This week's Dirty Dining is at a place where most people are this time of year. Ever get hungry while you're out holiday shopping?
Santa isn't the only regular visitor to the Fashion Show Mall nowadays. Health inspectors have had to keep coming back to Villa Italian Kitchen and Bananas.
Since June, this repeat offender in the mall's food court has had two downgrades and an imminent health hazard closure.
Right now, they're three demerits shy of shutdown with a 38-demerit C grade.
On the bananas side of Villa Italian Kitchen and Bananas, sliced apples weren't washed properly. Plus, it looks like they've seen fresher days.
On the Italian kitchen side, inspectors saw an employee handle ready to eat pizza with bare hands and found marinara sauce at unsafe temperatures. Chicken wasn't cooled properly and pans of pizza were stacked on top of each other with no barrier.
There were also broken floor tiles, a broken faucet held together with tape and big problems with date labeling.
The person in charge could not verify if food items were prepared on a certain date or meant to be thrown out on that date.
We called the district manager and left a message. He didn't call back, but a public relations firm out of New Jersey emailed the following statement:
• The health and safety of our customers and employees as well as the cleanliness of all of our locations are our highest priorities.
• We were made aware of this report and immediately took aggressive action to resolve any issues.
• We continuously strive for the highest standards for our locations and are taking precautions to ensure this situation does not happen again.
On our way out of the mall, we had a visit from a security guard who wanted to know what we were doing. We pointed out the C grade card and explained that it's the worst grade you can get from the Health District before being shut down.
Live Fun Nutrition on Sahara Avenue near Valley View Boulevard is our one imminent health hazard closure.
It was shut down for having no hot water. Inspectors were also concerned about a hole in the ceiling that could allow pest entry.
Villa Italian Kitchen and Bananas still has a C grade.
Live Fun Nutrition re-opened with a zero-demerit A.
