We shot these photos last night using a Nikon D5300 with a Sigma 18-250 lens, mostly at F/7.1 and ISO 200. And we tried to make it into an animated GIF. Did it work?
Here are the stills. The last two, after the moon had turned orange, did not come out as well. We think this was because clouds had moved in, but we’re not sure. Our neighbor was using a telescope and was having similar problems once the color changed. All photos taken from Boca Falls.
Month: September 2015
Roaches at La Bamba in Margate
The worst inspection of the week goes to La Bamba II on Sample Road in Margate, with 32 violations and live roaches. Six of the violations were marked high priority:
- Employee washed hands with no soap. Employee washed in prep sink without using soap. Rewashed hands correctly in proper sink. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
- Evidence of mop/cleaning wastewater dumped onto ground. Behind restaurant **Warning**
- Live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, or food storage area. In ware washing area **Warning**
- Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Tuna 44° at prep line cooler in kitchen. Put on ice **Corrective Action Taken** **Repeat Violation** **Warning**
- Raw animal foods not properly separated from one another based upon minimum required cooking temperature in walk-in cooler. Ground beef stored over steaks. Moved **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
- Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed 3 live roaches in ware washing area next to the dish machine **Warning**
The worst West Boca inspection goes to Hashi Sushi Thai in Shadowood. They normally have decent inspections. We’ve never seen a particularly bad one for them. But on the 25th they got hit with 24 violations in a routine inspection. Four of the violations were marked high priority:
- Employees failed to wash hands before changing gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food.
- Nonexempt fish offered raw or undercooked has not undergone proper parasite destruction. Fish must be fully cooked or discarded. – 37.7 lbs. of fresh Scottish Salmon delivered on 9/24/15.
- Raw animal foods not properly separated from each other in holding unit. – raw seafoods and raw chicken stored together in ice in a large ‘Coleman’ cooler
- Vacuum breaker missing at hose bibb or on fitting/splitter added to hose bibb. – at rear mop sink.
On the Good News part of the inspections, Southwinds Golf Course (west side of Lyons south of Yamato) had a perfect inspection.
The Pizza Hut delivery place on St. Andrews had only one minor violation.
Holloway’s Irish Pub on SW 18th on the east side of Powerline (near Carrabba’s) had 2 minor violations.
Maggiano’s on St. Andrews had only 2 violations, which is impressive for a restaurant that is so big with such a diverse menu.
Pinon Grill at Town Center had 3 violations.
Steve’s Wood Fired Pizza on the south side of Glades near Lyons had just four minor violations. Miller’s Ale House in the same plaza had seven violations.
In other not so great news, a couple places we like in Promenade did not do so well. Mama’s Asian Noodle had 16 violations, and Ethos Greek Bistro had 15.
Viking Steak and Seafood in Delray had 15 violations, after recording 22 in our last report a week ago.
Efe’s Bistro in Somerset Shoppes had 11 violations.
Bluefin Sushi in Parkland had 10.
Brendy’s (Yamato at Lakeridge, near Doris Market) had 10 violations.
Our full spreadsheet is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/allinsp-9-27-15.pdf”]
Recent Home Sales in Boca West, Santa Barbara and Woodfield Hunt Club
The 33434 zip code includes homes between 441 and St. Andrews Blvd, North of Glades Road to Yamato Road. Neighborhoods in this area include Boca West Country Club, Hamptons at Boca Raton, Woodfield Hunt Club, Santa Barbara and Century Village.
Boca West is a top rated country club with four championship golf courses and 31 tennis courts. The Aquatics Center has lots of activities and a sprawling free form pool. The Sports Center has a fitness center and aerobics studio. The community has six restaurants. All homeowners must pay an initial $70,000 membership fee. Close to Town Center Mall, the Club has entrances on Glades Road and Yamato Road.
The contemporary ranch at 19426 Chapel Creek Drive was sold for $580,000 by our sister brokerage, Realty at Boca West. It has 3 bedrooms and 4.1 bathrooms in 2915 sq. feet of living space. Each bedroom has its own bathroom. The home is located on a large corner lot and features a beautiful pool, screened-in lanai and fenced in yard with views of the golf course. A special amenity is a built in BBQ. The home was built in 1985 for $470,000 and purchased in 1996 for $570,000.
19367 Chapel Creek Drive sold for $710,000. It has 3 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms in 3,248 sq. feet of living space.
19515 Island Court Drive sold for $500,000. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms in 2614 sq. feet of living space.
19557 Bay View Road sold for $490,000. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms in 2124 sq. feet of living space.
19451 Cedar Glen Drive sold for $470,000. It has 3 bedrooms and 2.1 bathrooms in 2396 sq. feet of living space.
19880 Sawgrass Lane 3902 sold for $385,000. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms in 1994 sq. feet of living space.
