Gross Out: Roaches, Slime and Bad Hand Washing at Texas Roadhouse on Stapley

By Amy Silverman At this point, I've gotten accustomed to seeing news of cockroaches and soda guns with "bacterial slime" -- both of which afflicted the Texas Roadhouse on Stapley Drive, during a recent inspection. But there was something about the litany of complaints involving hands that got me: A...

By Amy Silverman

October 7, 2008

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By Amy Silverman At this point, I've gotten accustomed to seeing news of cockroaches and soda guns with "bacterial slime" -- both of which afflicted the Texas Roadhouse on Stapley Drive, during a recent inspection.

But there was something about the litany of complaints involving hands that got me:

A food service worker was observed washing hands without soap.

A food service worker (the same one?) was observed using bare hands to put lemon wedges in iced tea.

There was no hot water at the bakery handwashing sink, and no soap at the wait station handwashing sink.

It reminded me of an old PSA that used to run on TV when I was a kid:

Wash your hands after going to the bathroom. Wash your hands after changing baby, too. Cuz we don't want to get hepatitis.... And we don't want hepatitis to get you. Who? You!

So you -- yes, you! Please wash your hands before you stick that lemon in my Diet Coke!

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Amy Silverman is the former managing editor of Phoenix New Times. She is a two-time winner of the Arizona Press Club’s Journalist of the Year award. Her work has appeared on the radio show This American Life and in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Lenny Letter, and Brain, Child.