Violations caused a Miami restaurant to trash sausage, eggs and other food
Reach-in coolers that didn’t keep food safe from bacteria growth and utensils stored in filthy spots shut down a Miami restaurant after inspection last week.
Little Havana’s El Gallito Grill, also known as El Gallito Coffee Shop at 250 SW Eighth St., got enough right on the callback inspection to reopen, but with an overall assessment of “Follow-Up Inspection Required.”
Here are some of the 29 total violations, with six High Priority violations, that the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation inspector found during Thursday’s routine inspection.
“In-use knife/knives stored in cracks between pieces of equipment,” or, more specifically, “two knives stored between preparation tables at the cookline.”
That wasn’t the only utensil stored in a dirty place. The ice scoop sitting directly on top of a back of restaurant ice machine counted as an “in-use ice scoop stored on soiled surface between uses.”
“Ice was stored inside a dirty cooler at the front counter.”
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Also at the front counter, the handwash sink had running water, but no soap, no paper towels and no blower.
The handles on the cookline reach-in cooler was “soiled with food debris,” which turned out to be the least of problems with the reach-in cooler. “Also, an oven handle had an accumulation of grease.”
In the kitchen and back storage areas, “cardboard used on the floor as anti-slip measures were not replaced every day or when heavily soiled, whichever comes first.”
Two cutting boards had “cut marks and are no longer cleanable.”
Three wet wiping cloths sat on the prep table instead of in the sanitizing solution where they’re supposed to rest between wiping jobs.
A different cloth was “used as a food-contact surface,” used to cover tortillas in the kitchen.
The reach-in coolers need to keep food in cold storage at or under 41 degrees to prevent them from becoming bacteria farms. But “the only two reach-in coolers in the establishment are not working properly. All food is out of temperature.”
That meant Stop Sale Orders on sour cream (49 degrees); cabbage (51); sausage (53) and uncooked shell eggs (69 degrees). Other raw shell eggs sitting on a front line shelf measured a toasty 84 degrees. They got tossed into the garbage also after a Stop Sale.
