RESTAURANT ROUNDUP: Roaches and rodent poison contribute to failed health inspection

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - Feb. 10-14 was not great stretch of days for restaurants in El Paso County, with a nine not passing their health inspections.

With a total of 12 violations, the Arabian Nights Cafe on North Academy didn't have the most violations for the week, but its violations seemed to be the most troubling.

The problems there include not having a certified food protection manager.

The inspector also found food contact surfaces that were unclean.

In addition, the owner was also storing and using something called "tracking powder," a type of poison for rodents that is not allowed inside restaurants at all.

Dead cockroaches were also found in several areas of the facility, and "several traps were located on food preparation surfaces."

According to the inspection report, the owners were advised to address the infestation.

When confronted about the problems by KRDO13 Investigates, owner Kareem Alshami said the roaches were from a long time ago, and blamed his neighbor at the shopping center for the insects.

However, workers at the barber shop next door later told KRDO13 Investigates the only roaches they had seen came from the wall adjacent to the cafe.

Regarding the tracking powder, Alshami admitted he didn't know it wasn't supposed to be used in restaurants.

He told KRDO13 Investigates it was a preventative measure, not a means to get rid of rodents, claiming he doesn't have any rodent problems.

To prove it, he showed us a report from a pest control company on Monday that stated, "no activity seen."

Alshami said he was working on his food safety certification, but a language barrier was making that challenging.

The 92 Chicken on Centennial near Garden of the Gods had 13 violations.

Among them, the person in charge failed to wash their hands before putting on gloves to prepare food.

According to the inspector, the restaurant was also using unapproved methods of holding fried chicken, by leaving it out and then reheating it before serving it. 

92 Chicken also lost points for having "dust and other accumulations of debris on the floor throughout the facility" as well as a buildup of grease on the ventilation hood.

When asked about the violations, the owner told KRDO13 Investigates the inspector came the day after a busy Superbowl Sunday, when they were still cleaning up parts of the restaurant.

The owner added that his method of "double frying" chicken Korean style is perfectly safe and didn't understand why it was labeled an unapproved method.

92 Chicken was re-inspected on Wednesday, and only two violations were found.

The Mama Fang inside Chapel Hills Mall also had 13 violations.

They include a worker not washing hands between tasks, and not having soap at the handwashing sink.

The inspector also found raw beef was stored above ready-to-eat food in the cooler.

When reached by phone on Tuesday, the manager on duty said they were in the process of training a new employee and described the inspection as a "great lesson" that the staff would learn from.

Several restaurants also earned high marks from inspectors last week.

Just one violation was found at the Gyro Express at Avenue 19 on Tejon, as well as the Wendy's at North Academy and Voyager, and the Whataburger and North Academy and Montebello.

Two other Whataburgers, however, were perfect.

They include the location on Dublin near Powers, and also the location on Constitution near Powers.

"What a burger," says Operating Partner Avery McCoy, "We try to get that across to every customer as soon as they bite it, what a burger."

With a massive kitchen, 60 workers, and roughly 500 orders a day, managing the location at Constitution and Powers is no small order.

Often times an unannounced health inspection can upset the balance and create delays for customers or errors by the staff, but McCoy says it's not a problem at this restaurant.

"Yeah, people get nervous when there's a health inspector in there," he explained, "but just do what you normally do on a daily basis, do what you know, and you'll be good in the end."

Keep an eye out for the Top Score and Perfect Score stickers at your favorite restaurants to know that the kitchen inside is clean.

Click here and select "Retail Food" from the pulldown menu to see the most recent restaurant inspections in El Paso County.