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Dirty Dining: A pizzeria's pest problem
Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- Pest control might not be the best place to cut costs. Case in point? Sicily's Pizza.
On Aug. 27, inspectors found a lot more than pepperoni at the small eatery on South Durango near Spring Mountain.
It was shut down with 51 demerits after inspectors found it was infested with cockroaches. There were also ants and flies, but roaches large and small were spotted throughout the facility -- on the fridge, floors, food containers, even the handsink in the bathroom.
The roaches must have felt welcome since the last time the place had professional pest control service was in March. Inspectors found household pesticides and fly strips. But that obviously wasn't doing the trick.
When we dropped by, we were told the owner wasn't there.
We left a card, got a promise we'd be hearing back from him, but never did.
We finally reached the owner on the phone, but he didn't want to go on camera or make a formal statement. He claimed their only problem was no hot water, but according to the Health District's five-page report, that's far from true.
Inspectors did find problems with handwashing. There was no hot water at the handsink or in the bathroom.
But they also found dirt, dirt and more dirt. On the prep tables, cutting board, floors and walls.
Racks and shelves inside the cooler weren't just dirty, they were surrounded by dead insects.
As for the food -- chicken, wings and beef cubes were at unsafe temperatures.
Bags of flour and salt were left sitting open -- a bad idea in a place infested with cockroaches and where a food handler wasn't using proper hair restraints.
And how about some chemicals with your pizza? it's scary to think that the food prep table was so dirty they needed to clean it with floor degreaser, but that's what they were doing. And the pizza cutter was being stored in a bleach-filled sanitizer bucket.
A hole in the wall is an intersting storage spot for a thermometer. But better there than not at all. One fridge had no thermometer and another had no dates on the food.
Also, inspectors noted that the person in charge couldn't demonstrate food safety knowledge.
Despite all that, Sicily's Pizza wasted no time cleaning up and asking inspectors to come back.
Two days after they were shut down, they re-opened with a clean slate -- zero demerits and an A grade.
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