20562 Linksview Drive in Cypress Point Villas sold for $320,000. It has 3 bedrooms and 2.1 bathrooms in 2097 sq. feet of living space.
Santa Barbara is a gated community with a clubhouse, a newly refurbished fitness room, tennis courts and resort style pool and spa. It is located close to the Town Center Mall between St. Andrews and Jog Road just north of Glades Road.
The Mediterranean style home at 6197 NW 23rd Road sold for $535,000. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms in 2434 sq. feet of living space. A unique feature of the home is the 2 master suites. The home has vaulted ceilings and sky lights also. There is a large in ground pool with views of the lake. Built in 1991, the home sold for $346,500 in 2000.
20670 NW 26th Avenue sold for $600,000. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms in 2503 sq. feet of living space.
Woodfield Hunt Club is a gated community located on Jog Road just south of Yamato Road. The community has two parks, 5 tennis courts and basketball courts. There is a large clubhouse as well. Non-equity memberships in Woodfield Country club are available to residents. Students attend Omni Middle School and Spanish River Community High School.
The traditional home at 3090 Equestrian drive sold for $705,000. There are 4 bedrooms and 4 full bathrooms in 3551 sq. feet of living space. There is a spacious, open floor plan with a wet bar. The family room features a beautiful fireplace. The master bedrooms has french doors leading to the patio. Built in 1983 for $305,000, it was last sold in 1993 for $425,000.
Other Neighborhoods
3375 NW 28th Avenue in Boca Madera sold for $410,000. It has 4 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms in 2130 sq. feet of living space.
6367 NW 24th Street in Glades Landing sold for $381,000. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms in 1952 sq. feet of living space.
9530 Trivolo Place in Boca Fontana sold for $320,000. It has 4 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms in 2018 sq. feet of living space.
9468 Richmond Circle in Southwind Lakes sold for $316,000. It has 4 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms in 1737 sq. feet of living space.
Are you ready to buy or sell West Boca real estate? Call Realtor® Warren Redlich at 888-733-5299 or send him an e-mail: [email protected].
Our unique advantage: We will feature your home on West Boca News.
Getting the word out about your house helps bring in more offers, helping it sell more quickly and for a higher price. Some of our readers are potential buyers, and many more have friends and family who are thinking of moving here.
No one else can put your house on West Boca News.
Warranty Issues at Frameless Shower Doors
Update: The company came and fixed our shower door at no charge. The workers were pleasant and careful. They cleaned up after themselves and were even good with the dog. The problem was a bent lower hinge. They replaced both hinges even though the upper one did not appear to be damaged.
So far the company has not changed the warranty language on their website. We have encouraged them to do so and will update this article if and when they let us know that it has been done.
Before they came we had spoken with a customer service representative and a manager (twice) who both insisted that there was an $85 labor charge. The manager even read the warranty language with us over the phone and still wouldn’t budge. It was only after they became aware of our complaint on Angie’s List and/or this article that they agreed to waive the charge.
With all that said, the shower door looked good new and still looks good now. The price was very reasonable. They’re a good company and we would recommend them to others, but with a caveat that their warranty is not what it seems.
—–
We had a bad experience this morning with “Frameless Shower Doors & Enclosures, Inc.” and we’d like to warn consumers about it. The company is based in Coral Springs.
Back in 2011 we bought a frameless shower door from them. It looks good and has been fine for the past 3+ years. But in the last few weeks we’ve noticed a popping noise.
We found the invoice and called for service. While calling we noticed their website’s installation page describes a lifetime warranty with service free of charge:
All of our installations (South Florida residents) are backed by a free lifetime warranty.* If your custom frameless shower door and/or enclosure ever leaks, squeaks, or if your hardware tarnishes or comes loose, simply call our office and we will send a crew out to your home to address your concerns and if need be, replace your hardware free of charge.
We are so confident in our work and our product that we can offer this guarantee for the lifetime of your enclosure, free of charge.
So you can imagine our surprise when we were told there would be a labor charge of $85 for them to come out and check the problem. The customer service rep told us that her manager said the “free of charge” applies only to hardware. She offered to let me speak to the manager. After a few minutes on hold she came back on to say that the manager was no longer available but I could call back.
There is an asterisk next to “free lifetime warranty” but there’s no asterisk at the bottom of the page, nor anywhere else, that explains what the asterisk is for. And there is no asterisk anywhere near the words “free of charge.”
We read the above text to the customer service rep and she did not accept the language from their own website, deferring instead to her unavailable manager.
Is this merely a customer service fail, or fraud by the company? Should we switch to a company like GlassShowerDirect.com? Please let us know what you think in the comments, either on the website or on our Facebook page.
