A Wendy’s, PDQ, ‘insects inside onions’ and other Fort Lauderdale area restaurant fails
Another week heavy on the flies among restaurants failing inspection at the Sick and Shut Down List, but this week’s flies got a little more...invasive.
So, let’s get on with it.
HOW THE LIST IS DONE: What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections of restaurants in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties. These are the restaurants that fail inspection. A restaurant that fails inspection remains closed until passing a re-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. If you see a problem and want a place inspected, contact the DBPR.
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.
We report without passion or prejudice, but with two dashes of humor, indignation and exasperation.
In alphabetical order...
Lucky City, 5574 W. Sample Rd., Margate: Routine inspection, 11 total violations, four High Priority violations.
The inspector saw a “metal screen door open with a gap” letting in rain and vermin.
Speaking of vermin, five roaches under the cookline scurried “into a gap where the metal wall meets the kitchen floor.
The dishwasher machine’s sanitizer parts per million equaled the Dolphins Super Bowl appearances in the last 35 years: 0.0.
Just as you can’t sanitize dishes in the dishwasher without sanitizer, you couldn’t wash your hands at the cookline handwash sink without soap or hand towels. You can get them wet, but you can’t wash them.
Lucky City got lucky with re-inspection the next day.
Ra Sushi, 201 SW 145th Terr., Pembroke Pines: Routine inspection, 14 total violations, seven High Priority violations.
A “server brought dirty dishes to dishwasher area, then grabbed a clean bowl to serve soup for a customer.” You’ll notice he skipped the handwashing step.
People cut avocados without washing their hands.
“Entire kitchen area, a buildup of grease and soil.”
Two knives and two forks, all four in use, sat “inside a dirty container.”
Then again, an “employee grabbed a dirty container” and put cut chicken breast in it, so how can you expect them to be more sanitary with the cooking utensils than the food itself?
A bit disconcerting that it took the inspector, a visitor, to notice the emptiness of the bar area dishwasher’s sanitizer container.
Also at the bar area, the soda nozzle was decorated with a “build up of black like substance.”
The soda nozzles and the ice machine near the kitchen entrance entertained 12 of the 72 flies counted in this joint. Five of them landed on the soda nozzles. Another 30 were behind the ice machine and soda nozzles. Two of the seven flying around covered steamed rice pots landed on wooden spoons.
There were seven flies “inside a large container of onions.” Stop Sales rained on 10 yellow onions for “having insects inside the onions.”
The first re-inspection the next day got ruined by five flies, one dead on a steam table and two dead by a prep table.
The second re-inspection got the sushi served again.
READ MORE: Listeria in kiwifruit causes a recall in Florida and other states
Wendy’s, 930 NW 62nd St., Fort Lauderdale: Routine inspection, four total violations, two High Priority violations.
The inspector saw folks “operating registers, then returning to the service line and fry station to prepare ready-to-eat food without washing hands” and saw one employee “exit the establishment, go outside and return to the kitchen without hand washing.”
Underfoot, in the kitchen, there was “standing water on the floor.”
Flurries of flies proliferated in the land of The Frosty. Among the 71 flies counted, three were landing on dining area tables. About 30 were in the dining area condiments service counter, landing on packaged ketchup and soda cartridges. Another 10 were flying around the vacuum cleaner (golden calf style?)
Wendy’s was back pushing the beef the next day.
PDQ, 3359 N. Federal Hwy., Oakland Park: Complaint inspection, nine total violations, four High Priority violations.
Up in the cookline cold holding unit, the portioning utensil’s handle sat in the shredded cheese, spreading whatever bacteria the handle had.
Seven flies darted around single service items in dry storage. Five landed on packaged bread. Two zoomed over sliced tomatoes, cut lettuce and landed on the cutting board. Head for the restroom from the dining area, you’d have to swat two flies out of your way.
But, it was the 22 flies that kept plopping down on condiments and to-go cup container lids that got all that tossed via a Stop Sale.
Not getting smacked with a Stop Sale, but getting tossed voluntarily, was grilled chicken breast that measured only 119 to 122 degrees in hot holding. That’s 13 to 16 degrees too cool for hot storage.
PDQ passed inspection the next day. Five days later, on Monday, the chain location got “Follow Up Inspection Required” on a routine inspection (the final rinse on the dishwashing machine wasn’t hot enough for sanitizing).
