Live flies landing on onions, plantains and cooked corn in the kitchen, and rodent droppings littered the floors and shelves at three South Florida restaurants ordered shut last week by state inspectors.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel typically highlights restaurant inspections conducted by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Broward and Palm Beach counties. We cull through inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for “high-priority violations,” such as improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches.
Any restaurant that fails a state inspection must stay closed until it passes a follow-up. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR here. (But please don’t contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesn’t inspect restaurants.
Crafty Crab, Coral Springs
9511 Westview Drive
Ordered shut: July 19 and July 20, reopened July 21
Why: State inspectors unearthed 12 violations (five of them high-priority), including at least 40 live flies swarming around and landing “on soda boxes” at the soda station, “on the wall and on single-service items and prep counters” on storage shelves in the kitchen near the cookline and “inside dish machine” in the kitchen.
The restaurant was ordered to stop selling and trash its cooked corn “due to adulteration of food product” after one fly landed on top of it. (The restaurant operation later discarded the corn in front of the inspector.)
Inspectors also noted a few sanitary issues, including one employee who was “preparing food (without a) hair restraint,” and another employee who “opened (a) bottle of water (near) cooked food in a walk-in cooler.”
The restaurant was ordered shut a second time on July 20 for more unresolved fly woes, but was allowed to reopen the following day when the state found a single basic issue.
Blue Anchor, Delray Beach
904 E. Atlantic Ave.
Ordered shut: July 20, reopened July 21
Why: The state discovered three violations (two high-priority), led by 10 rodent droppings (but no rodent) found “underneath floor mats at cook line,” “underneath shelf at dry storage area” and “underneath slicer table by the walk-in cooler” in the kitchen.
The state also red-flagged “raw animal food stored over/not properly separated from ready-to-eat food,” citing the storage of “raw fish above mashed potatoes at walk-in cooler.” (The operator moved the items around.)
The restaurant was allowed to reopen the following day, July 21, when the state found zero new issues. Blue Anchor was last ordered shut twice in May for similar rodent issues, including a dead rodent.
Jerk Machine, Fort Lauderdale
317 SW Sixth St.
Ordered shut: July 20, reopened July 21
Why: 10 violations (seven of them high-priority), including at least 60 live flies swarming around “kitchen, not landing,” as well as “landing on onions on dry storage shelf in kitchen” and “landing on plantains” stored in the same area of the kitchen.
The restaurant was ordered to stop selling and junk its fly-tainted onions and plantains, which the operator did in front of inspectors. The eatery was also ordered to toss its cooked oxtail because “food did not reach proper temperature in allotted time.”
Inspectors also cited a few sanitation issues, including “dough storied in to-go bags inside low boy cooler in kitchen,” “in-use utensil stored in standing water” that was near-room temperature instead of “in empty container,” and “food debris inside microwave in kitchen.”
State inspectors let the jerk restaurant to reopen the next day after finding just a single basic violation.