These Miami restaurants racked up 30 violations — but didn’t get closed by inspection
Moldy tomatoes, clean dishes or utensils stored in dirty areas, and use of a metal brush not designed for food as a baster marred three Miami restaurants’ state inspections, each with at least 30 violations.
But none of the restaurants failed inspection and they all remained open.
Despite piling up violations like Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill piles up drama, the three restaurants didn’t house roaches or rodents. Miami Beach’s Paradise Cafe had fewer violations (25) and High Priority violations (five) last week, but hosted live and roaming roaches.
READ MORE: Roaches, bad handwashing and unsafe food in a Miami Beach restaurant, inspection says
Paradise was shut down on the first inspection, and kept closed by roaches spotted during a re-inspection before it passed a third inspection.
Each of the three places without vermin remained open with a “Follow-up Inspection Required.”
In alphabetical order:
Casa Juan, 5755 NW Seventh St., Miami: Routine inspection, 30 total violations, six High Priority violations.
Tuna salad had been in the house more than seven days, according to the date mark. The manager “replaced the label, stated it was a mistake.”
In the handwash area, no soap for you.
Clean utensils in the warewash area were stored between a “soiled” wall and the three-compartment sink.
Speaking of “soiled,” that covers not only where “clean dishes in the warewash area are kept,” but the can opener’s blade; the food chopper on a wall; the outside of the dishwasher; the outside of the rice and beans containers; the kitchen light fixtures and cords; the gaskets in all the kitchen coolers and ice machine; and the walls “throughout the entire kitchen.”
Grease dirtied the handles of the ovens, the microwave ovens and the coolers.
Standing water covered the floor of the walk-in cooler and the holes of floor tiles in the warewash area.
Cases of food sat directly on the floor of that walk-in cooler where standing water covered the floor. Cases of onions sat directly on the back storage floor.
Stop Sales took out cooked chicken soup and cooked pork stew, each of which measured 60 degrees after a night in the wet floor walk-in cooler. They needed to be 41 degrees.
Tiffany’s Latin Cafe, 7400 SW 42nd St., South Miami-Dade: Routine inspection, 39 total violations, nine High Priority violations.
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”
“Clean utensils were stored in a dirty rack above the three-compartment sink.”
An in-use ice scoop was stored “in a dirty container.”
“Nonfood-grade basting brush used in food” at the coffee station was described as an “Obama metal brush.”
The prep area had a hole in the ceiling.
“Nonfood-grade bags used in direct contact with food” as in “garbage bags used to cover food in the reach-in freezer.”
Someone “cracked raw shell eggs then handled food and clean equipment without removing gloves and washing hands.”
No way to dry wet hands in the bathroom and no soap at the front counter handwash sink.
One of the coolers lacked enough cool. So, the tomatoes and lettuce that weren’t down to 41 degrees or under got slapped with “Stop Sales” and trashed.
How long had the milk, sliced cheese and sliced ham been open? There were no date marks.
One employee hadn’t “received adequate training related to their assigned duties” because he didn’t know how to sanitize utensils.
The wet wiping cloth that should be in sanitizing solution when not used sat on the kitchen prep table.
Tita Cafeteria, 9410 NW 109th St., Medley: Routine inspection, 38 total violations, 10 High Priority violations.
“Mold-like growth” got grape tomatoes in a reach-in cooler and 4 pounds of cheese in another reach in cooler slapped with Stop Sales.
Cut tomatoes and cut ham from one of the reach-in coolers also got a Stop Sale for being dangerously too warm, 51 and 53 degrees, respectively.
An “employee was doing food preparation at the kitchen area with no effective hair restraint.”
A metal pan wasn’t sanitized in the three-compartment sink after being washed and rinsed.
Raw chicken was stored in plastic grocery bags (those aren’t food grade bags) in an outside reach-in freezer.
The kitchen handwash sink didn’t have paper towels. The hot water at an employee handwash sink had been turned off.
