Thursday, September 13, 2007

Totally bummed and a little disgusted

Our favorite restaurant got closed due to a rat infestation. We went there so often they knew exactly what we wanted when we walked in and if we ordered over the phone they knew it was us. The saddest part is we actually called this past Monday to place an order and when they said they were closed we thought it must be a Thai holiday... I guess we were very wrong! See the article from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat below:

Rats force restaurant closures
By DEREK J. MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Sonoma County Department of Health has temporarily closed three Santa Rosa restaurants because of rat infestation in areas where food is stored and prepared, officials said Wednesday.
Such closures are rare, especially when they involve so many restaurants at once, and health officials said their action reflected concerns about the infestation possibly exposing the public to food-borne illness. However, they stressed that they found no evidence of that potential threat with any of the restaurants in question."We haven't found any kind of contamination in the food," said David Mesagno, supervising environmental health specialist for the county's Department of Health Services. The three restaurants — Annapurna, California Thai and Sapporo — are in the Brickyard Center at Mendocino Avenue and B Street in downtown Santa Rosa.A fourth Brickyard establishment — the Santa Rosa Junior College Culinary Arts Academy — also closed over the weekend because of the infestation but was open again for classes and lunch Wednesday. Mesagno said the academy dealt with the problems, which he said were less severe than at the other three restaurants.The academy voluntarily closed last Thursday after notifying the health department that rat droppings had been discovered in two storage rooms. Health inspectors subsequently discovered rats and rat droppings throughout the entire building. Mesagno said the rodents in question were roof rats, typically two to three times larger than a common mouse."They were all over — in food storage areas, in food prep areas. That's what an active infestation means," Mesagno said.The discovery led the health department to temporarily suspend licenses for the three restaurants, in effect closing them. Mesagno said the restaurants will not be allowed to re-open until they have proven they have eradicated the rodent problem. As part of that the department expects a pest control report, he said.Outside Sapporo, owner Shorshen Wu said he was working quickly to correct the problems. He noted the restaurant received the health department's highest five-star rating this year based on cleanliness and other factors. The rating is based on inspections for the previous year."I take care of my restaurant very well," he said.

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