Rodents (dead and alive), birds and other filth in Miami to Palm Beach restaurants
Various animals, some insects and a few recidivist restaurants lowlight this week’s Sick and Shut Down List of restaurants in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach metropolitan area.
Quick reminders: This list covers restaurants closed by inspection, and state inspectors do the inspecting. We don’t choose where they go or what they do. We don’t list every violation. You can file a complaint with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation about a restaurant you think should be checked.
We do this without passion or prejudice, but lots of humor and some judgment.
In alphabetical order...
The Breakfast Shack, 3469 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., Boynton Beach: Complaint inspection, two total violations, one High Priority violation.
Welcome back to The Shack, where the roach count dropped from last week’s 150 to this week’s 22, still enough to close The Shack on Jan. 18.
Behind a reach-in freezer, a little roach cemetery contained 10 dead roaches and five live ones, perhaps pouring out some for the homies who couldn’t be there. Three live roaches collected around the wheel of a kitchen cooler. Two dead roaches were next to a prep table with dry storage food items.
There’s no online record of a passed inspection that would allow this breakfast and lunch joint to reopen.
Chez Nous Restaurant Plus, 3056 S. State Rd. 7, Miramar: Routine inspection, nine total violations, four High Priority violations.
Two live roaches strolled behind a kitchen cooler’s double doors. Three live roaches sat in front of a freezer’s double doors. Four roaches hid under a kitchen chest freezer.
The two roaches couldn’t have been too cold in the cooler, seeing as how it couldn’t keep cooked pasta at or under 41 degrees. A Stop Sale sent the cooked pasta into the trash.
Chez Nous had an expired license and a “soiled” kitchen ceiling vent.
The callback inspection went tres bien and Chez Nous was back in business the next day.
READ MORE: Miami restaurants might get vinegar and soy sauce that had rodent dung on the containers
Hole in the Wall, 116 SW Second St., Belle Glade: Routine inspection, six total violations, five High Priority violations.
Guess some places try to wear the inspector down. This Hole in the Wall restaurant showed little improvement over multiple inspections.
▪ On Jan. 11, the inspector counted 25 rodent droppings, including 10 under the microwave oven, seven under a steam table and three in the bathroom.
Stop Sales hit rusted cans of sliced peaches and diced tomatoes and a dented can of green beans.
They were joined in the trash by curried goat, curried chicken, stewed chicken and cooked rice and beans, most of which measured 57 to 67 degrees and needed to be under 41 degrees for safe keeping. Stop Sales all around.
But this drew only a “Follow-Up Inspection Required.”
▪ When the inspector followed up on Jan. 19, there were another — presumably another and not the same — 10 droppings under the microwave, but only 17 overall. Two were under a toaster oven and three under a steam table.
The description of this Stop Sale on canned goods said only “dented/rusted cans present.”
The single door reach-in cooler is apparently the ripped Trojan of coolers because the macaroni and cheese, which should have been under 41 degrees, sat at 58 degrees after an overnight in the cooler. Stop Sale on the mac and cheese.
This inspection got Hole in the Wall closed. But, this being a Friday, there was a same-day re-inspection that got the Hole open for restaurant oxygen, weekend business. “Follow Up Inspection Required” but that beats “Facility Temporarily Closed.”
Monday, when the inspector came back, out went cooked oxtails still at 48 degrees after a night in the cooler.
J’s Kitchen, 196 N. Federal Hwy., Deerfield Beach: Complaint inspection, 11 total violations, two High Priority violations.
If The Sick and Shut Down List ever has a Hall of Fame, J’s Kitchen will be in that first class.
This latest listing of kitchen squalor mean J’s has been closed by inspection three times in nine months and four days. Back in December, J’s set a List record by failing five consecutive inspections, a restaurant Bizarro version of the 1955-60 Montreal Canadiens five Stanley Cups.
READ MORE: Rodent on food rack. P.F. Chang’s flies. See 15 South Florida restaurant inspection fails
And this time, like the mid-to-late 1960s Canadiens, J’s streak ended at two. But, like Hole in the Wall, J’s showed persistence in its squalor.
About 106 pieces of rodent regularity dotted the restaurant like evil chocolate sprinkles. You could find six on the floor in front of the cookline, 10 on a shelf opposite the cookline, 10 next to a rice cooker and 20 on a shelf at the cookline, but the real gathering spot to poop seems to be the ware washing area. The inspector counted 50 there.
Hope there was sanitizer for the shelves and floors because nobody bothered to get any for the warewasher. The inspector ordered J’s to limit itself to single-service utensils, plates and bowls to serve food.
Non-food grade paper, as in brown paper bags, were used as food liners in pans.
“The floor is soiled with an accumulation of debris underneath the cookline in the kitchen.”
Oh, and the pet peeve here at The List, “In-use knife stored in cracks between reach-in cooler and food prep table.”
The gaskets on a reach-in cooler door were “soiled with a black, mold-like substance.” The hood filters and the bottom of the reach-in freezer also were “soiled.”
The same was said for a food contact surface, the cutting board at the flip top reach-in cooler.
