Put on your black-rimmed glasses (even if you don't need them) and bring a laptop: It's the café edition this week on Health Department Roundup.
A June 10 inspection at Gina's Café (10370 Richmond Ave.) found an employee drinking from an open beverage container, contaminating his or her hands, food or equipment. Multiuse equipment or utensils also were found not to have been designed or constructed with safe materials, not made corrosion resistant, and not easily cleanable or well maintained. Last, potentially hazardous food was refrigerated for more than 24 hours without being marked with "packaged on" or "use by" dates.
Also that day, a routine visit to Kikos Mexican Café (3903 Fulton) found bulk food removed from its original container and store in an unmarked container, and no suitable utensils provided for employees or patrons during pauses in food preparation or serving (a buffet with no serving tools, we assume?). Also, employees were found not wearing effective hair restraints to cover their body hair and not using gloves, hand sanitizer, or utensils when handling read-to-eat foods.
At Dry Creek Café (544 Yale) a complaint yielded a June 8 inspection, which found effective measures to minimized roaches, rodents and other pests were not being used, and that workers were using their bare hands when serving a highly susceptible population (kids, we assume). Raw or prepared food was removed from its original containers and stored in unclean or uncovered containers, the food prep area was not sufficiently lit, a wall or ceiling was not kept in good repair, vent covers in the walls or ceilings were not clean or well maintained, and the plumbing was not sized, installed or maintained properly.
We also learned that Café Montano (1250 Wood Branch Drive), Café Caeli (1155 S. Dairy Ashford) and Blue Note Jazz Café (14520 Memorial) are changing ownership, and that Tian Chu Café (9968 Bellaire Blvd.) and Sheba Café (6251 Bissonnet) are about to open.
