Live roaches in ovens, bad handwashing among South Florida restaurant filth
Rodents, roaches, flies and knives stored in filthy places were among the myriad violations on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List of South Florida restaurants that failed state inspection.
So, let’s get going with the worst of what Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation inspectors found in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Unless otherwise noted, restaurants reopened after passing re-inspection the next day.
In alphabetical order:
Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza, 10205 S. Dixie Hwy., Pinecrest
Complaint inspection, 18 total violations, five High Priority violations
“Clean utensils stored between equipment and wall” as in a “spatula was stored between the wall and the triple sink.”
The inspector saw someone get their hands wet with no soap, then “return to the pizza prep area and continue to work with food.”
Maybe that’s because there was “no soap at the handwash sink in the pizza prep and back prep areas.”
But there were flies, over 40 of them, “landing on beer taps, wine bottles, clean serving trays, clean glasses, the iced tea dispenser, and pizza boxes at the bar and the wait station near the soda fountain.” Two more were in the pizza prep area.
A “non-food grade paper towel lined a container of strawberries” in a reach-in cooler.
Overhead, the “ceiling tiles were dusty in the dish and kitchen areas.” and, underfoot, the “floor underneath equipment was soiled.”
READ MORE: Unsafe food and handwashing violations at popular kosher supermarket
Bamboo Kitchen, 3322 Griffin Rd., Dania Beach
Routine inspection, eight total violations, two High Priority violations
The cookline handwash sink’s soap dispenser contained soap and three dead roaches.
About 50 roaches wriggled “inside the gaskets and doors of the flip top reach-in cooler on the kitchen cookline.” Two roaches hung out in a gas valve to the cookline wok station.
“No probe thermometer provided to measure temperature of food products.” Bamboo Kitchen borrowed one from another business owned by Empire Jewelry LLC.
Re-inspection: Bamboo Kitchen stayed closed for the weekend after the inspector counted eight roach corpses and 10 living roaches.
Re-re-inspection on Monday: A dirty dozen dead roaches and six live roaches kept Bamboo in timeout.
Re-re-re-inspection (also on Monday): Still 10 live roaches hanging around the restaurant.
Re-re-re-re-inspection: Met Inspection standards.
Bangkok Cuisine, 45 Homestead Blvd., Homestead
Routine inspection, 17 total violations, three High Priority violations
One of the ice machines had an “accumulation of black mold-like substance in the interior of the ice bin.”
Open the cookline oven’s door and what’s that moving in the emerging light? “10 live roaches crawling inside of the oven...”
The kitchen ceiling vents were “soiled with dust.” The ceiling tiles were “soiled with old food debris near the cookline and three-compartment sink.”
Six eggs with broken shells got hit with Stop Sales. The same happened to two bags of snappers that were in reduced-oxygen packaging and not to be thawed before removal. They weren’t kept frozen. Stop Sales on both.
No paper towels at the kitchen handwash sink, and another handwash sink’s paper towel dispenser didn’t work. Dead battery, according to the manager.
The sushi bar handwash sink was “soiled with food debris.”
“Floor tiles missing grout throughout the kitchen.”
The Beach Club, 1 Seventh Ave. N., Lake Worth Beach
Routine inspection, 11 total violations, four High Priority violations
The ice machine had an “accumulation of a black/green mold-like substance in the interior...”
Oh, to be one of the six flies on the bar area wall.
Five live roaches in the oven — no word on whether they were cooked and served with the food.
Sour cream made the previous day measuring 46 degrees — or, at least five degrees too warm — got hit with a Stop Sale for “temperature abuse.”
There was a “heavy accumulation of grease and food debris on the floor underneath the cookline.”
Guaca-Mole, in Westland Mall, 1675 W. 49th St., Hialeah
Routine inspection, 10 total violations, three High Priority violations
You can’t use black plastic trash cans to store dry beans and rice. But the real problem here was Guaca-Mole “operating with no potable running water.”
No water on the handwash sinks meant no proper employee handwashing.
No running water at the mop sink.
No running water at the three-compartment sink.
And, as of Friday morning, no online notation of a passed re-inspection.
Mr. Gyros Greek & Mediterranean, 10901 N. Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens
Complaint inspection, three total inspections, two High Priority violations
An “employee handled a rubber floor mat and, without washing hands, handled a container” for an order.
Of the 63 dead roaches, 40 were under a soda machine, six were on a glue trap on a counter next to single service to-go items (usually plates, plastic utensils) and another half-dozen under the microwave oven. There were nine dead roaches under a deep fryer.
The inspector counted 31 roaches “crawling” in the wheel of a reach-in cooler, on the wall behind that cooler and between that cooler and a reach-in freezer. One live roach was not crawling, but “running on the microwave table.”
Callback inspection No. 1: About 12 dead roaches and six live roaches spotted.
Callback inspection No. 2 (same day as No. 1): One live roach crawling on a walk-in cooler door.
