Jacksonville, Fla - At the
Third Street Diner in Jacksonville Beach the inspector found 29 violations. 21 of them were critical including:
Food kept at unsafe temperatures
Slime on the soda fountain dispenser nozzle
Slime in the ice machine
A cook handling raw eggs then making a sandwich without washing his hands
Dead roaches on sticky traps in several areas of the kitchen
Third Street Diner owner George Koutroumanos was angry about the inspection. He says his kitchen is clean and to prove it he invited us inside. He told us, "Check! Check to see if you see anything!" He challenged us to find anything dirty, including roaches. When we asked to see the sticky traps, Koutroumanos first claimed to not know where they were. After crawling on the floor and looking under his kitchen equipment he found one for us. The trap had some broken egg shells and dirt on it but no roaches. Koutroumanos yelled, "You see any roaches here? It's a clean restaurant ma'am!" Some regular patrons at the popular New York Deli style restaurant tell us they have never seen any signs of roaches. We didn't see any either. We did however find one problem listed on the inspectors report that still wasn't fixed. The employee hand washing sink in the kitchen is broken. Koutroumanos says he has called the plumber to fix it immediately and he wants his customers to know this, "If I see that my restaurant is dirty, I will close it right now!"
China One in Lake City tied Third Street Diner for the most number of violations. 21 of them were critical including getting food from an unapproved source: Jellyfish from Jacksonville Beach.
El Potro Mexican restaurant on University Boulevard had twenty critical write-ups ranging from raw food not being properly stored to a wall soiled with food.
Congratulations to our clean plate award winners of the week! The following restaurants got perfect inspections.
On The Fly Sandwiches & Stuff on Atlantic
Kight's Concessions in Dixie County
The Soup Kettle in Clay County
For the full inspection report on any of the restaurants listed this week - click on the restaurant name above.