Roach-A-Cino? Restaurant Inspection Report
Many people get turned off by inspection reports. We usually don’t let one rough inspection bother us but this week’s report has a couple major turn-offs.
Leading off in the Yuck category is Bonaccino Café, a little place near one of the east entrances of Town Center Mall (by the parking structure and Willams-Sonoma). They were temporarily closed and the inspection report indicates a total of 24 violations including 10 marked high priority. Here are some of the lowlights:
- Employee failed to wash hands beforechanging gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food. Cook washed hands and changed gloves upon request. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
- In-use utensil stored in unclean water at or above 135 degrees Fahrenheit, crepe wand 78°. Ice cream scoops 76°. **Warning**
- 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. Crepe batter 68°. **Warning**
- Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found, 1 live on counter, expo station, 1 live smoothie station, 5 live under counter crepe station. 1 live in cupboard across from crepe station. **Warning**
- Roach activity present as evidenced by roach egg sacs found, 3 inside cabin at smoothie station. 5 under crepe station. **Warning**
- Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. **Warning**
If that’s not bad enough there was still one major problem the next day:
Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found, 1 live on counter, expo station, 1 live smoothie station, 5 live under counter crepe station. 1 live in cupboard across from crepe station. **Warning** At time of the callback on 09/17/15, 2 live by crepe station, 1 live by smoothie station, 1 live by ice machine. To deal with a roach problem, or infestation of any kind, bringing in the professionals like Economy Exterminators is a surefire way to deal with pests swiftly and cost-effectively.
Romano’s Macaroni Grill recorded another bad inspection. They had a total of 21 violations including 6 marked high priority:
- Live, small flying insects in kitchen near dry storage and prep table with slicer.
- Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Veal at 50° F at cookline , sauté 1 cooler.placed in walkin cooler. Butter 47° F to 48° within 1 hour at pizza prep cooler. Sent to cool down at walkin cooler. **Corrective Action Taken**
- Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food prepared from/mixed with ingredient(s) at ambient temperature not cooled to 41 degrees Fahrenheit within 4 hours. Lobster 52° F, prepped 4 hours ago. Discarded. Chicken 50° F to 50° F within 1 hour at sauté station 1 cooler. At current rate of cooling food will not reach 41° F within the four hour limit. **Corrected On-Site**
- Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food reheated for hot holding not reaching 165 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds within 2 hours. Lasagna at 110° F reheating for a total of 1.5 hr. At current rate of reheating food will not reach 165° F within the 2 hour limit at the steam stable. Reheated for to 193° F at oven. **Corrected On-Site**
- Quaternary ammonium sanitizer not at proper minimum strength for manual warewashing. Do not use equipment/utensils not properly sanitized. 100 ppm quat at 3 compartment sink. Corrected to 200 ppm quat. **Corrected On-Site**
- Raw animal food stored in top portion of make table over ready-to-eat food in bottom portion of make table _ no complete physical barrier between top and bottom. Raw chicken over sauce on top of make table where drippings from raw food can contaminate ready to eat foods. Moved raw chicken to bottom and sauce to top adjacent to cookline. **Corrected On-Site**
Romano’s was temporarily closed twice this summer for rodents, once not long ago, and earlier with a total of 48 violations. On the bright side they weren’t shut down this time.
Casa Tequila, on Glades just west of the Turnpike, had the highest number with 27 violations. Only 3 were high priority but one of them was for rodent droppings:
Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. 8 dry rodent droppings in storage closet in shared mall hallway in common area. – outside (opened) kitchen rear door in long access hallway to trash area is evidence of infestation. Dried rodent feces.
In Delray just southwest of Military and Atlantic, the relatively new Vikings Steak Seafood and Sushi Buffet had 22 violations including 6 high priority.
The Good News
A few restaurants had excellent inspections. Two places on Military Trail near Atlantic did well. Philly Grill had a perfect inspection with zero violations.
The Subway on Military Trail nearby also had a perfect inspection, as did the Subway on Federal Highway in East Boca. And the café at Osprey Point Golf Course also rang up a perfect inspection.
In Town Center two places were near-perfect: Blue Martini and Cups Frozen Yogurt each had just one minor violation. The Pollo Tropical in Delray did well with just four minor violations.
Other notables:
TGI Friday’s in Mission Bay had 5 violations with 2 marked high priority.
Lemongrass just south of Mizner Park had 7 violations with 1 marked high priority.
Brickyard on Palmetto Park had 9 violations with 2 marked high priority.
Shinju Buffet had a high number with 17 violations, but only one was marked high priority.
Stir Crazy in Town Center had 14 violations with 3 marked high priority.
Our full spreadsheet for this week is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/allinsp-9-20-2015.pdf”]