in the wall.
Did you know restaurants’ restrooms are supposed to have “tight-fitting, self-closing doors” and a “covered waste receptacle?” Well, they are, and this place didn’t.
Diners could ride The Wave again after it passed re-inspection on Thursday.
Rhum Shak, 802 Lake Ave., Lake Worth: A restaurant is not a home. So, inspectors don’t want to see a “Large German Sheppard dog on indoor premises by the bar” unless it’s attached to someone who really needs that dog.
And they really hate to see “dead rodent present. On the floor in between two gnawed sheetrock drywall panels by the bag in the box soda station at the indoor bar.”
(That’s a Basic violation. The four pieces of rodent poo near the rodent, who apparently died from pushing too hard? High Priority violation. Yeah, we don’t get it either.)
Food safety guidelines say food should be either cooled for storage under 41 degrees or kept warm over 135 degrees. A storm of Stop Sales rained on all this food with temperatures in the 50s: grilled onions and peppers; marinara sauce; provolone cheese; shredded cheese; salsa; cooked ribs; and meatloaf.
Want ice in that rum and Coke? “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine.”
And the sanitizing dishwasher didn’t have sanitizer.
That wasn’t fixed when the inspector came back for Friday’s re-inspection and the inspector saw a few more pieces of rodent regularity. A second re-inspection Friday turned up many of the same problems.
The Shak shook again after passing re-re-re-inspection on Monday.
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 11:54 AM.
