Meat dropped on floor, roach on McDonald’s eggs: South Florida restaurant filth
Dropped meat that went from floor to refrigerator and a McDonald’s with bugs close to food were among the 10 South Florida restaurants that failed state inspection last week.
The Sick and Shut Down List, this week with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach represented, just reports the inspections. iWe don’t do the inspections — the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation does them — nor do we decide who gets inspected. That’s made by the agency and the customers who complain.
In alphabetical order:
Big Bite Delight, 1549 W. Blue Heron Blvd., Riviera Beach
Routine inspection, nine total violations, five High Priority violations
At the front counter, six roaches died and one live roach crawled.
The inspector managed to count 102 flies. That breaks down as 30 by the back door landing on bags of beans and rice; 40 by the three-compartment sink and dry storage shelves, landing on spices and dirty dishes; 10 by a kitchen prep table; 10 under another prep table; 10 by the walk-in freezer and steam table; and two by the front counter.
“Spoons and knife are stored on a dirty cutting board.”
The cutting board in the steam table qualified as a “food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.”
“Heavy food debris was everywhere on the floor throughout the kitchen.”
Two days later, when the inspector returned for a re-inspection, there were 50 dead roaches, half of which were “inside the lights in the kitchen and bathroom.” Four were on the kitchen floor. Another seven were under food storage racks.
The 30 live roaches were “crawling on food boxes in the kitchen under a prep table; on coconut milk cans on food storage shelves in the kitchen; on the floor under the steam table by the walk-in freezer; and on top of the food scale and buckets of sauces under a prep table.”
There were 20 live flies around the establishment.
Also, in the walk-in cooler, the mac and cheese, the curry goat and oxtail were over 41 degrees. Three Stop Sales.
Tuesday’s re-re-inspection got trashed by 40 dead roaches, nine live roaches and 10 flies.
According to online inspection records checked Thursday, it still wasn’t open.
Bistro Creole Restaurant, 7316 Southgate Blvd., North Lauderdale
Complaint inspection, 19 total violations, six High Priority violations
“Cardboard used on floor as anti-slip measure is not replaced every day or when heavily soiled, whichever comes first.”
In the Bistro Creole kitchen, “cardboard on the floor with raw meat stored on top was soiled with drippings from raw meat.”
Also, “throughout the kitchen, floors were soiled with drippings from raw meat and food debris.”
Throughout kitchen prep area, storage tables and stove, “approximately 10 dead roaches on floor.”
One live roach crawled on the floor near the kitchen door.
Despite all the roach activity, in the kitchen, “bags of raw chicken, raw pork, raw turkey, sauces and piklis were stored on the floor.”
In other activity on the kitchen floor, an “employee dropped raw meat on the floor, then picked it up and put into refrigerator with other raw meat.” The inspector hit the raw meat that met the floor with a Stop Sale.
Under a kitchen prep table, a bag of rice sat uncovered.
An “employee handled raw food, then began preparing plates without washing hands.”
Another “employee wiped sweat from her face, then put on gloves without washing her hands.” Yes, even when putting on gloves, hands should be washed first.
No paper towels at the kitchen handwash sink.
Cucina Moderna, 9918 Lyons Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County
Complaint inspection, four total violations, two High Priority violations
An “employee rinsed off soiled dishes and, without washing hands, handled clean and sanitized dishes.”
Glue traps on a rack above a microwave and boxes of pasta were caked with 10 dead flies.
But the live flies were the problem.
About 27 swarmed the dishwashing area, landing on clean and sanitized dishes. Four flies were “in the kitchen, on open boxes of single service items.” Two flies landed on a cookline meat slicer. One fly sat on a speed rack with cooked chicken. One was on a cutting board. Five flies could be called “barflies” because they hung out in the bar area.
About 15 flies were elsewhere in the kitchen area.
41 Miami, inside Tower 41, 4101 Pine Tree Dr., Miami Beach
Routine inspection, 23 total violations, three High Priority violations
Dishes not getting sanitized, sanitized dishes in dirty racks and insect issues caused this kosher restaurant and event space to get an inspection timeout, as detailed earlier this week in the Miami Herald.
READ MORE: Roaches coming out of the wall, sanitizing problems at Miami Beach restaurant
IKrave, food truck in Miami
Routine inspection, 26 total violations, eight High Priority violations
IKrave packed a regular-size restaurant full of violations into one food truck.
“No water was available when the valve is open at the three-compartment sink and the handwash sink. As per the operator, the water tank has been in disrepair for two weeks.”
Yet the inspector also “observed water discharge directly onto the floor from a pipe underneath hand wash sink and the three-compartment sink” that apparently left the “floor areas covered with standing water.”
“No sanitizer of any kind available for warewashing.” The food truck was ordered to use “only single-service items to serve food to customers until sanitizer is available for warewashing.”
In addition to the water issues, the handwash sink was bereft of soap, paper towels or any mechanical hot air blower.
Maybe that’s why “single-use gloves were not changed as needed after changing tasks or when damaged or soiled.”
But there really isn’t a good reason why for: “employee eating pork chops and servicing customer food without washing hands.”
