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West Roxbury restaurant shut after health inspection; owner vows complete fix
By adamg on Fri, 07/26/2013 - 9:45pm
Rox Diner owner John Fortin is vowing an all nighter tonight to fix the problems that led ISD to shut the Centre Street eatery on Wednesday.
A city inspector ordered the shutdown after finding a variety of potential health issues, some of them that could lead to a risk of "Critical Foodborne Illness," including two cartons of eggs that had been stored in 80-degree temperatures for six hours, inadequate hygiene by workers and unclean surfaces. The inspector also found evidence of flies and other not-quite-as-critical problems. See inspection report.
On Thursday, Rox Diner passed a second inspection. See report.
In an e-mail to Universal Hub tonight, Fortin wrote:
We met with [inspectors] this morning to discuss corrective action for the issues of concern. Upon learning about these concerns identified by Inspectional Services, we immediately closed and have been working closely with health officials since. We have removed all food items and retained an expert to assist in further proactive measures, which are already underway. They include refinishing surfaces, upgrading flooring, racks, shelving and our dishwasher in our West Roxbury shop. We have also taken the proactive step of having our staff retrained on food handling and preparation. In addition to these proactive measures we are following any and ALL suggestions and directives health officials have offered. As business owners and residents of West Roxbury, we are committed to being sure we are serving healthy, locally-sourced, delicious food and have always done everything in our power to ensure this. We apologize for this issue and will continue to work toward resolution. We care deeply about our neighbors who are our guests and appreciate their business.
Fortin said progress tonight will help determine when the restaurant can reopen. "We're going through the night on this," he said.
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Comments
Another problem with big government
Less food born illness.
Why no...
"read more" link? This is a big chunk of the front page right now.
Changed
Because you asked.
Sometimes people get upset when I don't put entire stories on the home page!
Must have been pretty nasty
Must have been pretty nasty for them to get shut down. I worked in Boston commercial kitchens for 15 years and never once saw one get closed. Typically the inspector will come through and find something wrong like a fridge not at temp or improperly stored cleaning supplies. They give you a couple business days to make it better without shutting you down or publicly shaming you.
Refinishing surfaces means they probably had nasty cutting boards on the line or some other area for bacteria to fester, ditto with the floor and shelving. A city guy once told me he wanted the work area to be so tight that you could splatter marinara sauce all over the walls and tables and not be able to find a trace of it after a hose down.
The eggs in the temperature danger zone is a real no-no obviously. The employee hygiene is kinda odd, pretty much everybody knows that when a stranger enters the kitchen you straighten up fast. Those gloves are the best/worst thing, cooks wear them for multiple tasks which is a real germ spreader.
All of these things are the fault of the owner/manager - they dropped the ball. Now they have the zeal of a convert of course.
full inspection result posted
http://m.cityofboston.gov/isd/health/mfc/viewinsp....
I love the Rox, and likely will be back eating there when these problems are corrected.
Second that
I was walking from the Corey St bus stop to Park St when I saw the Rox closed. I figured they were doing some reconfiguring, but I never thought they'd get shut down for a bad inspection.
Their food is very good; I try to get at least one breakfast from them when I'm on vacation.
No big thing
I've worked in restaurants for years, and this inspector's report seems pretty typical. There is no gross negligence here, just nitpicky stuff. The owners closed voluntarily, they weren't shut down. They are probably horrified about this and it seems like they are using this opportunity to make good changes to their kitchen and food handling practices. I'll go enjoy a delicious eggs benny there again, no question.
Big thing
At least according to the city, the shutdown was not voluntary. This isn't to say the owner isn't taking the situation seriously - it sure seems like he is - but hey, more power to you if you actually wouldn't mind being served eggs that have been sitting out for 6 hours in 80-degree temps.
The real problem
Some states require systematic annual inspections of every eaterie, and award decals defining the cleanliness levels. California even posts a report card at the entrance, which restaurants compete with each other on.
MA leaves it up to the locals, who don't systematically inspect every eatery, and seem to give some preference. Boston was going out of its way to be secretive about where they inspected, how often, and what the results were.
Systematic, non local. That's the way to go.
Secretive = objective
You can look up the results of all the inspections in every restaurant in Boston over the last few years via the Mayor's Food Court, which is where the results of this particular inspection is as well. Boston inspectors make sure to do surprise inspections so that the inspection happens on an "average day" instead of a day where the owners have gone through and cleaned everything and gotten rid of bad things. If everyone knew when they were going to be inspected, that defeats the purpose of the inspection.
Rox's was shut down because the city told them to, that much is clear. It also looks like they are fixing the problems the inspectors found without too much grumbling (unlike, say, Clover).
Clover grumbled?
They had no obvious problems, and no code violations - the cause of their problems was a supplier.
Apples and oranges may be stored together, but they are different.
Also note that Boston has only recently become transparent about their inspections - there was a large brouhaha a few years back that led to them being public and online.
From what I've heard
The Clover blog was abrasive to the whole inspection process, because clearly the Cambridge inspectors didn't know what spoiled food looks like. And from what I have heard, the Clover people were much less cooperative about fixing other problems found during the inspection, compared to the Rox Diner people who really wanted everything done right.
I mean, it does suck to be out of operation and losing money, but if someone came to me and said that people who ate at my restaurant were getting sick, I would want to be cooperative and fix everything I could (suppliers included). Maybe that's just me.
From what you've heard
So, you haven't been reading their blog, I take it?
Sounds like they have been correcting problems and reopening restaurants right and left. They are also expressing appreciation for the qualifications and assistance from the various agencies involved in this investigation (and not even bad mouthing the local inspectors in a couple of towns who didn't make their reinspection appointments).
http://www.cloverfoodlab.com
What a gloriously uninformed comment.
"Voluntary" shutdown. "No big thing." Here's hoping you don't glide through life with the same amount of casual idiocy with which you've assessed this serious food safety issue.
They were shut down by virtue
They were shut down by virtue of having their license revoked (albeit for only 24hr).
Eggs being kept at 80 degrees is NOT "nitpicky"
Same here
I've always loved this place, very surprised to hear this - and really glad this was found out before anyone got sick. Once it's remedied, I'll be back.
"Proactive"
I liked the part where he used the word "proactive" three separate times, to describe remedial measures he'd taken only because he got caught by the food inspector.
Oh well. At least this guy has a publicist.
Why lie?
Except all the things you didn't that got you shut down
Still not open as of Friday 2013-08-02?
I stopped by the restaurant this morning, and there seems to be no activity inside. Westbury Restaurant is OK, I guess, but I'd like to see Rox Diner open again!
why lie?
Westbury is not good.