Restaurant inspections: Cockroaches, grease puddles & moldy ice bins in Wichita
A bar and grill, several Mexican restaurants, a downtown hotel and a home improvement store are among 10 Sedgwick County food sellers that failed their Kansas Department of Agriculture safety inspections last week. Violations that led to them falling out of compliance include condensation dripping on some baking chips and chocolate in a cooler, moldy chocolate ganache, tortillas chips in trash bags, and workers who didn’t wash up after touching raw meats, a check of inspection reports from April 18-24 shows.
A burger joint that made last week’s list had a number of problems including moldy produce, a moldy ice bin and dozens of living and dead cockroaches in its building — some were stuck to a glue trap on a food preparation table, the restaurant’s report said — encouraged by unsanitary kitchen conditions like grease puddles on the floor.
Another restaurant was cited after an inspector found a can of WD-40 in a food preparation area. The restaurant said an employee uses it for their motorcycle and moved it.
A list of the non-compliant businesses, compiled April 27, appears below along with a summary of the problems. You can read more by searching The Eagle’s non-compliant database at www.kansas.com/databases.
Inspection failures don’t necessarily mean business closures. Most violations are corrected on-site as an inspection happens, and follow-up visits usually occur within 10 days to ensure safe food-handling practices are observed. Businesses fall out of compliance when they have a certain number or type of problem that can lead to food-borne illnesses, or problems that can’t be corrected right away, such as plumbing issues and pest infestations.
More than 30 businesses surveyed last week passed their inspections with few or no violations. You can see those at www.foodsafety.kda.ks.gov/FoodSafety/Web/Inspection/PublicInspectionSearch.aspx.
To complain about conditions at a business, email kda.fsl@ks.gov or call 785-564-6767.
Recent out-of-compliance inspections:
The Anchor, 1109 E. Douglas in Wichita — Eleven violations for employee not washing hands after touching raw chicken, moldy chocolate ganache, cooler condensation dripping on baking chips and chocolate, cheese sauce and parcooked fries at unsafe temperatures, butter for sale in retail case kept longer than seven days, old sauces and pasta, “chocolate ganache is date-marked 12/10,” old whipping cream, restaurant vacuum packages cooked foods without a variance, sausages and other meats for sale in retail case not labeled with ingredients, allergen information missing from pasta for sale in retail case, plumbing issue, restaurant has a consumer advisory posted but no reminder about the risks of eating certain raw or undercooked foods such as hamburgers
Birrieria La Nieta de Villa, 2247 N. Broadway in Wichita — Eight violations for employee not washing hands, pork thawing at unsafe temperature, sauces and chicharrones kept at unsafe temperatures, cold foods stored in preparation table were too warm, no equipment on site to test concentration of sanitizer, no hand-drying supplies in bathroom
Edible Arrangements, 2300 N. Greenwich Ste. 300 in Wichita — Four violations for inaccurate food thermometer, no hot water at hand-washing sink at front counter, most-current food license isn’t on display
El Patio, 424 E. Central in Wichita — Five violations for improper food storage, pork stored in refrigerator was too warm for too long, tortilla chips stored in trash bags instead of food-grade containers, no equipment on site for testing sanitizer concentration in dishwashing machine, sanitizer wasn’t flowing through to dishwasher
Hilton Garden Inn Wichita Downtown, 401 E. Douglas in Wichita — Six violations for employee not washing hands after touching dirty dishes, seafood thawed improperly, cheesecake and produce not labeled with correct dates, ham and whipping cream not labeled with correct dates, old tomato soup and salsa, no sanitizer in dishwasher, no hand-drying supplies at sink
La Tienda, 3108 E. 31st St. S. in Wichita — Four violations for missing allergen information on bakery items, dried peppers stored in containers that aren’t food grade, business doesn’t have a food probe thermometer, “ice bin top inside lid has a build up of black debris”
Lowe’s Home Improvement Store, 2626 N. Maize in Wichita — Two violations for water not running hot enough at bathroom sinks, food license not displayed or available to customers
Los Cocos Mexican Restaurant, 1257 N. Rock Rd. in Derby — Seven violations for refried beans not cooling fast enough in refrigerator, cooked chicken and pork kept at unsafe temperature, imitation crab meat and cheese dip stored at unsafe temperatures, old chile sauce, damaged equipment, no hot water at kitchen hand-washing sink, WD-40 used for an employee’s motorcycle was stored in the food preparation area
TJ’s Burger House, 1003 W. Douglas in Wichita — Fifteen violations for employee not washing hands after touching raw meats, moldy onions and bell peppers, improper food storage, nacho cheese and chili weren’t kept hot enough, dairy foods and produce not stored cold enough, milk not marked with opening date, dirty equipment, moldy ice bin, plumbing issue, glue traps sitting on food preparation table “with dead and live cockroaches” in them, cockroaches throughout restaurant, kitchen conditions including grease build up and moldy food led to pest infestation, “approximately 40 dead cockroaches” in kitchen glue traps, “large build up of food debris and standing puddles of grease on the floor on the cook line”
Taco Fajita Restaurant, 1006 S. Meridian in Wichita — Five violations for improper food storage, rice kept at unsafe temperature, raw meats including chorizo stored in non-food grade containers, dried peppers stored in T-shirt style plastic bags, no hot water at kitchen hand-washing sink because the handle was stuck and couldn’t be turned on
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 1:42 PM.
