None of us likes to see our favorite restaurant on Dirty Dining.
So imagine Darcy Spears' surprise when a place where she regularly eats was shut down by the Health District.
Tonight we begin with roaches and end with coffee as Darcy takes us Dirty Dining.
Aloha kitchen on Decatur and Sahara tops this week's Dirty Dining list with a 38-demerit C grade.
"And we apologize to all of our customers out there and we worked very hard to correct all of the issues," said Manager Karen Simonsen.
Their issues included a fridge condenser dripping onto an open container of banana pancake batter, raw tuna poke at an unsafe temperature and a cutting board and pan in clean storage that were soiled with food debris.
There were also numerous flies in the kitchen, and inspectors saw two live cockroaches walking across the dining room floor.
"Extermination was in progress," Simonsen said. "Like I said, we worked very hard to correct all of the issues and I believe that we are back in compliance."
The biggest thing out of compliance was a host of handwashing violations involving multiple employees handling raw chicken, raw eggs and one failing to wear gloves over a Band-Aid.
There was a piece of egg shell on a cooked pork cutlet because an employee didn't wash his hands between cracking raw eggs and handling the ready-to-eat food. Thanks to the inspector, it was thrown in the trash instead of served to the customer.
Darcy: And that's kind of a basic thing that I know you probably expect all your employees to have figured out.
Karen: Right. And we have gone through re-training with all of that.
They also stored raw pork over salad dressing, soiled wiping cloths on food prep tables and there was excess build-up on appliances, floors and base coverings.
Simonsen says the C grade was a shock, but also a wake-up call from health inspectors.
"We appreciate their--all of their input, all the time--because, you know, we all eat out. We all do."
The first imminent health hazard closure came at a place where Darcy Spears eats almost every week: Kung Fu Plaza restaurant on Spring Mountain and Valley View was shut down for a cockroach infestation.
There were live and dead multi-generational German roaches in the kitchen and on wheels of equipment.
Inspectors found conditions inviting to pests, like grease and food debris build-up on floors, walls and other surfaces.
The other imminent health hazard closure was Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at the Venetian.
It was shut down for a sewage back-up.
Dirty water was pooling on floors as employees worked in the coffee prep stations.
Aloha Kitchen, Kung Fu and Coffee Bean are all back to A grades.
