16 dead roaches found at Pensacola Slim Chickens after Facebook post goes viral
A Slim Chickens in Pensacola received some flack after a Facebook post showing videos of cockroaches cooked into the chicken and running amuck went viral.
Pensacola resident Haile Kirkland posted four videos on Facebook on Feb. 16 saying that she had a cockroach “cooked” into her chicken at Slim Chickens, located at 707 W. Nine Mile Road.
The first video, shot by Kirkland, shows Kirkland zooming into a piece of chicken on her plate inside the restaurant. Sitting on the side of the chicken is a small cockroach.
January inspections:3 Pensacola restaurants forced to temporarily close amid January restaurant inspections
Kirkland says that she received new videos from a former Slim Chickens employee that show more roaches crawling on food containers and walls.
The post has been shared more than 1,400 times.
“I was in the middle of eating when my husband sat his piece of chicken down and told me to stop eating,” Kirkland told the News Journal in an interview.
“He said look at my food. Then I noticed the bug cooked into it.”
In the post, Kirkland said the on-site manager didn’t help resolve the situation.
“He was rude and unapologetic and unhelpful," said Kirkland.
Craig Hacklander, chief operating officer of North Florida Restaurant Group (NFRG), which owns all Slim Chickens locations in the Panhandle, apologized to Kirkland in an email obtained by the News Journal.
“There are no words I can type that can express my sincere apology about what happened at my restaurant. I am completely embarrassed and apologetic that the situation took place, and on top of that my team couldn’t properly apologize,” Hacklander said in the email.
“I am working diligently with our local professional pest elimination company to treat the store daily until the issue is resolved. I assure you we use a professional company on a monthly basis and have done so since the day we opened but clearly that was not enough. I will get the issue resolved asap.”
“I was happy he reached out. … I do feel like he was sincere,” said Kirkland.
“I do truly believe he’s trying to get the store clean.”
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation website, the department that regulates restaurants, shows a complaint was made about the establishment and an inspection was held on Feb. 21.
Click to read:Escambia County restaurant inspections
According to observations from the report, the restaurant received one basic violation: 35A-03-4.
The DBPR defines that violation as: “Dead or trapped birds, insects, rodents, and other pests shall be removed from control devices and the premises at a frequency that prevents their accumulation, decomposition, or the attraction of pests.”
In the notes of the report, the inspector observed 10 dead roaches in the grease trap room, four dead roaches on the floor under a storage rack across from a triple sink and two dead roaches on the floor in the dry stock/chemical storage room.
Florida uses a three-tier system to categorize its health violations. Basic violations are the least severe branch in the system and indicate that best practices weren’t followed. These can relate to things like food and equipment storage and food labeling.
Slim Chickens passed its follow-up inspection on Feb. 22, indicating that the previous violations were fixed and no new violations were observed.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Slim Chickens: Dead cockroaches found after viral complaint
