A casino's main kitchen comes in with the highest demerits and a popular chain restaurant is shut down for repeat violations. And, the roaches are back!
On a walk through Skyline casino on Boulder Highway, we meet all kinds of interesting people. One employee strikes a pose for our camera. Another says "Uh oh!" when she sees us coming.
Darcy: Uh oh? Don't say uh, oh.
Hostess: (laughs)
Skyline's main kitchen got a 38-demerit C grade, putting them at the top of the demerit list. A security guard asks us to wait while he gets the person in charge, who points to a problem with equipment.
General Manager Sam Kiki leads us through the restaurant and kitchen into a back alley, where he shows us the units that malfunctioned.
"We throw away everything they ask for, but the main thing was those two units," Kiki said.
They had to throw out ham, tuna, sausage, meatballs, pasta, raw fish and more.
Darcy Spears: There was improper handwashing also.
Sam Kiki: That's--I didn't see that.
But the health inspector did.
Darcy: There were also some issues with food not protected from contamination. Someone had set a raw onion on a shelf that was already cut and peeled.
Sam: Onion you can't contaminate with nothing.
Darcy: You don't think onion can be contaminated?
Sam: Onion, you know, it's just, no.
The inspector also wrote up a major violation for the slicer.
Darcy: They said that it was stored as clean but it was dirty with food debris.
Sam: It's clean and we cleaned it again.
Darcy: Why was it dirty when the health inspector was here?
"Stop taking picture to me. I don't like that," Sam said to our Contact 13 photographer.
Suddenly, Sam becomes camera-shy, so we end our interview and leave.
Our short list of closures contains a familiar name, Romano's Macaroni Grill on Sahara near Rancho. It was shut down for failing re-inspection from a previous C grade due to repeat critical and major violations.
Inspectors saw:
- improper handwashing
- Chicken at unsafe temperatures.
- Food was not protected from contamination.
- Kitchenware in clean storage was soiled with food debris.
- The C grade was not posted where the public could see it.
Also, the restaurant's pest control company records show presence of roaches and crickets, as well as sanitation issues noticed "during every service."
The other closure isn't typical for Dirty Dining. It's the dining room at Echelon Senior Living on Eastern and Rochelle.
Echelon serves a high-risk population of seniors, many of whom rely on it for all their meals. But Echelon's kitchen was shut down for two imminent health hazards: no hot water and a cockroach infestation.
Inspectors found heavy food debris and build-up on floors behind equipment. Plus, multiple expired foods including sausage and peppers, stewed tomatoes and turkey.
Two days later, Echelon failed its scheduled re-inspection, because it was still overrun with roaches, and still had some expired food and dirty conditions.
Macaroni Grill re-opened with a three-demerit A grade. Skyline and Echelon now both have zero-demerit A grades.
