Five Wichita-area restaurants and other businesses were noncompliant during Kansas Department of Agriculture food safety and housing inspections conducted January 15-21.
Information on Sedgwick County businesses and their violations, compiled Jan. 27, appears below with a summary of the issues the inspectors found in their reports. More details are published in The Eagle’s searchable database on noncompliant restaurant and hotel inspections at www.kansas.com/databases.
Business owners wishing to clarify or comment on noncompliant inspection findings may contact Eagle reporter Amy Renee Leiker at 316-268-6644 or [email protected]. Comments will be added to online stories. The companies that have failed are listed alphabetically at the end of this article.
More than 40 establishments surveyed January 15-21 passed inspections with few or no violations. You can see them at www.foodsafety.kda.ks.gov/FoodSafety/Web/Inspection/PublicInspectionSearch.aspx.
Failure of an inspection does not necessarily mean that a company has to close; it’s rare. Most violations are minor and are corrected while an inspection is underway.
Companies fail state rules when they have too many violations, problems that can cause foodborne illness, or when a problem can’t be fixed right away, such as pest infestation or broken pipes.
When a business fails, it usually gets inspected again within 10 days.
To complain about conditions anywhere that serves or sells food to the public, email [email protected] or call 785-564-6767.
Recent non-compliance inspections
Hamburger Bomber, 4860 S. Clifton Wichita – Five violations during a January 18 inspection listed as modified complaint. Cited for “accumulation of dead winged bugs” along windows, grease and grime accumulated around grill, standing water in men’s room entering hallway due to leak under sink, bottle of sanitizer stored on ice maker, fork and sponge were stored in the sink for hand washing. The inspector recommended a “deep cleaning of the establishment” after the kitchen was closed. Next inspection: January 28th.
Denny’s, 4024 E. Harry in Wichita – A violation during a January 19 inspection listed as a modified complaint. Mentioned again about mice. An inspector noted fresh rat droppings in the dining room, behind the egg station refrigerator and cooler, and in the mop room behind a shelf, but saw no live or dead rats around. However, a pest control officer found some mice a few days earlier and set sticky traps. Next inspection: March 19th.
Dusti’s place, 7006 W. MacArthur Wichita – Six violations during a routine January 19 inspection. Cited for not having a consumer advisory about the risks of eating undercooked burgers and steaks on the menu, the employee didn’t wash his hands after handling raw chicken, the fries weren’t kept cold enough, the restaurant used the wrong sink for food prep including defrosting and washing veggies, employee touched toast with bare hands, no sink to wash hands in kitchen. Next inspection: 29 January.
Rene’s restaurant, 677 N. Eisenhower in Wichita – Four violations during a January 17 follow-up inspection. Mentioned about cheese with “little black bits of an unknown substance,” uncooked bacon stored on a shelf above containers of salsa, basement handwashing sink blocking the ladder, petroleum jelly stored above containers of chips on the grill. Next inspection: March 17th.
The weak point, 8448 W. Central in Wichita – Six violations during a routine inspection on January 18th. Cited for clogging kitchen sink with mop buckets, milk in cooler not cold enough, sanitizer pail on bread oven, petroleum jelly container stored on top of agave syrup and chicken in dry storage, the water in the dishwasher wasn’t hot enough, the cut watermelon and meatloaf were not labeled with prep dates, other items including cheesecake and cooked chicken were not labeled with prep dates, no paper towels in the bar sink. The restaurant was still not compliant during the January 26 follow-up inspection.