Employee touched a bare body part and then engaged in food preparation, handled clean equipment or utensils, or touched unwrapped single-service items without washing hands
Too many cut marks made the cutting board uncleanable.
The reach-in cooler fit with the oven, flat grill and fryer machine as a “food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.”
Speaking of that reach-in cooler and others, they measured 76 degrees, making them worth less than a bar trivia night participation ribbon. With no other cold food storage units, the food truck had an “inadequate capacity of cold holding units to maintain time/temperature control for safety food at proper temperatures.”
The food truck’s hot holding unit clearly wasn’t so hot, either, as a summer afternoon rainstorm of Stop Sales came down on oxtails, pork chop, salmon, macaroni and cheese, grits, raw chicken, raw pork, liquid eggs, raw tilapia, salmon salad, sausage and hot dogs.
All needed to be at or under 41 degrees in the cool units or over 135 degrees in hot holding, and they ranged from 50 degrees to 128 degrees.
Still no online record that this food truck has passed inspection to get rolling again.
Le Bon Gout, 556 E. Gateway Blvd., Boynton Beach
Routine inspection, 20 total violations, 10 High Priority violations
“Stored goat not covered in chest freezer.”
“Lime juice and vinegar were stored outside on an unprotected shelf. Yellowfin snapper and raw chicken delivery were stored outside and attracting flies. All items in original packaging.”
“Turkey thawing in standing water on the floor of handwash sink in kitchen.” Whether this means on the floor in front of the handwash sink or actually in the handwash sink, it’s multiple violations in one foodborne-illness inviting move.
And for more bad bacteria building, there were “containers of raw chicken stored in front of a sink.”
No soap at the handwash sink at the kitchen entrance, no way to dry your hands at the handwash sink at the back of the kitchen.
A cook came into the kitchen from the outside, then “began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, without first washing hands.”
A Stop Sale got dropped after management couldn’t “provide documentation for the source of unidentifiable fish.”
Stop Sale also on turkey “placed in a soiled container, filled with water.” The container was a “soiled cardboard box containing garbage.”
Stop Sales for temperature abuse — not cooling from 135 degrees to 70 degrees in two hours — came down on 107-degree spinach sitting in a “deep covered container” for three hours and 82-degree rice sitting in a microwave for over four hours.
McDonald’s, 4145 W. Blue Heron Blvd., Riviera Beach
Routine inspection, 12 total violations, four High Priority violations
This is a MickeyD’s owned by a Florida franchisee in Lake Park, so don’t expect lightning from Golden Arches Olympus in Chicago.
Among the three live flies were one inside an egg burrito container in a walk-in cooler. That’s a Stop Sale on the egg burrito.
In cookline reach-in cooler drawers storing raw eggs and liquid eggs, there were eight dead roaches and one live roach “crawling on top of raw shell eggs.” Two dead roaches were inside a cooler used to store pancakes.
The roaches left 20 roach droppings “throughout various areas like the iced tea area adjacent to the cookline, the chemical closet and by the three-compartment sink.”
A handwash sink got taken from the three-compartment sink area. It “must be reinstalled in the same location where it was removed.” When the inspector checked plans approved in 2021 for the area, the inspector saw “the area has been converted into a chemical closet.”
“Cleaned and sanitized equipment or utensils not properly stored.” What? “Dressing/sauces bottles stored in the employee lockers.”
At the callback inspection, eight dead roaches, four live roaches and one roach dropping kept the Big Macs and Quarter Pounders off the grill for another day.
A third inspection got the restaurant back in business.
Overtown House of Wings, 1039 NW Third Ave., Miami
Routine inspection, 12 total violations, two High Priority violations
Six roach corpses were counted. Four live roaches were “crawling on the wall next to the reach-in cooler in dry storage” and another four were on a kitchen floor next to the fryer.
“No paper towels or mechanical hand drying device provided at handwash sink.”
“Wet wiping cloth not stored in sanitizing solution between uses.”
An “accumulation of grease behind the fryers and the kitchen area.”
Ramen 369, 181 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach
Routine inspection, five total violations, two High Priority violations
Coming into Ramen 369, you had to keep your mouth shut and wave your way through “10 live small flying insects flying around at the front door.”
Another “10 to 15” flies played on “cleaned spoons, a wet towel and sauce squeezed bottles in the kitchen. About 10 flies zipped around the kitchen handwash sink. Five flies kept “landing on a cleaned bowl at the dry storage area” next to the kitchen. About 10 flies were “landing in the toilet bowl.”
“Bathroom facility not clean.”
A “very soiled, wet towel was stored on the prep line.”
Temaki Miami, food truck, Medley/Hialeah
Complaint inspection, 14 total violations, three High Priority violations
Over 20 roaches died on the floor. Time ran out on one roach in a reach-in freezer.
The front counter had over 10 roaches underneath it. Eight roaches roamed “inside big plastic storage containers, where to-go containers are.” Six were under a prep table. Eight were between the handwash sink and the wall.
Above that prep table, over 10 flies filled the air.
The “floor area was covered with standing water.”
The inspector didn’t get specific about which one, but a “food-contact surface was soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.”
