Dead flies in a mixing bowl. Rodents. A Miami-Dade Boston Market fails 4 inspections
Four failed inspections featuring food left uncovered and vulnerable to the restaurant’s vermin has kept a Boston Market in South Miami-Dade closed since Friday.
State records say the southernmost of the three remaining Miami-Dade County Boston Markets, 18601 S. Dixie Hwy. in Cutler Bay, failed Inspection No. 4 on Tuesday morning and has had a delinquent license since Oct. 1. The corporate-owned store stands as a microcosm of the crumbling Boston Market chain, whose suburban Denver corporate headquarters was seized in May for unpaid taxes, as reported by The Denver Post.
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In Cutler Bay, the restaurant has stood closed since Friday’s visit by a Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation inspector, brought to the restaurant by a complaint.
The problems at Boston Market
Boston Market, 18601 S. Dixie Hwy., Cutler Bay: Complaint inspection, 30 total violations, four High Priority violations.
▪ The back exit door “has a gap at the threshold that opens to the outside.” That seems like it might lead to problems with little creatures marching in from the great suburban outdoors.
▪ In addition to a hole in the ceiling, the “ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents are soiled with a mold-like substance at the front preparation area, walk-in cooler, and the dining room.”
▪ “Condensation leaking from a fan onto the floor at the walk-in cooler” led to another violation as the food in the walk-in “was stored in a location that is exposed to splash” — such as the “whole raw chicken not covered at the walk-in cooler.”
▪ The front counter, kitchen and ware washing areas had standing water, and the violation of “objectionable odors at the ware washing area.”
▪ A metal food storage tray was “soiled with a green substance.”
▪ The regular oven and the microwave oven in the back food prep area were “soiled with old food debris,” as was a muffin pan on a storage shelf and a mixer head.
▪ Fly sticky tape hung over the front food prep area’s steam table, a seemingly fruitless violation considering the five flies buzzing about the rotisserie skewers, two flies landing on rotisseries baskets and 30 flies darkening the air near the walk-in freezer.
▪ Five dead flies sat inside a metal mixer bowl on a storage shelf.
▪ A dead roach sat inside a light shield.
▪ As for the rodents, they marked their territory with three pieces of poop on single service cups on a storage rack; one inside a metal container on a dry storage rack; six behind a soda machine; and nine on the floor near the drive-thru window.
▪ All these flies and furry friends around, you better wash your hands often. You’ll be letting them drip dry, though — “No paper towels or mechanical hand drying device provided at the handwash sink.”
Saturday re-inspection
When the inspector returned on Saturday to give Boston Market a shot at reopening for the weekend, the restaurants still had problems.
In addition to most of the slop violations remaining, including whatever the “green substance” was in the metal food tray, there were nine rodent droppings on the floor near the drive-thru window. The inspector didn’t say whether they were the same ones as the previous day. Another five rodent pellets dotted the floor under storage shelves.
Monday re-re-inspection
On the upside, the inspector noticed “no dead flying insects inside the metal mixing bowl” and “old food debris removed from the muffin pans.” On the downside, the “green substance” still soiled the metal food storage tray.
And the rodents marked their territory on a kitchen prep sink (one), a box of wiping cloths in dry storage (three) and under dry storage shelves (five).
Tuesday re-re-re-inspection
The ceiling tiles still had a “mold-like substance.”
Three dead flies were “inside of a single service dispenser at the soda dispenser.”
Rodent dung desecrated a single service lid box and a floor behind the water heater.
