Tastee Troubles in West Boca Inspections

The Tastee Express hot dog vendors have had a lot of inspection troubles in the last month or so. Usually the inspection reports from these “mobile” vendors are near perfect so a string of bad reports stands out. We typically don’t report them because we only know they’re based in West Boca but we don’t know where they are.
From state records there appear to be six of the Tastee Express units based out of the industrial/warehouse units at 10058 Spanish Isles Blvd, with a “main address” nearby in Boca Gardens. The owners also have a residence address in Century Village.

Tastee Express #8 had emergency orders against it on both April 6th, 7th and April 27th with temporary closures each time. In total violations the worst inspection was May 13th with 20 including 4 marked high priority.

Displayed food not properly protected from contamination. Hot dogs and sausages hot holding on grill uncovered. **Repeat Violation** **Warning**
Employee failed to wash hands beforechanging gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food. **Repeat Violation** **Admin Complaint**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Not enough ice – hot dogs range in temperature from 39-64°. **Repeat Violation** **Warning**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above. Polish kielbasa and Italian sausage hot holding at 117-120°, peppers and onions at 130°. **Repeat Violation** **Warning**

Another one, Tastee Express #10, was also temporarily closed on May 14th and may not have reopened. It’s possible this is the vendor in front of Lowe’s which we noticed maybe a week or two ago.
Unfortunately we can’t know where these mobile food operations are located so it’s hard to advise our readers which ones to avoid. As we said earlier, most mobile vendors have very good inspection reports. Based on this we’re going to avoid any Tastee Express vendors until this gets cleared up.
On the bright side Tastee Express 9 had a perfect inspection in late April.

The worst of the regular restaurants in this report goes to Mama’s NYC in Logger’s Run Plaza, which had 16 violations in late March including 7 high priority and some items removed in “stop-sale” orders. The main problem appears to have been food temperatures.

Deli meats cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Ham 59°, mortadella 55°, cheese 42°, tomato 53°
Employee failed to wash hands before putting on new set of gloves to work with food.
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil and garlic 55°, cheese 56°, lettuce 56°, corrective action taken, moved all items to walk in cooler
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food identified in the written procedure as a food held using time as a public health control has no time marking and the time removed from temperature control cannot be determined. See stop sale. **Corrected On-Site**
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in walk-in cooler. Raw chicken over cooked lasagna **Corrected On-Site**
Refrigerated potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food received at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Pasta 51°, spaghetti 52°, ziti 51°, moved all items yo walk in cooler. Corrective action taken.
Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. Ham 59°, mortadella 55°, cheese 42°, tomato 53°

Next worst was Packy’s in the same plaza, which had 10 violations in late April. Only two were marked high priority and there were no stop sales or other problems.
Mozart Cafe off Powerline and Josef’s Table in Polo Club Shoppes also had 10 violations with only one marked high priority each.
Winners in this month’s report include the recently remodeled Wendy’s in Logger’s Run Plaza and the new Rafina Greek restaurant in Wharfside Village (replacing Euro Fusion), which had perfect inspections. Brooklyn Water Bagel on Powerline and the McDonald’s on Clint Moore both came close with only one minor violation.
The new Lemon Grass Hotpot in Boca Grove had only three violations. We hope to try both that and Rafina soon.
Our full spreadsheet is below.
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/westboca-5-2015.pdf”]