Prep table roaches, moldy stuff in ice machines: Miami and Broward restaurant filth
The return of The Sick and Shut Down List features the usual gang of violations — roaches, rodents, yucky stuff in ice machines — and a couple of reruns from previous lists.
So, let’s get to the ugliness in Miami-Dade and Broward (there was nothing in Monroe and we’re keeping Palm Beach on furlough this week).
THE RULES, IN CASE YOU’VE FORGOTTEN THEM: What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. These are the restaurants that failed inspection. A restaurant that fails inspection remains closed until passing an inspection.
We don’t do the inspections. We don’t control who gets inspected. We don’t control how strictly the inspector inspects. If restaurants in your part of South Florida are not included, WE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT. This list is entirely reactive. If you see a problem and want a place inspected, contact the DBPR. Do not email us with “you should check out...”
We don’t include all violations, just the most moving, whether internally or literally moving (because it’s alive or once was alive). Some violations get corrected immediately after the inspector points them out. But in those situations, ask yourself, why did the violations exist in the first place? And, how long would they have remained if not for the inspection?
We report without passion or prejudice, but more than a side dish of humor (and, possibly, indignation and exasperation).
In alphabetical order:
Antigua Guatemala Restaurant, 2741 W. Flagler St., Miami: Routine inspection, 30 total violations, nine High Priority violations.
We know we’re home after a few weeks away when the first violation on the first inspection is “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine at the front counter.”
Followed by our pet peeve: “Clean utensils stored between equipment and wall ... clean knives stored between the three-compartment sink and the wall.”
Ah, breathe in and take in the “objectionable odors” in the ware washing area.
Funny that smell wasn’t the 53-degree cheese. That queso and the 55-degree cooked rice were both warm enough to be dangerous to your tummy and got smacked with Stop Sales.
Employees must consider dead roaches on the floor like oversprinkled pepper, seeing as how there were over 19 on the floor next to the kitchen exit door; four on the floor by a toilet; over 20 on the floor under the dishwasher; and three on a lid of a container with shortening.
Before they died, they left over 10 pieces of roach poop atop the dishwasher.
This place passed re-inspection the next day.
Beaches Bar & Grill Sunrise Cafe, 4299 Collins Ave., Miami Beach: Routine inspection, 10 total violations, four High Priority violations.
Unlike this place’s January Sick and Shut Down List appearance, inspectors didn’t see towels on the floor or smell malodorous scents. Roaches remained, however.
The inspector saw “two live roaches crawling on the prep table, three getting inside the wall by the kitchen handwashing sink and two crawling on the wall next to the oven in the back prep kitchen.”
It didn’t say which of those roaches an employee tried to kill with spray with Raid for household use, but that’s not allowed, either.
Stop Sales got dropped on unsafely warm cut lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese, salsa, calamari and shrimp. Then again, the reach-in cooler that should’ve been keeping them under 41 degrees measured at 50 degrees.
Observed employee trying to kill roaches with the spray Raid that is for household use.
Wash your hands at the bar handwash sink, have you use your shirt or pants to dry them because there were no paper towels.
Beaches passed re-inspection the next day.
Beehive Kitchen, 6312 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale: Routine inspection, 17 total violations, five High Priority violations.
Rare that our bete noire appears twice in a Sick and Shut Down List, but this is clearly a special week. “Clean utensils stored between equipment and wall ... clean spatulas being stored between wall and (the three-compartment) sink.”
If those spats were cleaned and sanitized, they weren’t run through the dishmachine. The sanitizer measured zero-point-zero parts per million.
Over at the front counter handwashing sinks — well, handrinsing sinks, seeing as how there was no soap.
Meanwhile, 21 flies buzzed and landed on a “can opener blade, mixer and robocop.” That’s probably a “Robot Coupe” blender unless this place dropped money on its security system that it should’ve spent on sanitizer, soap and flying insect deterrent.
Beehive passed re-inspection the next day.
READ MORE: Inspection problems at Miami’s Zak the Baker in Wynwood
Esposito’s New York & Coal Fired Pizza, 2221 S. University Dr., Davie: Routine inspection, 12 total violations, five High Priority violations.
Another repeater from January, when the hat trick of roaches, flies and handwashing issues put Esposito’s in the penalty box for a little more than two minutes.
This time, the pizza place had the dismaying duo of dangerously warm cooked sausage and cooked meatballs in the walk-in cooler from the day before. Both got sent to the trash sin bin with Stop Sales.
Only two live roaches were seen crawling on a walk in dry storage near canned goods. An operator killed them in front of the inspector.
Also, something about a corner of dry storage with sealed canned goods drew 10 to 20 flies.
The kitchen can opener’s blade and the front counter soda nozzles were “soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.”
Esposito’s was back in the game after re-inspection the next day.
Grand China Restaurant, 18643 S. Dixie Hwy., Cutler Bay: Complaint inspection, 18 total violations, five High Priority violations.
Fly landed on pork and so did a Stop Sale.
The hot water at the handwashing sink next to the three-compartment sink measured only 80 degrees. It needs to get up to 100 degrees.
Temperature matters not if the owners of the hands don’t bother washing them. Such as the employee who “began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items without first washing hands.”
Let’s talk roaches. Of the nine dead bodies counted, four were underneath food storage shelves. Of the 11 live roaches, one was on a counter in the ware washing area and three were under a cookline prep table.
The inside of the reach-in coolers had “accumulated old food debris”. Both the inside of the ice machine and a potato peeler were “soiled with black substance.”
In the walk-in cooler, broccoli, cut peppers, cut cabbage, and tofu weren’t covered.
They failed inspection the next day — cooked pork and rice got hit with Stop Sales — before passing a re-re-inspection to get re-opened.
Moonlite Diner, 6201 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale: Routine inspection, 22 total violations, seven High Priority violations.
Another place that can’t manage the simple, easy task of storing food safely. “Observed raw beef steaks being stored inside freezer not protected or covered.”
In other cooler problems, the ham steak in the cookline low boy cooler measured 51 degrees when it should’ve been under 41. The onion soup and cooked turkey measured 47 degrees after a night in the walk-in cooler. Stop Sales hit all and the food was tossed.
Stop Sales also hit the open bag of bread that 20 flies used as a landing pad. The inspector counted nine flies elsewhere.
They were back open after passing re-inspection.
Pamonhas Do Goias, 3232 W. Hillsboro Blvd., Deerfield Beach: Routine inspection, eight total violations, five High Priority violations.
Sushi rice was stored at room temperature, 74 degrees. The inspector fired a Stop Sale.
Maybe they should’ve fed it to the rodents who left five droppings behind a residential refrigerator in the kitchen.
There was a dead roach there next to that refrigerator and 10 more in the underside of a kitchen reach-in cooler. There were four live roaches in the bottom of the refrigerator in the kitchen next to the back door and three others elsewhere.
Pamonhas passed re-inspection the next day.
