Brooklyn Food Hall Enters 2nd Week In Forced Health Dept. Closure

DUMBO, BROOKLYN — Dumbo's newest food hall is still closed a week after its restaurants were shut down by health inspectors and the market shows little sign of opening soon.

Time Out Market, which opened at the end of May on Water Street, had 14 of its 21 eateries closed by Department of Health and Mental Hygiene during an inspection last Wednesday after issues with its shared refrigerator.

A week later, the market is still shut down and will likely remain closed for at least the next couple of days. Health officials told Patch Wednesday morning that none of the 14 restaurants had requested a reopening inspection yet, meaning they will stay closed until they schedule and pass another inspection.

A spokesperson with Time Out did not answer specific questions about when the market might reopen except to say that there are no new updates yet.

"The market remains close as we work with the DOH to remedy this issue," the representative said.

The two-story food hall's eateries were originally closed because a walk-in shared walk-in refrigerator used at the food hall was found to be at 58 degrees, about 17 degrees higher than the Food and Drug Administration standards.

Those temperatures are potentially hazardous given that certain food, like meat or fish, that is not kept at or below the required 41 degrees can grow bacteria and cause food-borne illnesses, health officials said.

Time Out also failed to show the department a full refrigeration log, meaning that the market had either not been keeping proper logs or that they didn't know the appropriate temperature for food storage, the department said.

All 14 eateries had some violation points that were for not keeping cold or hot food at the right temperature or not keeping food properly refrigerated, the records show.

The biggest offender was a restaurant called BKLYN Wild, which was given nearly four times the violation points required to close a restaurant down. This "vegan for non-vegan" eatery was given 102 violation points by inspectors. Any score over 28 requires that the department close a business.

Several other restaurants also had double, or near double, the threshold of violation points, including Ivy Stark, a Mexican eatery that was given 82 violation points.

The other restaurants that were closed down include Alta Calidad, Avacaderia, Besos, Bread Bagelry, Breads Bakery, Cookie Do, Felice, Fish Cheeks, Jacob's Pickles, Little Ada, Mr. Taka and Nur.