South Florida Sun Sentinel
Jun 28, 2021 3:14 PM
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Sun Sentinel Restaurant Inspections
State inspectors found unwanted toppings on cooked Little Caesar’s Pizza, along with spoiled food and live cockroaches at three restaurants it ordered temporarily shut last week.
Lakeside Anchor Inn in Lantana, last featured in this space in April, remains shut after failing four consecutive inspections this month. Little Caesar’s Pizza in Pembroke Pines and Saquella Caffe in Boca Raton were briefly closed.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel highlights restaurant inspections in Broward and Palm Beach counties from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. We cull through hundreds of restaurant and bar inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for “high-priority violations,” like improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches.
Sun Sentinel readers can browse full Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade county reports on our state inspection map, updated weekly (usually Monday) with fresh data pulled from the Florida DBPR website.
Any restaurant that fails inspections must stay closed until it passes a follow-up state inspection. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR here. (But don’t contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesn’t inspect restaurants.)
2412 Floral Road, Lantana
Ordered shut: June 23 (remains closed)
Why: On the first day, inspectors discovered 20 violations (eight high-priority), including 20 live roaches inside an unused reach-in cooler and one more roach in the prep area “in the [meat] slicer,” and seven live flies on “squeezed sauce bottles at prep station” and around the food prep and storage areas. The restaurant also was ordered to stop selling rice, cooked shrimp, marinara sauce, spinach dip, garlic sauce, lemon butter sauce, coleslaw and blue cheese sauce for “temperature abuse.” They even tossed the cheese for “mold-like growth,” the inspector writes. On June 24, Lakeside was kept shut when a follow-up inspection found 32 live flies lingering around the inside and outdoor bars and kitchen prep table, along with 21 live roaches in the reach-in cooler, in the meat slicer machine and on the wall. A June 25 inspection kept Lakeside closed after it found another six live flies and eight live roaches in the same areas. A June 26 inspection found zero flies but somehow more live cockroaches – 24 – in the kitchen and on the wall. The restaurant, ordered shut eight times in the past 13 months, won’t reopen until it passes re-inspection.
8902 Taft St., Pembroke Pines
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Ordered shut: June 25 (reopened the same day)
Why: Inspectors spotted eight violations (three high-priority), led by “1 live, small flying insect” landing atop a “prepped cheese pizza” at cook line, and another “small flying insect” perched on a “tray with crazy breadsticks.” Inspectors then ordered the restaurant to throw away its pizza and Crazy Bread. The restaurant was allowed to reopen the same day when inspectors found only minor issues.
410 Via de Palmas, Boca Raton
Ordered shut: June 23 (reopened June 24)
Why: 10 violations (five high-priority), including 58 live flies landing on the prep counter, the kitchen blender, a sheet pan, a pastry prep table and “around by the ice machine.” Inspectors also ordered the restaurant to stop selling milk at its self-serve bar, along with Swiss, cheddar, goat, feta and mozzarella cheese, cut tomatoes, tomato pesto, roasted peppers, eggplant, grilled vegetables, ham, turkey, and salmon burgers due to temperature abuse. Finally, an inspector saw one employee handling “soiled dishes or utensils and then [handling] clean dishes or utensils without washing hands.” The restaurant was allowed to reopen June 24 when inspectors found one minor violation.
