Why did 13 restaurants fail inspection? In one, a roach got pumped from soap dispenser
Live roaches running in knife blocks and out of soap dispensers were among the findings of health inspectors who closed 13 restaurants in Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
In alphabetical order:
Bahama Breeze, 11000 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines: Complaint inspection, 12 total violations, three High Priority violations.
More like Bahama Boo-Boo considering what the inspector found on the floor from the rodents, as described earlier this week in the Miami Herald.
Among the problems: ice machine mold, a common violation on this weekly list.
READ MORE: 38 pieces of rodent poop meant a Broward Bahama Breeze wasn’t fit to stay open
Bahama Breeze got rid of the rodents — or at least the visible rodent dung — and passed inspection the next day.
Bon Bagay Restaurant, 14700 NE Sixth Ave., North Miami-Dade: Routine inspection, eight total violations, two High Priority violations.
Restaurants that fail inspection tend to half-step things, like putting the roach or rodent traps down but not coming back to get rid of the bodies. What you get then is an inspector seeing “10 dead roaches in a roach glue trap under the front counter” in addition to the five spotted in the dry storage room.
Four roaches crawling in draining board brackets. Three moving inside a reach-in cooler’s gasket. But the real party was over at the knife block where 15 roaches were crawling inside, undoubtedly touching knives in-use or to be used at some point.
Bon Bagay also was operating with a license that expired Oct. 1.
Six dead roaches, one live roach in the oven, two on top of the refrigerator and 10 in a cardboard box in dry storage ruined the re-inspection.
The second re-inspection went better for Bon Bagay.
County Line Pizza, 875 Donald Ross Rd., Juno Beach: Complaint inspection, nine total violations, three High Priority violations.
Ah, yes, another ice machine with “an accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior.“
The prep area handwash sink couldn’t fulfill its raison d’etre because it didn’t have soap, didn’t have paper towels, did have “a pile of dishes.”
A cookline handwash sink also lacked paper towels, which meant the cookline had more rodent pellets than paper towels, but we’ll get to that later.
The walk-in and flip-top coolers had isasues, too. Food that had been in each overnight wasn’t under 41 degrees, meaning it’s about to be more fit for a petri dish than a dish to be served. Stop Sales smashed cooked eggplant, cooked lasagna, cooked pasta, the house pizza sauce, ham and grilled chicken.
There were two holes in the wall near the prep area walk-in cooler. Guess what guests might’ve come in that way and guess what they left? That’s right, they left 110 droppings, 50 of them in a storage closet and another 50 in various parts of the kitchen, including on shelves under pizza boxes (four); on the cookline floor under the handwash sink (10); and on the floor in the prep area (10).
Passed re-inspection the next day.
El Rincon Asturiano, 225 SW 17th Ave., Miami: Complaint inspection, 15 total violations, three High Priority violations.
This place has been a staple in Little Havana for years. Apparently, it’s trending with the neighborhood rodents, now, as detailed in the Miami Herald earlier this week.
READ MORE: Dead rodent in a Miami restaurant kitchen. Also in the kitchen, a gnawed bag of rice
Asturiano passed re-inspection the next day.
Healthy Delights Cafe, 5781 Coral Ridge Dr., Coral Springs: Routine inspection, one total violation, one High Priority violation.
When the inspector came by Friday, there were five live roaches, two of which were under an unused table top on a shelf under a prep table. The table top got tossed. The inspector didn’t close Healthy Delights on that Friday, but there would be a follow-up inspection on Saturday.
And on Saturday, Healthy Delights got closed by six live roaches, three of which were in various places in the dining room.
The inspectors don’t work on Sunday, so this place had to wait until Monday to get open by passing re-inspection.
Julceryrx, 5910 Coral Ridge Dr., Coral Springs: Routine inspection, two total violations, one High Priority violation.
Flies did this place in, as 10 were counted “landing on the wall behind the front counter over the smoothie machines and condiments” and five were “landing on the wall behind the juicer in the kitchen.”
Another 20 were at the kitchen mop sink. Five were coming down on kitchen shelves with single service items.
At the callback inspection, a box of bananas succeeded the kitchen mop sink as the place to be. Ten flies got together inside the banana box while five were at the mop sink.
Julceryrx passed a second callback inspection on Monday.
Julieta Orozco Hot Dogs & Arepas, hot dog cart at 3255 SW Fifth St., Miami: Routine inspection, seven total violations, one High Priority violation.
“Establishment operating with no potable running water.”
“No running water at the handwash sink.”
When you have those violations, no others matter.
Monday, the cart was rolling with water again.
Lucky Cat Street Eatery, 6322 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale: Routine inspection, two total violations, one High Priority violation.
Four roaches stepped up the wall behind the cookline prep table. Five roaches hid under the kitchen cookline flip top coolers.
The Cat was back after re-inspection the next day.
Oriental Food Take Out, 4919 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach: Routine inspection, 14 total violations, seven High Priority violations.
Wiping cloth solution that was over 200 parts per million of chlorine, over the maximum allowed, was “stored in a location that could result in the cross contamination of food, equipment, utensils, linens, single-service, or single-use articles.”
There were 20 dead roaches “throughout the kitchen floor, under the flat top grill, at back door and behind the refrigerator.”
