In tonight's Dirty Dining, a local restaurant owner call a C grade nothing but a money grab by the Southern Nevada Health District.
"They're cutting their own throat by doing this," said Manna Owner Ray Shaughnessy. He and his wife are the "mom and pop" behind the little Korean restaurant, which sits in the Campus Commons on West Charleston near Torrey Pines.
Manna is leading the Dirty Dining list with a 36-demerit C grade from a November 5 inspection.
"I just think they're too picky. I think they look for things to downgrade people on. And it's a shame because they're making money off of this. You know? They charge $477 for this C grade," Shaughnessy said.
Inspectors documented improper hand-washing, meat being prepared next to dirty dish water and raw chicken stored over ready to eat food.
"She (health inspector) found some milk in the refrigerator that was like 10 days expired. Well, I don't even know how it got there," Ray said.
Actually, the milk was nearly three weeks expired.
Still, Ray says inspectors were nitpicking his kitchen, finding what he calls, "Very little cleanliness or anything that would cause anybody any harm."
"What about cutting carrots on newspaper?" Darcy Spears asked. "You don't want newsprint on your cut vegetables."
"Actually," Ray said, "I wasn't cutting on paper. I was cutting on a plastic board."
In the Health District's picture, you can see the knife resting right on the newspaper and there's no visible board.
Inspectors also wrote up heavily soiled bowls stored as clean.
And multiple potentially hazardous foods with no date labels.
"We've been here 10 years," said Ray. "We have no bad reports with the Health Department."
Contact 13 checked that and found, according to the Health District, the C grade Manna has now is actually the second C they've had in just the last six months.
There are three closures to talk about. All for the same imminent health hazard.
Employees at the Signature portable bar at the MGM grand couldn't properly wash their hands. There was also gray water running onto the handsink cabinet and the carpeted floor.
Taqueria El Sembrador, a portable, outdoor unit on Civic Center and Cheyenne, was shut down for no hot water.
Chavez Produce at the Broadacres swap meet met the same fate. Also, an employee handled cash, then went directly to handling food. Food was uncovered and unprotected from contamination. And the person in charge was not actively managing food-borne illness risk factors.
Manna still has a C grade and El Sembrador is still closed.
Chavez Produce and MGM's Signature bar are both back open with A grades.
