Roaches, Rodents and Mold on an Epiphany? Restaurant Inspections for East Boca

villagio
Update: Villagio in Mizner Park was temporarily closed on May 20th due to roaches, and there was also a stop sale due to raw beef being left out all night. They had a total of 23 violations.

High Priority – Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed approximately 10 inside a broken oven that is not in use on the cook’s line.
Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. Piece of raw beef left at room temperature all night.

stir-combine
Stir Crazy at Town Center has had a string of rough inspections over the last several months. The worst of it, recently, was on April 27th when they were closed by inspectors for the day due to both roaches and rodents.

Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed approximately 10 live roaches by the walkin cooler, 3 live roaches by dry storage shelving, 10 live roaches by the dish machine, 16 live roaches by the cookline area, 1 live roach at the employee restroom and 2 live roaches by the mop sink.
Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. Observed approximately 15 dry rodent droppings in upstairs storage room.

The restaurant appears to struggling with inspections. We count six inspections since February with four requiring follow-ups. Four of those inspections happened in the last three weeks. Their first inspection in February found dead roaches and as we reported in August, they had problems with rodents on an inspection in July.
Usually when we see a place have a bad inspection they respond with near-perfect inspections for at least a little while. Stir Crazy seems to be having trouble getting things right. The April 27th inspection found 17 violations and only couple weeks later they had 16 violations.
While that was probably the worst inspection in this report, it is not the worst number. Yakitori Sake House in Royal Palm Plaza “wins” that prize with a total of 40 violations including 8 marked “high priority,” some of which are a bit unnerving:

Dishmachine chlorine sanitizer not at proper minimum strength. Discontinue use of dishmachine for sanitizing and set up manual sanitization until dishmachine is repaired and sanitizing properly. 0 ppm chlorine, corrected to 100 ppm chlorine. **Corrected On-Site**
Employee handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands. **Corrected On-Site**
Employee handled soiled equipment or utensils and then engaged in food preparation, handled clean equipment or utensils, or touched unwrapped single-service items without washing hands. Dishwasher from handling dirty equipment to handling clean plates without washing hands first.
Employee washed hands with no soap. **Corrected On-Site**
Food stored in ice used for drinks. Water bottle and apple at bar.
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above. Sushi rice at 109° F in sushi bar area under no temperature control. Rice time marked. Assisted operator in completing application for time as a public health control. **Corrective Action Taken**
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food. Raw shrimp over prepped veggies at walkin cooler. Raw fish over cream cheese and krab at sushi bar cooler. **Corrected On-Site**
Raw animal foods not properly separated from one another based upon minimum required cooking temperature in reach-in freezer – all products not commercially packaged. Raw chicken next to and touching raw beef at Whirlpol cooler. Raw chicken over raw shrimp at Whirlpol cooler.**Corrected On-Site**

Yakitori Sake House did follow up with a near-perfect inspection a week later.
Second worst in total number was Chick N Chop on Federal Highway with 31 violations including the most interesting one we’ve ever seen:

Food with mold-like growth. See stop sale. Observed a gray mold growing on an epiphany in a case of eggplant in the rear prep area. **Warning**

We’re not sure how an epiphany would get into a case of eggplant, what it would look like, or how mold would grow on it. But we don’t think we’d want to eat that.
ninos2
Another bad one goes to Nino’s of Boca II on NE 5th Ave (east of Federal Highway north of Glades). They had 13 violations and some kind of emergency order recommended. They’ve had some bad inspections as we mentioned in March, and October. This may have been the final straw because it looks like the restaurant has closed. Their website is gone and their phone number is disconnected. Because they’re closed we can’t find the latest inspection report, though it was covered by BizJournals.com:

ordered to close temporarily for a fourth time this year on March 16 for rodent problems, when inspectors found rodent droppings near cooking equipment in the kitchen

Now for the real winners:
Several places had perfect inspections, including the Cinemark theater, Strikes bowling, PF Chang’s, Estia Greek Taverna, Amitie Cafe, Lion & Eagle Pub, Funky Buddha Lounge, Skyview Cafe, Little Caesars, and several places within the Boca Raton Resort.
Other notables with good numbers include Shake Shack on Glades and Sushi Ray in Town Center Circle with just two violations each. Morton’s of Chicago in Town Center Circle had only three minor violations.
Others with 10 or more violations were:
Federal Highway:
Renzo’s Cafe Pizzeria, Sushi of Boca Raton, Taverna Kyma (including a stop sale due to temperature problems), Sinful Sandwich, Piezano’s Pizza & Pasta, Sonny’s Gelato CAfe, adn Sakura Thai & Japanese.
Mizner Park & Royal Palm Plaza:
Dubliner, Sapphire Indian, Casimir Bistro, Lemongrass
Other:
Dean Anthony’s Express Pizza (Yamato), Cheescake Factory, DaVinci’s of Boca (Town Center), Boca’s Best Pizza Bar, and Bogart’s Bar & Grille
As usual, our full spreadsheet is below.
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/eastboca-5-2015.pdf”]