Also under the flat top grill were three rodent droppings.
Meanwhile, Stop Sales hit cooked rice, chicken, butter, cooked peppers, chicken soup and rehydrated noodles, all of which had been cooked and put in the walk-in cooler that wasn’t cool enough because they were all well above 41 degrees.
This was on Oct. 31, Halloween. Give this place credit for staying closed three days until passing re-inspection with a perfect inspection — zero violations — on Nov. 3.
Pizza Ricca, 2001 NW Second Ave., Boca Raton: Routine inspection, three total violations, one High Priority violation.
Want to wash your hands? Want dry hands afterwards? Flap. No way to dry your hands at the handwash sink.
Remember what we said earlier about half-stepping with the vermin traps? “Observed three fly traps with dead flies hanging from the ceiling above the three-compartment sink.”
Clearly, they needed to switch those out for new traps to collect more flies so they wouldn’t have 25 flies “flying around and landing on clean service utensils and plastic containers on a storage shelf.” Or, in the main kitchen’s cold holding unit, seven flies “landing on squeeze bottles of hot sauce, soiled wiping cloths and single service parchment paper.”
A same-day inspection was passed later in the day.
Pokeman, 1949 N. Pine Island Rd., Plantation: Routine inspection, 15 total violations, six High Priority violations.
The inspector counted 21 dead roaches spread throughout the house. Two of them were on a prep table with cooking equipment. One was in a handwash sink, which tells you how often that gets used.
Seven live roaches were spotted, one on a wall in the office area and three under a counter near the front counter.
Four flies were around the restaurant.
In the walk-in cooler, a “non-food grade bag was used to hold cuts of meat.”
Was there a cooler strike this week? Because the walk-ins and the reach-ins seem about as cool as a beige Chrysler. The inspector fired Stop Sales at shrimp, eel, imitation crag, eggs, pork strips, fish eggs, cooked mushrooms and chicken that had been in flip-top coolers since the previous day and still weren’t properly cooled.
The callback inspection was fine except for the four flies and six dead roaches. The same-day second callback inspection got them back open.
The Rock Irish Pub, 614 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach: Routine inspection, 22 total violations, nine High Priority violations.
Steady as a rock, The Rock managed to hit the same number of total violations as it did in September’s appearance on The Sick and Shut Down List. But this time, The Rock racked up five more High Priority violations.
And they repeated getting a Stop Sale for a dented can, the red kidney beans this time.
“Employee wiping off facial sweat with his t-shirt then touching clean pans and pots.”
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin. Rust dripping down from inside door hinges in the ice bin by the storage room in the back.”
The floor was “soiled/had an accumulation of debris” as in “grease and heavy food debris were accumulated through the dining room; the bar and the kitchen.”
“Interior of toaster oven and microwave has an accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris.” Come on, people, squirt, squirt, wipe, wipe is all it takes.
In the walk-in cooler used for food and drinks, “the walls and shelves have a presence of a mold-like substance and food debris.” The cookline reach-in cooler “has heavy food debris.”
That reach-in cooler was filthy and malfunctioning. A shower of Stop Sales fell on too warm food cooked the previous day, such as white cheddar cheese, shredded cheese, sour cream, gravy, coleslaw, cooked chicken wings and cheese sauce.
There were a couple of flies, one of which landed on a food bowl at a cookline prep station.
Three dead roaches by the stove. One under a prep table. Four dead under a rack used for food and clean cookware storage. Another 10 departed were inside “open shelves where crackers; salt, pepper and sugar packets are stored by the dining room bar.”
The inspector also counted 18 live roaches, seven of which were on that shelf where the crackers and packets were. One was alive inside a two-door freezer with Velveeta cheese sauces. But the boss of this bunch was the one spotted “coming out from the soap dispenser while (employee) was pumping soap at the handwash sink by the cookline.”
The next day, the inspector counted 10 live roaches and 43 dead ones, including 10 in the dining room, five at the wait station and 18 on shelves at the bar. There was also “an accumulation to debris through the dining room and bar area.”
The second re-inspection, the roaches again put in a better showing than the staff’s desire to not work in muck. Six dead roaches and two live roaches ruined that re-inspection.
A third re-inspection got The Rock re-open.
Saveur Tropical, 515 NE 24th St., Pompano Beach: Routine inspection, 26 total violations, six High Priority violations.
“An employee washed hands with no soap. Employees were observed dipping hands in a bucket of bleach and water, drying them with paper towels, and returning to food prep.”
In use utensils, which should be in hot water at least 135 degrees, sat in 77 degrees at the food prep table.
There was standing water under a handsink because water leaked from the handsink pipe. You could get your hands wet in or under the sink, but there was no way to dry them.
“Food-contact surface soiled — food debris on the can opener blade in the kitchen.”
Three dead roaches were seen. Four live roaches were inside that can opener. Another roach boogied across a kitchen food prep table. Ten were under a storage rack with clean utensils.
Stop Sales hit pikliz, cut lettuce, cut tomato and tostones all of which sat on the food prep table for more than four hours instead of being put in a cooler, so were about 30 degrees too warm for safe keeping.
Roaches caused Saveur to fail a re-inspection before coming correct the third time.
