Rodents in Hialeah. Roaches near pizza dough. Miami to Palm Beach restaurant fails
A food truck without usable water, rodents at a Hialeah caterer that goes by two names and other things nobody wants to see or smell when they pay for food being served are among this week’s Sick and Shut Down List.
So, let’s get down on it.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS: 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. We don’t do the inspections, 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). Some violations get corrected immediately after the inspector points them out. But in those situations, ask yourself, why did 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 more than a dollop of humor (and, possibly, indignation).
In alphabetical order:
Construction Catering aka Dixie Catering, 2620 W. Second Ave., Hialeah: Routine inspection, four total violations, two High Priority violations.
No matter the name, the inspection remained the same for this caterer.
One live roach is no big deal. But when you see the roll-up garage door as a violation because the “exterior door has a gap at the threshold that opens to the outside,” that’s a problem that can lead to...
“Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found.” There were seven under a shelf near the restroom and another two under a handwashing sink near a prep table.
Construction Catering, Dixie Catering or whatever they call themselves passed re-inspection the next day.
READ MORE: Bacteria testing among issues at a Miami bottled water plant that distributes Evian
Espositos New York & Coal Fired Pizza, 2221 S. University Dr., Davie: Routine inspection, six total violations, three High Priority violations.
You want to wash your hands at the kitchen handwashing sink? No soap for you! No dry hands for you!
“Nonfood-grade bags used in direct contact with food. Observed plastic shopping bags of ice placed on top of lettuce.” That’s either cheap or lazy. Voting for the latter because the person in charge conjured a food-grade bag for the ice.
Four dead roaches. Twenty-four live ones, including 15 behind a kitchen reach-in cooler and five “crawling on a wall near the pizza dough mixer in the kitchen.”
The pizza dough mixer must have been the Vendome of the place because 10 flies were “landing and hovering on a pot” on top of the pizza dough mixer. Another 10 were on a paper towel dispenser. Three were coming down on walls and a rack with clean dishes.
At the next day’s re-inspection, a fly hovered over the cookline and another doing the jump jet act over the front counter. Four live roaches crawled about.
Espositos passed a same day re-re-inspection.
Jojo’s Take-Out, 1700 45th St., West Palm Beach: Routine inspection, nine total violations, four High Priority violations.
Food kept in warm storage needs to be above 135 degrees. If you’re keeping it in cold storage, it needs to be below 41 degrees or it’s a bacteria love boat.
So when Jojo’s had cooked turkey at 47 degrees, coleslaw at 51 degrees and cut lettuce at 48 degrees after being in the reach-in cooler for more than four hours, the inspector shot all three with the Stop Sale gun.
But, perhaps more eye-catching was “Sewage/wastewater backing up through floor drains in the kitchen and dishwashing area...employee stepping on gray water, area can’t be isolated.”
Nose-catching, too, as that accounts for “Objectionable odors in the establishment.”
There was no hot water at the three-compartment sink, where some cookware gets washed, rinsed and sanitized, and no hot OR cold water at the kitchen handwashing sink, which also lacked any way to dry hands.
Jojo’s took two days off, then passed re-inspection.
Los Goldos Fast Food, 2732 SW 137th Ave., South Miami-Dade: Routine inspection, six total inspections, three High Priority violations.
The inspector dropped Stop Sales on shredded beef (49 degrees), shredded lettuce (47 degrees) and American cheese slices (47 degrees, but does it really matter with the only food that’ll survive a nuclear apocalypse).
But the real problem with the food truck was “Establishment operating with no potable running water.”
Los Goldos passed re-inspection Tuesday.
Station House Restaurant, 233 W. Lantana Rd., Lantana: Complaint inspection, nine total violations, five High Priority violations.
“Stored ice cream not covered in the reach-in freezer in the wait area.” So, something’s not covered that’s accessible to the sneezy, cough-y general public?
Over 20 flies were “at the bar on the dish machine and liquor bottles.” Anybody else thinking drunk flies running into each other looks kind of gross, but definitely funny in a cartoon gag way?
Just three live roaches, but more than 50 pieces of rodent regularity under an air-conditioning unit at the restaurant entrance/waiting room and “no doors between entrance and kitchen.” Another five rodent droppings were under a prep area air conditioner and more than five were under a cookline flip top cooler.
You could stop at The Station again after it passed re-inspection the next day.
Y & O Peruvian Food, 20500 S. Dixie Hwy., Cutler Bay: Complaint inspection, 22 total violations, five High Priority violations.
“Y & O” got violations such as “both the reach-in cooler lid and the door handle were soiled with old food accumulation.”
You know good and well, there was no way we were making it through two consecutive Sick and Shut Down Lists without “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”
Two cutting boards had deep enough cuts that they were no longer cleanable. In explaining the “food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime” violation,” the inspector noted there were “cutting boards with dark stains stored on a storage shelf” and a soiled can opener blade.
No excuse for this. Set aside $15 a week and you can have weekly turnover of a decent set of dishwasher safe cutting boards.
The cooked beef soup remained too warm despite a sleepover in the walk-in cooler. The tres leches and rice pudding were warmer than the soup. All of them, basura.
The wall behind the kitchen prep table was “stained, splashed with food.”
A block of cheese wasn’t covered in a reach-in cooler.
Oh, and there were eight rodent droppings on top of the dishwasher.
Y&O passed re-inspection the next day.
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 4:30 AM.
