A Vicky Bakery, poop in soap on list of worst restaurant inspections in South Florida
You’ll find roach excrement contaminating soap and butter kept at room temperature for days on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List of restaurants closed by inspection.
The list covers restaurants in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties.
Who gets inspected? That’s decided by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Who does the inspecting? The DBPR.
Unless noted, each restaurant reopened the next day, after a passing re-inspection.
In alphabetical order:
El Jalapeno Feliz at Pompano, 105 SW Sixth St., Pompano Beach: Routine inspection, six total violations, three High Priority violations.
Three dead roaches sat at a kitchen cookline handwashing sink. Three live roaches were near there and by the paper towel dispenser. Another trio killed time by a kitchen electrical outlet.
Also on the wall behind the handwashing sink by an outlet on the prep line were “approximately 20 roach droppings.”
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Enzo’s Cafe & Bakery, 3792 10th Ave. N., Palm Springs: Complaint inspection, seven total violations, three High Priority violations.
Probably a fine place for a cake for your daughter’s wedding or to get something to take a family friend in the hospital, if you don’t know about the “20 live roaches on and under a wooden 4-inch high storage shelf” under a kitchen prep table.
Packaged flan, tres leches, chocolate mousse, a tuna sandwich and more lacked the minimum information.
Food cooled at “an inadequate rate during the time of inspection,” meaning there’s no way it would get down to safe temperatures in the proper time frame. Instead of slapping Stop Sales on the mashed potatoes and beef empanadas, the inspector allowed Enzo’s to use an ice bath or switch to a shallower pan to facilitate quicker cooling.
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5th Element Indian Bistro and Bar, 5130 Linton Blvd., Delray Beach: Routine inspection, nine total violations, three High Priority violations.
The second failed inspection in just over two months put 5th Element back on the list, where they had 35 live roaches and stored in-use knives in cracks between equipment in September.
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This time, they had only 22 live roaches, 13 of which were inside the wheels of coolers. But 5th Element also had a “build up of roach droppings inside of soap dispenser” at the kitchen dry storage handwash sink.
Of the 16 dead roaches, five were at the back of a kitchen cookline flip top cooler.
Under the cookline flip top coolers’ cutting boards, there was a “food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.”
Kalalou Caribbean Bar and Grill of Fort Lauderdale, 7041 W. Commercial Blvd., Tamarac: Complaint inspection, 14 total violations, four High Priority violations.
Four “large roaches in the paper towel dispenser at the kitchen handwash sink” were among the 11 live roaches counted throughout Kalalou.
The three-compartment sink was bereft of sanitizer, a problem as that’s part of its raison d’etre (wash, rinse, sanitize).
No way to dry your hands at the handwashing sink near the three-compartment sink.
“No probe thermometer provided to measure temperature of food products.”
777 Vibes, 2845 N. Military Trail, unincorporated Palm Beach County: Complaint inspection, seven total violations, four High Priority violations.
“Two flies in the kitchen flying around the cookline.” Strike one.
“Five dead roaches inside the cabinets behind the bar. One live roach crawling on the ledge at the end of the cookline.” Strike two.
“Six rodent droppings in the kitchen on the dry storage area floor.” Strike three, and done for the night.
Tobu Asian Eatery Hibachi Grill in the Galleria Mall food court, 2414 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale: Complaint inspection, six total violations, four High Priority violations.
Six live roaches were by the dishwashing area door and two were on the prep area floor between the cookline and where food is put up for carrying out to diners.
Speaking of the prep area, if you wash your hands in the handwash sink, better start flapping to dry your hands. There’s no paper towels or blower.
The cookline, food exposition area and the walk-in cooler were covered with standing water.
Stop Sales rained down on raw beef, raw chicken, raw shrimp, cooked rice and cooked cabbage, but then the inspector “advised operator to cook immediately the raw chicken and raw beef. Operator began cooking the beef and chicken.”
Via Roma Cafe, 329 Worth Ave., Palm Beach: Complaint inspection, eight total violations, four High Priority violations.
Via Roma’s menu homages the written word — “Breakfast of Champions” “A Brie Grows in Brooklyn” — but the butter could have been called “Old Yellow.”
Not only was the butter at 72 degrees, but the manager “stated that was at room temperature for 72 hours.” Three days? That’s long enough to turn butter into Parkay. Stop Sale.
Five live roaches included one at a sandwich press on the front counter. Three of the 18 dead roaches were under that sandwich press. Another three were “in a container that stores in used utensils.”
Vicky Bakery, 1773 N. University Dr., Plantation: Routine inspection, seven total violations, six High Priority violations.
“Establishment operating with no potable running water. Observed throughout establishment.”
The eight flies the inspector counted didn’t seem to mind.
They also probably didn’t mind that the ham in the lowboy cooler had been there for eight days, one beyond the limit. That got hit with a Stop Sale, as did the too-warm shredded pork in the walk-in cooler.
The wiping cloth sanitizing solution was just water. Zero parts per million on the chlorine.
One of those Broward same-day re-inspections got Vicky Bakery out of the penalty box.
