BUSINESS

Roaches, ‘unsanitary conditions’ close 5 PC restaurants in June

ZACK McDONALD
zmcdonald@pcnh.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: The News Herald publishes restaurant closures, health and safety violations on a monthly basis.

PANAMA CITY — Live roaches, improperly stored raw meat and potentially hazardous buffet chicken caused health inspectors to temporarily issue emergency closures for five area businesses last month, according to official reports.

In June, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations (DBPR) issued emergency closures to Burger King, 3218 E. Business Highway 98 in Panama City; Dat Cajun Place Café, 8501 Thomas Drive in Panama City Beach; Pho Express Vietnamese Bistro, 8776 Thomas Drive #5 in Panama City Beach; Graceville Bingo, 5361 Cotton St. in Graceville; and King House Tian Feng Inc, 20118 Central Ave., Suite 3 in Blountstown.

Sanitation and safety specialists reported finding conditions that could contribute directly to a food-borne illness or injury at the time of their respective inspections. All of the businesses have corrected the issue and were allowed to reopen during followup inspections, DBPR reports indicated.

DBPR specifies their inspection reports are snapshots of a business at that time only. Many of the closures were the first of their kind for the businesses and all remain open, according to DBPR reports, though an active state license for the burger King did not appear in state records.

The majority of closures were clustered around mid-month.

In the first closure of the month, investigators reported arriving about 5:30 p.m. June 11 at Pho Express to discover two live flying insects near the cook line, raw pork stored above soup in a reach-in cooler and roach activity around a cooler.

Inspectors “observed two live roaches between wall and make cooler,” DBPR reports stated. “Observed one live roach crawl on top of make cooler. Observed two live roaches crawling out of wall by make cooler.”

A person identifying herself as the owner of Pho Express, who declined to give a name, denied that DBPR ever visited the business. She also claimed Pho Express had not been issued an emergency closure.

Inspectors reported arriving the next day at 5:30 p.m. and allowing the restaurant to reopen after correcting the issues. The closure appears to be the first of its kind since being licensed in March 2016, DBPR reports indicate.

The day one inspector was allowing Pho Express to reopen, another was in Jackson County inspecting Graceville Bingo. That officer reported about 6 p.m. June 12, the business was operating with an expired license, had raw eggs stored over iced tea in a refrigerator, was missing a vacuum breaker at a mop sink faucet and showed signs of roach activity, DBPR reported.

“Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found,” officers wrote. “Found seven live roaches in cabinets at front counter and three live roaches in drawers at front counter. Two Live roaches in cabinets near stove and one live roach by freezer.”

Multiple attempts to contact the proprietors of Graceville Bingo were unsuccessful.

Graceville Bingo had been closed only a couple weeks earlier on May 24, when investigators found roach activity under a microwave, in utensils drawer by microwave, on a shelf across from the stove and on a coffee maker, officials reported.

However, the business was allowed to reopen the day after both emergency closures once the issues were corrected. Before the two closures in two months, the business had gone without an issue since being licensed in August 2015.

On June 14, inspectors arrived about noon to the Burger King on Business 98 in Springfield. Details from the inspection were unavailable, with DBPR officials only reporting that the closure was because of “unsanitary conditions.” However, the restaurant met inspection about 9:30 a.m. the next morning and was allowed to reopen.

Attempts to reach out to the business for comment went unanswered.

On June 18, inspectors arrived about 4 p.m. at Dat Cajun Place to find evidence of roach activity. Officials reported seeing 26 live roaches around a grease trap under the dish machine.

Trudy White, owner of Dat Cajun Place, said a pest control company comes to the restaurant twice a month. She said the bugs were contained to that one area, indicating they came in on an outside item.

“We had some boxes stored there,” White said. “That’s all I can think of how they would get in.”

White said the incident was the first of its kind, which DBPR reports confirmed. The business corrected the issue and was allowed to reopen at 9 a.m. the following day.

On June 19, inspectors arrived in Calhoun County to the King House at about 4:30 p.m. to find insect, food storage and other issues. DBPR reported finding six flying insects in the food preparation area of the kitchen, a total of 10 live roaches, medication stored above the cook line and skewered chicken on the buffet being kept at improper temperatures. Inspectors ordered the business to throw away the chicken, DBPR reported.

“Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse,” officials wrote. “Chicken skewers 107°F, bourbon chicken 104°F, on buffet.”

Attempts to contact the restaurant for comment were unsuccessful.

When inspectors arrived the next day, though, they found similar conditions in regard to the flying insects and live roaches in the kitchen, and the restaurant was not immediately allowed to reopen. During another followup inspection at 5 p.m. June 21, King House passed all safety inspections and reopened, inspectors reported.

The issues were the first of their kind.

Added to the temporary restaurant closures issued by DBPR from earlier in 2018 in the central Panhandle, June’s five closures bring the total to 18 so far this year.