Skip to main content

I just lost my appetite

I have the honor of saying my family and I have eaten at the "home of the biggest and best tenderloin in Iowa."

Unfortunately, this establishment has earned another distinction -- for biggest and most numerous roaches in a restaurant.

Joensy's Restaurant on Main Street in Solon just got shut down by the health department after a customer complaint in late September that there were "cockroaches crawling all over." A surprise inspection led to four minor violations and five critical violations, including:
• An excessively filthy kitchen and food storage area,
• A two-inch thick pile of grease behind the fryers, and (drumroll, please)
• Live roaches crawling on walls, shelves, floors, a preparation table in the kitchen, in coffee filters and packages of disposable cups

Oh good gracious. Forget what eating a slab of pork bigger than my head could do to your arteries. This is a much better reason to swear off eating out. Makes me wonder what goes on behind the kitchen doors of my favorite dining spots. I commend the state's health department for making restaurant inspections available online to the public.

It'll let you know whether your food handlers wash their hands. Whether they cross-contaminate surfaces, cutting raw meat on the same surface where they slice your appetizer bread. Whether they keep foods at the right temperature to avoid bacterial growth. Whether they properly label toxic materials. Whether the restaurant has correctly installed sewage back flow mechanisms. Whether filth has led to creepy crawly infestations.

Then again, maybe ignorance is bliss.

Comments

Brianne said…
Just so you can rest easy, but Outback always got an A. :)

Popular posts from this blog

Ho, Ho, Ho, How Many Times Can I Use "I'm too busy" as an Excuse?

I haven't had time to write. Work, swim meet volunteering, holiday decorating and shopping. But truthfully, I've not been in much of a mood to write anything anyway. Last night we put up the tree and Santa chachkies, and I drank my first egg nog of the season, so perhaps I'll be in a cheerier mood. Also, I have spent some time writing the annual Schoon holiday newsletter. If you happen to get a copy, treat it like a drinking game. Every time I make you roll your eyes, take a drink. Nog, wassail, Everclear. Whatever gets you through. One sure way to assist with merriment motivation is listening to Christmas carols. I'm not going to get into a debate over what truly constitutes a carol. You can "Jesus is the reason for the season" yourself until you turn blue; I generally lean toward the secular end of the holiday tune spectrum. And if you just gasped at my use of holiday instead of Christmas, go suck on a candy cane. It's my blog and my opinions. Deal. ...

In memoriam...

I remember the first time I heard the name "Les Anderson." A bunch of Wichita State University communication majors were sitting around on campus, talking about classes they planned to take. Several people warned me: watch out for Les Anderson. He was tough. He had a murderous grading scale. It was nearly impossible to get an A. They weren't kidding. But he wasn't tough just to be a tyrant. From his teaching sprang a fleet of incredible, successful journalists, writers, editors, broadcasters, public relations experts, advertisers, non-profit professionals...I could go on and on. Most importantly, he created a legion of people who wanted to make a difference in the world. The greatest gift Les gave to them all? He believed in them, cared about them for their own personal stories as well as the stories they told for class assignments or in the pages of his hometown newspaper. Les was my teacher. My boss. My mentor. My conscience. My champion. My friend. When I started c...

IHATE IHOP Update

Tim went a few rounds, verbally, with the IHOP manager on Sunday and ended up getting our meal for half price. He still had to pay, though. I do not think that these people understand the severity of their incompetence. Or perhaps they just do not care. Someone commented to us that perhaps we should tell the IHOP folks what happened to the last restaurant that did us wrong. Recall the lactating masses who came out in support of us when we were booted from Hoover House restaurant in West Branch because I refused to breastfeed my baby in the bathroom? Remember the stories that ran in every newspaper and on every TV news show in the state -- and beyond? I'd like to point out that the Hoover House (which interestingly enough doubled as a venue for wet T-shirt contests on weekends) went out of business after our little incident. And for those of you who were befuddled and wondering how the police got involved on Sunday...someone from IHOP took the time to run out and write down our lice...