5 Church, Cafe Agora, 14 Others Fail February Health Inspections

3 Responses

1. As the owner of Bell Street Burritos, I would like to provide some clarity regarding the above score. We are currently disputing it with Fulton County and as yet have not resolved this matter. For the sake of transparency with the public, I will give some context:

   We did have a health inspection about a month ago at our new location on Krog Street. To say that I was disappointed by the score would be a wild understatement— in the history of Bell Street Burritos, none of our locations have ever scored less than an “A” (or was there an “89” in there once? Possibly.). Especially since the location in question is only 4 months old, our kitchen is impeccably clean. Therefore, the score of 69 deserves some clarification, beyond what the numerical grade alone can provide.

   These are all of the 6 individual items we were marked “out of compliance” for:

   1. To start with our primary subject of dispute with the county, we lost 9 points for the category, “Food in good condition, safe and unadulterated” [out of compliance]. This is rather misleading, as it seems like we were serving unsafe food. On the contrary: We had two cans of tomatillos delivered dented (less than 24 hours prior to the inspection) by our food distributor. As soon as we noticed them, we decided to dispose of them. When the inspector came, the trash (and therefore the cans) had not yet been taken out. The dented cans were unopened, but we had 9 points deducted from our score. 9 points is the highest number of points of any category. As a comparison, a rat could be doing a song and dance routine in a restaurant’s kitchen and the restaurant would lose 3 points. But apart from all of the above, the crux of our dispute with the county is this:

   Fulton County publishes on its own website a page about dented cans (http://www.fultoncountyga.gov/dhw-restaurant-inspections/4084-dented-cans) which includes marking instructions for health inspectors that read: “This item must be marked IN compliance when a dent in a canned food has not compromised the hermetic seal” But in our case, the inspector did not determine whether the seal was, in fact, compromised. I was told by someone in the Health Department that “if there is a dent on the rim of a can, we assume that the hermetic seal is broken.” But another inspector made it clear to me that they do not “assume” anything, nor does the code allow them to. Instead, they could determine whether the seal was compromised by simply puncturing the can lid with a can opener and listening for the vacuum seal being broken. One may say that that is too high a standard for the county to effectively abide by, to which I would reply that I am simply asking the county to follow it’s own rules, which it publishes on its website, presumably for the sake restaurant owners to understand the expectations upon us. If it is not realistic, than a change in verbiage would be most welcome. If it were to state, for example, that “any canned food which is dented on the rim or seam will be considered out of compliance,” then we would have a clear standard with which to comport ourselves. It would be clearer for both the inspector and restaurant owner. But as it is, the restaurant is given one written standard to follow (“This item must be marked IN compliance when a dent in a canned food has not compromised the hermetic seal”), while the inspectors are trained with a different, unpublished, standard (“any canned food which is dented on the rim or seam will be considered out of compliance”). Therefore, I believe the county’s policy in this case is simply unfair. Without that deduction we would have a grade of 78, which is a passing grade. And yet is still a little misleading.

   Here are the rest of our deductions:

   2. I will start with the most troubling (and mystifying) first. We have a small prep cooler that holds mainly vegetables, salsa and the like. On the night of the inspection, the inspector observed temperatures which exceeded 41º (mostly in the high 40’s). Now, this is mystifying because, as with all of our coolers (and warmers), we keep a twice daily log of all temperatures— doing so is beyond the requirements of Fulton County, but we like to play it safe. That very day, we observed temperatures under 41º as we always do. How it happened to exceed that limit that evening is beyond us. Perhaps the door had been open for a minute or so to load product shortly before the inspector arrived? What I do know is that I had a refrigeration repairman come 3 times, and on each occasion, the temperature of the cooler was in the low 30’s. He is similarly mystified, but replaced the thermostat out of an overabundance of caution. Of course, the troubling part of this is that it is never good to be holding food at a temperature higher than 41º. Naturally, on Wednesday evening, we disposed of all of the food in the cooler as soon as the issue became known to us. That was -9 points.

   3. Our kitchen manager’s ServSafe food safety certification expired 7 days prior to the evening in question. Honest mistake. Note well: there are two other individuals working at this location who are (and were) also ServSafe certified, but theirs were not the certifications that were posted that evening. They are now. This one is kind of like leaving your wallet at home accidentally. You are licensed to drive, but neglected to bring your proof. That was -4 points.

   4. There was some surface rust on a can opener. In the inspection report, this was characterized as “food contact surfaces cleaned and sanitized” [out of compliance]. We have since replaced the can opener. That was -4 points.

   5. One of the cooks on duty has a beard that was about 1/4” longer than it ought to have been— the health department wants no more than 1/2” beards. This was characterized on the report as “personal cleanliness” That was -3 points.

   6. One of the drains on the 4 compartment sink had a leak. The leak was next to a floor drain, so it didn’t cause much of a puddle or anything. This was a punchlist item for the contractor who built out the space originally and had already been requested. It has since been fixed. That was -2 points.

   There is no way to write this kind of thing without it taking a somewhat defensive tone, I find. I do seek to clarify and give context to what, given only the score, sounds like a grim picture. The reality is that with the exception of the cooler issue, which feels like a bit of a fluke (bad timing, etc) none of the above issues are the least bit likely to negatively impact the actual health of a customer. I have no quarrel with the regulations and certainly none with the inspector— they are just doing their job. I want to assure our customers that we have always endeavored to keep a safe and healthy kitchen, and will continue to do so. By all means, come by the Krog Street location and see for yourself– our kitchen is easily visible from the dining room. It is super clean. But, having said all this, you better believe that dented cans are getting tossed out immediately in the future!

   Matt Hinton
   Bell Street Burritos

   Reply

   1. Matt: I appreciate your thorough response. I’ll definitely be back!

      Reply

2. The safe and proper preparation of our guests’ food and the cleanliness of our kitchen are very important to us. We have taken all necessary steps to remedy the situation and have educated our staff accordingly. A second inspection was conducted less than a week later and we received a grade A score for both upstairs (100) and downstairs (91). If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

   Ayman Kamel
   Owner

   Reply