Blogs

By Amy Silverman

This one makes me sad. I love Cyclo, the innovative, funky Vietnamese restaurant in Chandler.

Apparently the Maricopa County restaurant inspectors didn't love it so much, during their most recent inspection, July 17. (It should be noted that this was the only "no award" inspection online for Cyclo; the previous reports have been silver and gold.)

I can live with worn cutting boards, the wrong kind of toothpick dispenser and even raw chicken stored above cooked foods.

But spring rolls with no expiration date? A "filthy" floor under the cooking equipment? A broken fridge?

And the worst: "LIVE ROACHES WERE FOUND IN THE KITCHEN CRAWLING ON THE FOOD," the county inspector wrote. "THE FOOD WAS VOLUNTARILY DESTROYED BY THE MGMT. HAVE AN EXTERMINATOR EXTERMINATE THE ROACHES AND SAVE THE RECEIPT TO SHOW ON THE REINSPECTION."

Oh yeah, and this order from the inspectors, as if the crawlers weren't enough: "CLEAN UP THE DEAD ROACHES."

by Amy Silverman

I scream, you scream, we all scream...

When we see live cockroaches. Particularly in an establishment that serves food.

So imagine the dismay of Maricopa County restaurant inspectors, when on not one but two consecutive visits, they found cockroaches in a cabinet at the Haagen Dazs at 7014 E. Camelback Road in Scottsdale. (At the Scottsdale Fashion Square food court.)

During a routine inpsection on June 30, inspectors "OBSERVED LIVE ROACHES (3+) IN CABINET UNDER SINK".

Also that day (a "no award" day, as you might imagine) the county noticed leaky pipes, a lack of proper food service worker certification, and the preparation of food sans gloves.

OK, everyone can make a mistake. Bugs are a part of life. I personally came home from vacation last week to ants. But if county inspectors warn you to get rid of cockroaches, you get rid of cockroaches.

Right?

Um....

On July 14, inspectors found at least five more live roaches under that same cabinet.

Apparently roaches check into the Scottsdale Haagen Dazs -- but they don't check out.

by Amy Silverman

The other day, I got upset with my mother because I found a can of diet Dr. Pepper in her fridge that had expired in 2005.

"Look," she said. "Your father and I grew up in the bomb shelter era -- you know, back in the day when you took cans of food and stored them there for years. An old diet Dr. Pepper just doesn't bother us."

Okay, I replied. You drink it. I'm obsessed with dates; I know it's marketing, but I can't help it. Which is why I was horrified when I read the June 17 inspection report for Black Forest Mill German Restaurant, 4900 E. Indian School Road.

These folks scored an 80 -- which is impressive. You can get a "no award" rating for far, far less. And really BFMGR should know better -- they didn't do so hot in their last inspection, last December ("more than three flies in the dining room" -- you get the picture). This time around, the inspectors noted that workers at the restaurant were not wearing gloves when preparing food, stored sour cream at 52 degrees when it should be 41, and let grease from the "hood system" drip onto the equipment below (and, possibly, the food).

Yuck. But it was the part about food debris on the soda nozzle (um, how does that happen?) that got me. That and the old food in the fridge.

From the report:

BACON STUFFING PREPARED 5/27, POTATO SOUP 5/29, RED CABBAGE SOUP 6/7 & 5/20, GREEN BEANS 6/6, AND GOULASH 5/22. THESE ITEMS ARE PAST THE DISCARD DATE. DISCARD ALL FOOD OLDER THAN 7 DAYS FROM THE WALK IN.

EMPLOYEE THREW PRODUCTS AWAY.

Well, thank goodness for that.

by Amy Silverman

Look, I know times are tough. Money's tight. I'm happy to shop the clearance racks at Target, buy my kids' shoes at Last Chance and fork over my Safeway card to save a few pennies, even though it means some creepy marketing types will know my family subsists on Carnation Instant Breakfast, Diet Coke and Lorna Doones.

But I can't buy groceries at a 99 cent store, particularly after a day of reading county inspection reports. True, some 99 cents-ers do fine, but quite a few fail their inspections.

My favorite failing grade comes from the 99 Cent Only Store at 1240 E. Indian School Road. I'm not sure the place is even open anymore -- all I get is a busy signal when I call -- but if it is, you might want to avoid anything edible. And be careful where you step. The store has repeatedly received "no award" inspections from Maricopa County's restaurant inspection team (they're dispatched all over the place, it turns out, even to the county jail -- a most boring report there, I'm sad to say).

This particular dispatch, dated May 9, starts off rather run-of-the-mill:

SEVERAL DENTED CANS (BEANS, CHILI, ETC) AND YOGURT CONTAINERS WERE HEAVILY DENTED AND DAMAGED ON THE SEAMS. THE CANS AND YOGURT WERE OUT ON THE AISLES FOR SALE. MANAGER IS DISCARDING ALL DAMAGED ITEMS.

But the next comment is what caught my eye (and imagination):

THE AISLES HAD DRIED BLOOD RESIDUE IN AISLES 1-5 AS A REMAINDER FROM THE INCIDENT THE PREVIOUS DAY. EMPLOYEES WASHED AND SANITIZED FLOORS THOROUGHLY.

