IHOP rodent poop, rodents at a taco joint: South Florida restaurant inspection fails
Rodents run wild and enthusiastically mark their territory in this week’s Sick and Shut Down List.
So, let’s get to it.
WE’RE NOT ANIMALS. WE’VE GOT RULES: What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties. A restaurant that fails inspection remains closed until passing an inspection.
If you see a problem and want a place inspected, contact the DBPR. Do not call us. Do not email us. We don’t control who gets inspected nor how strictly the inspector inspects. Let us say that again — we do not control who gets inspected.
We don’t include all violations, just the most moving, whether internally or literally moving (because it’s alive or once was alive). Some violations get corrected after the inspector points them out. But, you have to ask, why do the violations exist in the first place? And how long would they have remained if not for the inspection?
We report without passion or prejudice but a tapas plate of humor.
In alphabetical order...
Cabana El Rey, 105 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach: Routine inspection, seven total violations, three High Priority violations.
Five live roaches under a flip top cooler and one dead roach on a cart with dry ingredients.
Stop Sales dropped on cooked potatoes in a cooler overnight and still not down to 41 degrees or under, which prevents them from being little bacteria Battlestar Galacticas.
“Multiple cooked items in walk-in cooler prepared on a previous day not covered.” No excuse for that. Have somebody pick up some Saran Wrap or suitable substitute when they make the morning cafe stop.
There was no soap at the handwash sink on the cookline, so apparently people were supposed to clean their hands by sticking them in the dishwasher or something.
Passed re-inspection on Friday.
IHOP, 1020 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd., Hallandale Beach: Food Licensing inspection, seven total violations, three High Priority violations.
Along with the multiple flavors of syrup in the house, there also were multiple pieces of rodent regularity. The inspector counted five, including one on a shelf under the cookline prep table.
Find the rodents, odds are you’ll find uncovered food somewhere. The furry, four-legged vermin sense it, even if it’s ice cream in a chest freezer.
Of the nine flies, the inspector took note, none landed on food contact surfaces during the inspection. Still, two around a front counter garbage can and two around the juice station doesn’t put anybody in the mood for IHOP’s signature pigs in blankets sausage and pancakes (they do still have that, don’t they?).
This IHOP passed inspection the following day.
Los Panchos Tacos & Tequila, 717 Lake Ave., Lake Worth: Complaint inspection, 16 total violations, 10 High Priority violations.
The local rodents made themselves so much at home here, it looks like they have a signed lease with a No Cat policy.
You think we’re joking? The inspector saw “rodent burrow or rodent nesting materials present” with a hole in the wall with gnaw marks in the liqueur and soda room (atta girl), and another with gnaw marks in the hallway by the back door.
There was a live rodent behind a kitchen cooler. A rodent was caught in a snap trap on a ledge behind the three-compartment sink.
As the toilets for their 63 pieces of poo, the rodents used drink mix or boxes with Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Pina, Tropicana lemonade, a pan with food storage container lids on a kitchen prep table bottom shelf and other places.
How many flies were at the bar area? “...too many to count.”
Stop Sales dropped on the previous day’s refried beans, which are gross enough without being dangerously too warm, and cooked pulled pork. Maybe they should’ve asked the rodents which refrigerator/cooler works best.
After failing a re-inspection on Saturday because of two pieces of rodent dung on a hood, they passed a same day re-re-inspection.
Snappers on Sunrise, 2750 W. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale: Routine inspection, 17 total violations, four High Priority violations.
It’s easy to see why they had fly and roach traps. The inspector counted 59 to 63 flies around the back storage area and the employee restrooms.
But why couldn’t they clean the traps? There were seven dead roaches on sticky pads under a storage shelf, over 20 dead flies and four dead roaches on a sticky pad in the employee restroom, over 30 dead roaches on sticky pads under storage shelves in a back storage area and flies and roaches “too numerous to count” on stick pads above and behind the three-compartment sink and two other walls of the ware washing room.
They know how to set the traps, but don’t know how to clean the traps.
Other cleaning left something to be desired. The metal baffle in the ice machine had “mold-like build up.”
A probe thermometer couldn’t be calibrated “due to grime around thermometer.”
Snappers passed re-inspection the next day.
Taqueria El Tarazco, 622 NE Eighth St., Hallandale Beach: Routine inspection, 10 total violations, four High Priority violations.
This week’s Gretzky Award winner for a hat trick of failed inspections and it’s all on the roaches.
Three dead roaches and 11 live ones, three of which were “inside a bag where single service to-go containers are stored in the dry storage room.”
The handwash sink was blocked with cases of water — clearly not a high traffic area.
Inspection No. 2 featured one live roach on the floor next to the grill and 13 dead roaches, five of which were under a dry storage room shelf.
And for the hat trick, on Thursday, three dead roaches in dry storage and two live roaches, one crawling under the stove and one “crawling on the top counter in the dining area.”
One of those Broward same-day re-re-re-inspections got this joint open Thursday.
