Rats, Roaches, Flies Force Restaurants To Temporarily Close

TARPON SPRINGS, FL -- Live roaches running through the kitchen, rodent droppings in food storage areas, meat and fish stored at improper temperatures and employees who prepared food without using gloves are just a few of the violations in the past 30 days that prompted the Florida Department of Health to temporarily close 11 Tampa Bay restaurants.

Among the restaurants temporarily closed by state inspectors in the past month were:

• Paul's Famous Shrimp House, 530 Athens St., Tarpon Springs. An emergency order to temporarily close was issued May 30 when inspectors found a laundry list of high-priority violations including the presence of rodent droppings in the kitchen; approximately 1,000 flying insect wings on the window sill of the dining room, on the floor under the window and on the dining room walls; 10 small brown and red insects on the half wall in the dining room; soap being used in the dishwasher that wasn’t an adequate strength to sanitize dishes; live flying insects in the food preparation area, near the prep sink in the kitchen, in the storage room and around an area where liquor is kept; about 50 dead flies on a fly strip; and foods including potato salad and leftover seafood lasagna kept at improper temperatures,
• Valenti Restaurant, 1200 E. Venice Ave., Sarasota. Inspectors recommended the restaurant be temporarily closed on May 16 when they found 25 violations including rodent droppings in the dry storage area, around the ice machine and on the floor in the soda room; 15 to 20 small, flying insects in the bar area; an accumulation of a black and green mold-like substance in the interior of both ice machines; employees seen touching food with their bare hands; food not heated to an adequate temperature; butter sitting on the cook line instead of being stored in a cooler; and thawed raw tuna and raw salmon sealed in reduced-oxygen packaging in the walk-in cooler.
• Westshore Pizza, 24020 State Road 54, Lutz. Inspectors cited the restaurant for 13 violations May 10 including live roaches running from under the oven and clean dish rack and storing a toxic substance near the food preparation area.
• Fried Rice King, 6117 N. Florida Ave., Tampa. Inspectors temporarily closed the restaurant May 30 for 15 violations including several high-priority violations after they saw an employee use a gloved hand to kill a roach and then failed to wash his hands before donning new gloves; cooked pork and other foods stored at improper temperatures; the presence of eight live roaches on a sticky trap on the food prep table and 11 lives roaches running around the kitchen.
• Top China, 3810 W. Neptune St., Tampa. An emergency order was issued May 30 after inspectors found 23 violations including a container of medicine that was improperly stored in the kitchen, three live roaches by the hand sink and hot holding wells and two more live roaches in the area where bags of rice, corn starch, flour and sugar are stored.
• Mountain Comforts Coffee Café, 3550 53rd Ave. W., Bradenton. Inspectors filed an emergency order May 15 recommending the coffee shop temporarily close after finding 11 violations including ham, corned beef, tuna salad, chicken and potato salad stored at improper temperatures inside a reach-in cooler on the cook line and live roaches at the front counter, in the station area, between the kitchen cabinets and on the wall.
• Manny's Original Chophouse, 210 State Road 60 W., Lake Wales. Inspectors cited the restaurant for 13 violations including live, small flying insects in the kitchen, food preparation area and 25 to 35 flies near raw onions; and live roaches on the floor and side of the cooler in the bar area; rodent droppings in a wall crevice in the dining area, on the cover of the flour bin under the food preparation table, in a container of packaged gravy mix under the food preparation table, on the cover of self-rising flour under the food preparation table, on the floor near the three-compartment sink, on top of the dish washing machine, in a bin of raw onions, on the ice machine and in the men's bathroom; the presence of rodent nesting materials in a corner near raw wrapped baked potatoes and in a container of biscuit mix; and foods stored at improper temperatures.
• Brew Pop Brewery, 2122 U.S. 92 W., Auburndale. The brewery was cited May 19 for two violations including live roaches in the smoker on the cook line, behind the stack oven and on cutting boards in the dish area.
• Midway Bar & Restaurant, 2050 U.S. 92 W., Lake Alfred. On May 15, inspectors cited the restaurant for five violations including an ice scoop stored on top a dirty ice machine between uses; rodent droppings under the counter below the fryer on the cook line and under the counter below the grill on the cook line as well as under the hand wash sink in the kitchen.
• Hallback's Bar & Grill, 3900 Don Emerson Drive, Lakeland. The bar was cited for 11 violations on May 11 including live roaches next to the ice machine and under the drain board of the dish-washing machine.
• Dive Inn Bar And Grill, 275 S. Lake Shore Way, Lake Alfred. The restaurant received three citations on May 10 for damage to a hole in the wall in the dry food storage area and live roaches in the dry food storage area, in and on the Kenmore refrigerator and under the three-compartment sink.

To find out more about the specific code violations, visit the Restaurant Inspection website.

Image via Paul's Famous Shrimp House website