Incident? Carnage at the 99 Cent Only Store? A rush on 99 cent yogurt?

No wonder the containers were dented.

by Amy Silverman

Ice, ice baby.

Well, maybe not. I know ice is all any of us want, right about now, but beware. After my gross discovery last week, I decided to focus on ice and drinks (and the stuff that they come out of) as a theme this week.

Makes me want to stick to my bottles of Propel, no matter how pricey.

For example:

On June 10, Maricopa County's environmental services restaurant inspectors noted of the 7-Eleven at 5125 S. Mill Avenue, Tempe, “SODA NOZZLES HAVE THICK BACTERIAL SLIME”.

On June 12, “NOTED WATER DISPENSER NOZZLE WITH ORGANIC SLIME MOLD ACCUMULATION,” at (of all places, fancy-shmancy!) the Village Racquet & Health Club, 4444 E. Camelback Road.

Both problems were resolved on the spot, according to the inspection reports.

On June 13, the Maricopa County restaurant inspections team noted, “ICE MACHINE HAD AN ACCUMULATION OF SLIME MOLD AND DIRT,” at the Airport Chevron, 2402 E. Washington Street. That place got some time to clean up its act: “INSTRUCTED EMPLOYEE TO TAKE ICE OUT AND WASH, RINSE AND SANITIZE EQUIPMENT. REINSPECT IN 14 DAYS”.

Drink up!

by Amy Silverman

I'm going to be brutally honest here.

If they'd given the AIMS test when I was in school, that's where I'd be today -- in school.

And if Maricopa County's restaurant inspectors came to my own kitchen, I'd fail that test, too.

But I'm damn glad we've got those pesky inspectors poking around local restaurants, because let me tell you, they find some nasty stuff. True, the test is tough -- you better not have a knife out of place or an employee smacking gum, when the inspector comes a knockin'. Just getting a less-than-perfect score doesn't disqualify your joint as a place I'd visit -- some major offenses are pretty minor, in the scheme of things.

Still, I've been reading these reports, in preparation for our newest Chow Bella feature, "Gross Out," and yeah, I'm officially grossed out. Amongst the wrist-slappings for open beverages in the kitchen and lack of proper food service credentialing are some pretty grody grievances.

Each week, I'll bring you something from the latest batch of reports -- a smorgasboard, if you will, of unappetizing tidbits about Valley restaurants (and maybe even a day care center or two, I see them on the reports as well). It's nothing you can't get yourself online at maricopa.gov -- just plug in your favorite (or least favorite) spot, but I will get the most current reports out there for you.

And so, with no further ado, and in no particular order, here are my picks (or not-picks) for the week. The county gives each inspected restaurant a designation of Gold, Silver or No Award. These three all received "No Award" in their current inspections (and some going back farther -- again, it's all available online).

Feel like a nice, icy frappa-whatever? Well, be warned, because more than one Starbucks report I saw mentioned mold on the ice maker (one mentioned "pink mold" -- ack! the dreaded pink mold!). The worst was the Starbucks at 4340 E. Indian School Road, where in June the inspector noted (along with improper employee hand-washing techniques):

"INSIDE OF ICE MACHINE HAS AN ACCUMULATION OF SLIME MOLD".

It should be noted that the problem was fixed on the spot. But bummer if you'd aleady guzzled down a venti iced latte earlier in the day, befure the inspector arrived!

Another bummer? The lack of hot water at Kabuki Japanese Restaurant, 2000 E. Rio Salado Pkwy, Tempe, at least one day in May.

I'll be honest: I'm not down with the whole raw fish thing. (Or the fish thing in general, but that's a whole other story -- I'm not going to bore you here with my phobias; we'll stick to dirty restaurants, I promise.) If I WERE to eat raw fish, I wouldn't want it to be from a place that had no hot water for -- according to employee reports -- at least a day. Lucky the inspectors showed up and the owners closed the place down, although when I called recently, a nice hostess insisted Kabuki never has closed since its opening at the beginning of the year.

In any case, the "No Award" report for Kabuki (its second, it failed in February, too) noted dirty and excessively long fingernails on two different employees (one long, the other dirty), as well as a mysterious "UNLABELED BULK WHITE FOOD IN KITCHEN," according to the inspector.

Finally, we have Tortas El Guero, 2518 N. 16th Street, a favorite of our food critic, Michele Laudig, who used an expletive when I told her about this. (She hasn't been to Tortas El Guero in a while. Here's her review: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-06-14/dining/drive-thru-detour/.) Frankly, most of the concerns -- the lack of food handler cards, the white cheese left out, or the container of el pastor (spicy pork) stored on the floor of the walk-in refrigerator -- bothered me.

But the following did stop me:

"RAW TURKEY TAIL PLACED ON TOP SHELF AT NORTH END OF WALK IN REFRIGERATOR ABOVE READY TO EAT HAM AND RED SAUCE. ASKED COOK TO REMOVE RAW TURKEY TAIL AND PLACED ON BOTTOM SHELF"

I'm not sure there's ever a good way to talk about raw turkey tail.