Sugar on roaches, Hialeah rodents, a former Dolphins player’s place: inspection problems
We haven’t had sugary roaches here at The Sick and Shut Down List, but these are unprecedented times for everybody.
Six South Florida restaurants failed state inspection and everybody’s busy these days so let’s get to it.
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, contact the DBPR, not us.
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 few dashes of humor.
In alphabetical order:
Bokampers Sports Bar & Grill, 1280 S. Pine Island Rd., Plantation: The original restaurant in the local chain carrying the name of former Miami Dolphins defensive end Kim Bokamper had problems on the ground (water draining into the floor from the three-compartment sink) and in the air (about 60 flies, about 20 of which were “landing on clean pans and utensils in the ware washing area across from cook line.”).
The handwash sinks at the cook line and the bar area lacked the essential element of soap.
“Gaskets with slimy/mold-like build-up. Throughout.”
After getting flagged Thursday, Bokamper’s sacked a same-day re-inspection to get back open for the weekend business.
Lemongrass, 101 Plaza Real S, Boca Raton: “One dead roach on the wall at the closed end of the cookline.”
A dead roach, OK. But a dead roach on the wall says you give two clucks to a duck. And there were 10 live flies there, too, so it’s not like the wall should’ve been ignored.
Another 25 flies buzzed about the restaurant and one live roach ran on the cookline floor.
Lemongrass passed re-inspection on Jan. 20.
Max’s Grill, 404 Plaza Real, Boca Raton: Just the flies, man.
“Approximately 10 live flies at dry storage racks next to the walk-in cooler. Approximately 10 live flies on the wall above the prep sink. Three live flies at the dish machine area. Approximately 10 live flies at the area across from the dish area next to the ice machine. Approximately five live flies at the bar.”
Max’s passed Thursday re-inspection.
Sublicious, 10215 S. Stirling Rd., Cooper City: Of the 36 flies spotted in this joint, our favorites are “three small flying insects hiding between the mop and the soiled cloths stored in the mop sink, located next to the three-compartment sink in the prep/storage/dishwasher area.”
Makes it sound like they saw the inspector coming and decided they didn’t want to be seen.
“One small flying insect flying around an open fliptop cooler where sliced tomatoes and lettuce are held cold and are exposed.”
Sublicious passed a same-day re-inspection.
Takee Outee, 20234 Old Cutler Rd., Cutler Bay: You kind of wonder what bothers the management here.
Do the eight live roaches, one of which was crawling up a kitchen wall, bother them? Do the 16 dead roaches, including one on a prep table and five in a sugar container (we’ll get back to them)?
What about the chef going outside to toss out garbage, doing some cleaning outside, then coming back “to food preparation area and continued to cook and plate food” without washing his hands?
But, what really makes you ask is “observed operator refill sugar container while dead roaches lie in sugar container.”
That one act caused violations at all three levels, High Priority (a Stop Sale on the sugar), Intermediate (Soil residue in food storage containers) and Basic (Food in contact with a surface that was contaminated and not cleaned and sanitized before use.)
If that’s not enough, think about how yucky a three-compartment sink gets. Now, consider the ewwww in “observed accumulation of old food residue at the three-compartment sink. Operator placed raw chicken in the three-compartment sink and started preparing prior to cleaning the three-compartment sink.”
That’s right, whatever got scrubbed, sneezed or spit onto the bottom of the three-compartment sink was about to become part of the chicken seasoning.
A couple of live roaches caused them to fail the Jan. 20 re-inspection before passing Thursday’s re-re-inspection.
Still might want to go the low sugar route at this joint.
Tortilleria Fritanga Gonzalez, 153 W. 21st St., Hialeah: “Observed 50-plus rodent droppings on the floor alongside the walls and underneath the shelves in additional dry storage room located behind a exit door of the establishment.”
And in this storage room was a reach-in freezer with raw pork, corn tamales and bags of frozen foods to be served to customers.
Inside the glass not-quite-refrigerated display case at the front counter: “eight live, small flying insects resting on the glass of the inside of the cooler with cheeses, cut slaw, fried cheese, packaged tamarind inside for the customers.”
That supposed-to-be-refrigerated display case measured at 76 degrees, room temperature in many homes. The walk-in cooler was 61 degrees. North of Jacksonville, that’s not a walk-in cooler, that’s a walk-in-and-chill, maybe have some wine.
As such, Stop Sales came down on sour cream, white cheese, fried cheese, cooked beef, raw chicken and beef soup stored in there. Raw shelled eggs at room temperature on a kitchen shelf. Chicharrones were in a not-so-hot box at the front counter area. Basura.
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine. Front counter.”
“Observed two dead roaches on top of sticky glue traps in the hallway leading to an additional back dry storage room located behind the back door.”
“Observed cooked beans (frozen solid ); sausage (frozen solid) thawing at room temperature.” When you thaw sausage like that, often as not, what goes down must come up.
Their next two inspections weren’t total fails, but received “follow-up inspection required.” They did clean the ice machine by Monday, though.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
