LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A supermarket tattling on its own tenant. In a Dirty Dining twist tonight, 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears shows why the store said enough's enough.
Health inspectors came to 99 Ranch to address a concern called in by the market's manager.
He was worried that Palm Vietnamese was operating under the imminent health hazard of a pest infestation.
Turns out he was right to be concerned.
Health inspectors shut down Palm Vietnamese Food to Go on May 30 after finding multi-generational, multi-species roaches in the kitchen.
We spoke to Owner Lieu Tran on the phone who said she didn't want to talk about it.
Other violations inspectors wrote up included a soiled rag touching uncovered sugar, an employee's hemorrhoid medicine stored on a shelf with food, an employee's soup and cell phone on a food prep table and grease and food debris build-up providing food for roaches.
When we asked Tran why the market had to call the Health District on her, she said the market manager was mad at her.
And though the health report cites her for knowingly operating under an imminent health hazard, Lieu says she wasn't aware her restaurant had cockroaches until inspectors were there, even though they found plenty of roaches that were easily visible--both dead and alive.
Palm Vietnamese's own pest control records show roaches had been there before around the wok station. Lieu told inspectors she had no recollection of that.
The pest control company said she blamed their technicians, stating 'this is (their) responsibility, not hers.'
Palm Vietnamese Food to Go re-opened June 1 with an eight-demerit A grade.
There was another closure at Barbacoa Hidalguense at the Broadacres flea market on North Las Vegas boulevard and Pecos.
It was shut down May 26 with three imminent health hazards.
When inspectors arrived, they found all the food had been prepped and customers were being served without any employee handwashing.
There was also wastewater leaking onto the floor from a broken pipe and an employee's Pepto Bismol on a food shelf.
No one at Barbacoa Hidalguense returned our call for comment. They got their A grade back on Tuesday with zero demerits.
Lastly, El B Daddy's--also known as Big Daddy's BBQ--was closed May 25 for the imminent health hazard of no hot water.
They were also dumping sewage water into the street.
The food truck was at Cashman field for the Las Vegas Lights soccer game when it was shut down.
It re-opened May 28 with a zero-demerit A grade.
The owner says everything was working fine when the truck left the commissary and things only began malfunctioning when the Health District happened to be there.
Click here to see report for Palm Vietnamese
