Black Jax Bar & Grill closed after inspection finds sewage in kitchen, 10 other violations
Black Jax Bar & Grill, 8040 Perry Highway, inside the Quality Inn & Suites, was recently closed by the Erie County Department of Health following an inspection that found five critical and six noncritical violations of the food code, including backed-up sewage.
The inspection report, written Aug. 16, read "Drains in kitchen are backed up. Visibly dirty water pooling on floors as well and discharging from pipes under pressure from dishwasher use. Foul smelling odor present throughout."
The department took the rare action of sending a letter of violation to "applicant" Dilip Patel and alerting Summit Township to the plumbing issue, stating "Operator failed to notify the (health department) of an imminent health hazard." The letter also stated, "Operator failed to cease operations during an existing imminent health hazard."
The sewage problem was repaired within 24 hours, according to Breanna Adams, director of environmental health services at the department of health. She said Black Jax was allowed to reopen Aug. 17, but management still has a lot of work to do.
Neither management of Black Jax nor Quality Inn & Suites responded to several requests for comment on the inspection report.
In addition to the sewage backup, the report included specific amounts of time to correct remaining violations still present Friday. Those included:
No indoor grease trap on three-bowl sink. One of the two grease traps outside was pumped on Aug. 1, but had not been previously since Dec. 5, 2022. Management was instructed to correct within 24 hours.
Bar soda nozzle holder needs to be replaced and outside grease containers and surrounding ground need to be cleaned. Management was instructed to correct within 24 hours.
Soap was not available at the hand-wash sink. Management was instructed to correct within 24 hours.
Potentially hazardous ready-to-eat food prepared in the food facility and held for more than 24 hours is not being date-marked. Management was instructed to correct within 24 hours.
Chicken wings in walk-in and many items in freezer uncovered and food is not stored at least 6 inches above the floor.
Many tiles are missing in the kitchen floor and are accumulating food debris and grease. Those tiles need to be replaced, as well as others missing from recent pipe repairs. Management was instructed to correct within 30 days.
No light present in walk-in freezer or dry storage room. Management was instructed to correct within seven days.
Old and unused equipment needs to be removed or stored further from the kitchen. Management was instructed to correct this within seven days.
Food facility has an employee who held a Certified Food Manager certificate, but it expired in August 2022. Management was instructed to correct this within 30 days.
The Aug. 16 inspection was conducted after the health department received complaints from the public. The restaurant, while open, is still in violation of the health code until all the violations are reinspected. If this doesn't happen in a timely fashion, the restaurant could be closed again.
On its Facebook page, Black Jax Bar & Grill had posted several closures, but the last one was Aug. 16. All the closure posts had been taken down as of Thursday and the bar is now advertising specials on beer and wings.
Contact Jennie Geisler at jgeisler@timesnews.com. Or at 814-870-1885.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Black Jax Bar closed for a day after inspector finds 11 violations