Callback inspection No. 3: Mr. Gyros came correct.
Mr. Mack Island Grill, 2400 Okeechobee Blvd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County
Complaint inspection, 16 total violations, 12 High Priority violations
You want a drink of water? “Approximately four dead roaches in a water dispenser for employees.”
Another roach died in a clean pot. Nine died in the light fixture over the prep table. Two were legs up on the dining area floor. About 23 roach bodies were elsewhere.
As for the living, one was crawling on a white rice container. One was on a wall above a prep table. Three hung out on a wall above the triple sink. Seven were in an empty cookline cooler. Two were under a steam table.
Five flies were landing on onions.
Staff got a little happy with the sanitizer for the wet wiping cloths, and what should be 100 parts per million at maximum measured over 200 parts per million.
Somebody put gloves on, grabbed beef patties for a customer, but didn’t wash hands before donning the gloves.
Someone else “touched garbage cans with bare hands then touched the prep table and a clean container” without handwashing. Another handwashing no-no is touching the phone, then grabbing clean tongs without washing hands.
Cooked cabbage in hot holding, where it needed to be 135 degrees or above, was too cool at 127 degrees. Stop Sale. Not cool enough, like about as cool as your grandpa’s beige Chrysler, were coleslaw, pasta salad and potato salad. All needed to be at or below 135 degrees. None were. Stop Sale, Stop Sale, Stop Sale.
Callback No. 1: One fly, seven dead roaches and 27 live roaches — 15 in the empty cooler, two in a grill — ended this inspection.
Callback No. 2: Three live roaches and three dead roaches on clean pots, pans, plates and lids kept Mr. Mack back on the sideline.
Callback No. 3: Two dead roaches and three live roaches in a working cooler, three other dead roaches and four other live roaches made this a hat trick of failed callback inspections.
Callback No. 4 (same day as No. 3, Monday): One dead roach, one live roach, one more failed callback inspection.
Callback No. 5: Finally got it right.
Prezzo, 4520 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens
Complaint inspection, six total violations, three High Priority violations
The walk-in cooler’s brown butter was dated Christmas Eve. This inspection was on Jan. 29. That’s way beyond the seven-day limit. Stop Sale.
On the cookline, “wastewater backed up from the floor drains from the use of handwashing sinks. The area with the drain backup could not be isolated as it is located in the center of the cookline.”
Five cookline flies and two dishwasher area flies were landing on kitchen walls and shelves.
Uncle Joe’s Chinese Cuisine, 4367 Northlake Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens
Complaint inspection, 26 total violations, 14 High Priority violations
“Visibly soiled cardboard boxes used as food storage container for wontons and cooked wings.”
An “insect control device hanging above a food preparation table has approximately 26 dead flying insects.”
OK, easy to miss three dead roaches under the dishwasher and one live roach on a wall under the dishwasher, but 22 dead roaches on top of the dishwasher? And, two live roaches on top of the dishwasher.
The dishwasher also didn’t have any sanitizer.
The cooked ribs and cooked pork belly handing on metal rods over a sink remained too warm for safe keeping, so got hit with Stop Sales.
In a walk-in freezer, cooked pork belly sat on a shelf uncovered.
A metal drying rack blocked a handwash sink.
Someone washing dirty dishes didn’t wash hands before handling a container of cooked wings. Someone else wiped his face with his hand and grabbed a bowl of cooked chicken without washing hands.
Someone washed a cutting board, then put it back on the table to start food prep without sanitizing it. Though the dishwasher wasn’t working, that’s when you use the third part of the three-compartment sink to sanitize.
Shrimp and chicken were thawing in standing water in a sink. Thawing should be done in a refrigerator or cooler.
“Cookline floors covered in thick grease and food debris under cooking equipment.”
“All the equipment in kitchen at the cookline had exteriors soiled with an accumulation of grease and food residues.”
By the next day’s re-inspection, the dead roach-dishwaher count was back up to 10 on top and two underneath. One live roach crawled on the floor in front of a storage rack with seasoning and cans.
Three was the magic number on inspections for Uncle Joe’s.
Yume, 18515 S. Dixie Hwy., Cutler Bay
Routine inspection, 24 total violations, four High Priority violations
Cause: The “exterior door has a gap at the threshold that opens to the outside.”
Likely Effect: About “20 rodent droppings on the floor at the dry storage at the back of the kitchen.”
A dead roach was found on top of a soap dispenser in the kitchen.
“In-use knife/knives stored in cracks between pieces of equipment.” A knife was shoved between a preparation table and a reach-in cooler
The ice scoop sitting on top of the ice machine counted as an “in-use ice scoop stored on a soiled surface between uses.”
“Cutting board has cut marks and is no longer cleanable.”
No way to dry your hands at the kitchen handwash sink.
Someone talking on the phone didn’t wash her hands before putting on gloves.