When the inspector returned the next day, there were 25 rodent droppings on a prep table, eight on the front service counter and five in the ware washing area.
Still, no sanitizer. And the reach-in cooler gaskets, hood filters, bottom of the reach-in freezer and cutting boards remained unclean.
J’s was back open after a second re-inspection on Jan. 18, but still without sanitizer and with the place needing to be attacked with a platoon armed with Brillo pads and Pine-Sol.
Jax Bistro & Bar, 10817 S. Jog Rd., Boynton Beach: Routine inspection, nine total violations, four High Priority violations.
No soap at the ware wash area’s handwash sink.
“Water draining from a pipe onto the floor under the ware washing machine.”
A ceiling tile was missing. Hope nothing falls out of the hole because it’s above the cookline.
Speaking of things alive that might fall out of holes, about 10 live roaches were under a cookline cooler. Another thre were under a cooler at the front line deli counter. One was on a wall at that counter.
Five flies buzzed about the front line deli’s handwash sink.
After six live roaches ruined the first re-inspection, Jax’s got through on the second re-inspection.
Johnny Longboats, 2401 Ocean Ave., Riviera Beach: Routine inspection, 13 total violations, three High Priority violations.
“At the dining room, observed approximately two wild birds walking around the establishment.”
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”
Near an ice machine and beer cans, eight dead roaches lay. Three live ones scaled a wall near a prep table
A live roach seen ducking into an electrical socket and a dead roach legs up on a prep table caused a failed callback inspection on Friday. But, the inspector came back Friday for one of those Friday same-day re-inspections and Johnny Longboats could get that weekend business.
Las Columnas Restaurant, 1657 NW 79th Ave., Doral: Routine inspection, 20 total violations, six High Priority violations.
“Observed no hot water throughout the establishment.”
Maybe they should’ve put buckets of water in the walk-in cooler, which worked better as a walk-in heater. Temperature: 80 degrees. While that’s handy in a cold snap, that’s not getting it done for keeping food at or under 41 degrees.
So, down came the Stop Sales on raw beef and raw pork cooked with rice. At the front prep area, sliced tomatoes, sliced ham, sliced pork and American cheese all measured as being unsafely warm.
The roaches were cool in the reach-in cooler, at least the two live ones were. The two dead ones weren’t as happy about it. Three live roaches headed into the warmth of the walk-in cooler.
READ MORE: 2 suspects in Miami airport murder, Doral home invasion remain at large
No paper towels at the kitchen handwash sink.
Swai was being thawed in standing water next to the three-compartment sink, where washing occurs on one end and sanitizing occurs on the other.
Las Columnas passed inspection the next day.
Lopez Cafe, 572 E. Canal St., Belle Glade: Routine inspection, six total violations, five High Priority violations.
In the back of the kitchen, four rodent droppings were on a shelf and another five were under a shelf.
The green salsa, red salsa and Mexican cheese had been prepped the previous day, been out of the reach-in cooler for more than four hours and were measuring in the 50s. Way too warm. Stop Sale. Tossed.
Meanwhle, at the steam table, where foods need to be 135 degrees or above, spiced sausage was 99 degrees, cooked chicken came in at 111 and cooked pork skin was 115 degrees. They’d been in the steam table since 8 a.m. Also thrown out, but by management’s hand, not the inspector’s Stop Sale.
“Pork no longer frozen was thawing on a table.” That’s unsafe at any eating speed.
Lopez passed a re-inspection.
Los Catrachos Restaurant, 4654 Gun Club Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County: Routine inspection, seven total violations, three High Priority violations.
The inspector counted seven live roaches — Manager goes SMACK — uh, six live roaches under a rice bin and one dead roach under a prep table. Two more dead ones were on a kitchen shelf.
“Non-food grade hose conveying potable water.”
The concrete floors in the dishwasher area and the back room aren’t sealed.
Los Catrachos passed re-inspection.
Namaste Miami, 211 Navarre Ave., Coral Gables: Complaint inspection, 19 total violations, four High Priority violations.
We told you earlier this week about this popular restaurant that’s had a tough month with inspections. Online state records and inspections spell the name “Nameste Miami.”
READ MORE: ‘I was embarrassed.’ Roach poop among reasons a Coral Gables eatery failed inspection
Nameste Miami is back open but still needs a follow-up inspection.
Top Notch Delicatessen & Catering, 5712 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd., West Park: Routine inspection, 13 total violations, four High Priority violations.
A kitchen window has a gap that opens to the outside, there’s a screen in a window that’s torn, so what do you think the inspector saw soon after? Hint: With the screen violation was “vermin present.”
A live rodent in the storage area near the kitchen entrance and a dead rodent under a kitchen prep table.
If the inspector didn’t have the bodies, there were the 10 rodent droppings split evenly between a shelf near a storage area and shelves near a handwash sink.
A reach-in cooler leaking water also couldn’t keep cool inside. So, cooked chicken, cooked rice and cooked goat got hit with Stop Sales for being too warm.
Somehow, despite the rodent issues, Top Notch passed the first callback inspection the next day.