7 Restaurants Get Inspection Warnings

Seven Boca restaurants received warnings in late July and early August from inspectors. Despite receiving formal warnings requiring follow-up inspections, their overall numbers weren’t that bad compared to some other restaurants we’ll discuss below. This report covers inspections up to August 8th.
The worst of the warnings was Stir Crazy in Town Center, with 8 violations including rodent activity. The rodent problem was cleared the next day but they still had 4 minor violations on the follow-up inspection.
West of the Turnpike, Sybarite Pig had only 3 violations which is a pretty low number. One was related to hand washing and another a fairly minor deviation in food temperatures. It looks like the warning was for the third violation, lack of proof of employee training and that will mean a follow-up inspection.
Bruce’s of Great Neck had zero “high priority” violations and five minor ones, but also was missing proof of employee training.
Four other places east of the Turnpike showed up on the warning list. Abe & Louie’s on Glades had three “high priority” violations including food temperature issues. That led to a follow-up inspection the next day which was perfect.
Nick’s New Haven Pizzeria had 8 violations including food storage and food temperature, and also a problem with proof of employee training.
Le Rivage received a couple of warnings related to documentation on smoked salmon and “not maintaining mussel for 90 days,” along with a chlorine sanitizer problem.
The last warning was for the Subway on Palmetto Circle South, and again it appears to be for employee training documentation.

Outside of the warnings, the worst inspection in this report goes to City Fish Market near the Turnpike with 21 total violations including 5 ranked “high priority.” Those five were:

3 Live flies in the front bar.
Dishwasher handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands.
Employee failed to wash hands before putting on new set of gloves to work with food.
Food container stored in lettuce draw used for customer consumption. **Corrected On-Site**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Olive with blue cheese at 66°. Corrective action taken and olive we’re put on ice and by the end of inspection olives with the blue cheese was at 41° **Corrected On-Site**

Others with big numbers include Taverna Kyma in East Boca with 17 violations including 5 high priority (17/5); Regency Japango (near Yamato and Jog with 13/2); It’s All Greek (13/2) and Shorty’s Bar-B-Q (13/5) in The Reserve at Clint Moore and 441; and Rocco’s Taco’s (12/1) near Town Center. Jimmy the Greek Taverna on Glades near Boca Rio had 11 violations but all were minor. Apparently the inspectors were after the Greeks this month. Shorty’s also had a poor inspection in late March.
On the bright side, six restaurants had perfect non-callback inspections. Vinny’s All Day Cafe in Regency Court along with the Dunkin Donuts in the same plaza, and four other fast food joints – McDonald’s on Palmetto Park near Powerline, Subway and Burger King on Glades just west of Boca Rio, and Domino’s in Mission Bay Plaza.

Confession: We’ve been in Mission Bay Plaza hundreds of times and never noticed a Domino’s Pizza.

Other West Boca notables in the inspections include:
Regency Court (Jog & Yamato)
Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ – 10/2
Meatball Room – 5/0
Yamato & 441
Puccini’s Pizzeria – 10/2
Gary Woo Express – 5/1
Mission Bay
TGI Friday’s – 7/3
IHOP – 3/0
Shadowood
Einstein Brothers Bagels – 9/1
Boston Market – 4/1
Boca Village Square
Juice and Java – 5/0
Duffy’s Sports Grill – 5/2
Davito’s in Boca Greens, with a fairly low 5 violations including 1 high priority
Miller’s Boca Ale House on Glades west of Lyons – 8/0
Bagelworks (near Boca Rio) – 7/0
Olive Garden (Powerline south of Palmetto Park) – 4/1
Sal’s Italian (near Olive Garden) – 3/0
Steven’s Pizzeria (West Boca Square) – 8/0
— Note that the name has changed to Lenny’s Kosher Pizza. We’re not sure if the inspection is for the old place or the new one.
Pizza Chef Bistro (441 near the county line) – 6/2
Also, there were several inspections in the plazas just east of Town Center:
Hooters – 3/1
Toojays – 6/0
Gyroville – 4/1
Shane’s Rib Shack – 3/3
Corner Bakery Cafe – 3/1
Five Guys – 1/1