WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) - Records reviewed by 9 Wants to Know identify five area eateries closed last week for health code violations including a convenience store where 9 Wants to Know found outdated bologna after inspectors approved the store to reopen after a suspension and a pizza restaurant that had been inspected last year as a result of a foodborne illness.
See the video of the outdated meat tonight tonight at 11:00
on WUSA9.
This week's WUSA9 Food Alert
Patrol reviewed a suspended food truck, convenience store, and three area
restaurants closed by inspectors from Cleveland Park to Chinatown and into
Montgomery County citing health hazards ranging from dripping sewage to vermin.
Food truck suspended
Pupuseria La Salvadorena's Food
Truck is a regular at Georgia and Colesville in Silver Spring. Inspectors
shut it down citing sewage draining on the parking lot, and food at unsafe
temperatures.
In Germantown, Montgomery County inspectors shut down Palace Home, 13069 Wisteria, at a food court inside Lotte Asian Market, citing flies and other violations.
9 Wants to Know took pictures of the flies, but that's not all we recorded with wings. While we snapped photos of the
insects in the food court, a bird landed just a few feet away inside the store.
Last week inspectors cited dirty utensils at the Germantown eatery, reporting workers refused to throw out 10 gallons of soup left out at room temperature and uncovered on the floor.
Right next to Cleveland Park
Metro, inspectors closed Paragon Thai, 3507 Connecticut Avenue NW, citing a
vermin infestation with mice feces in the food prep area.
Suspended Chinatown pizza place has history, including a foodborne illness review
District records show the closure
of Bistro Med Pizza, 736 6th Street NW, follows a foodborne illness
investigation and 17 violations cited during an inspection last year.
Then in March inspectors observed
20 violations at Bistro Med, including mice feces and no one on staff certified
to manage safe food handling.
An employee said the manager at
Bistro Med did not want to discuss it.
When inspectors returned last
week, they cited four rats rummaging around the trash, no hot water at a hand
washing sink, and again, no on staff certified to manage safe food
handling. They ordered it closed.
9 Wants to Know finds outdated meat at store inspectors
approved
The Circle 7 Express, 2713 Martin
Luther King Jr. Ave. SW is where 9 Wants to Know observed outdated bologna.
The Circle 7 Express is right
across the street from the old St. Elizabeth's campus and right next door to
Friendship Public Charter School.
Many residents use it as their
grocery store.
We were in the store Wednesday, less
than two minutes and 30 seconds, when we spotted bologna in the meat case with a
sell-by date of July 18, 2012.
What our cameras recorded inside, which
you can see in video airing Friday night at 11:00 on WUSA9 and in the attached
still photo on wusa9.com, isn't the first documentation of the store stocking
outdated goods.
A week prior to 9 Wants to Know
finding the outdated meat, District inspectors had passed the store and
reopened it after closing it for vermin.
It worried relatives waiting for
children to get out of school nearby.
"It could make some of the kids
sick or even make me sick if I go buy it," said neighbor David Shealy.
"I know when they get out of
school they come and get something to eat," said neighbor Janice Johnson.
The store has history of outdated product violations.
Reports indicate inspectors
suspended the convenience store and closed it last year too.
In addition to citations for mice
and roaches, we found three official inspections citing outdated food.
Everyone one of those establishment,
including that shop where we found the outdated meat, passed re-inspections and
are back to business as usual.
Follow our Food Alert Patrols live on Facebook and Twitter
If you know about government
workers not doing their jobs, corruption, or health risks, contact 9 wants to
Know at tips@wusa9.com
We live Facebook and Tweet our Food
Alert Patrols - follow Facebook.com/russptacek and Twitter.com/russptacek
and see our patrols as they happen.