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”]

Author: Warren Redlich

Warren Redlich is a real estate agent and an attorney. He focuses on selling homes in West Boca Raton. Call or text Warren at 561-536-3645. Warren is also a tech YouTuber covering Tesla, SpaceX and more. His YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/c/WarrenRedlich/ and he sells Elon Musk related t-shirts and other merchadise at https://ElonBits.com. Warren also publishes videos about politics at https://warrenredlich.locals.com/