Welcome to the D List: 17 Eateries Bomb August Health Inspections

Every week, the county's health inspectors within Maricopa County Environmental Services give restaurants grades after completing inspections. Participation in the rating system, however, is voluntary, which means owners or managers do not have to accept a grade after an inspection; instead, the restaurants are listed online as "not participating." And in some cases, grades posted online may change, which typically means a restaurant has provided necessary documentation for food safety or fixed a critical issue that led to a low grade. Here's a more detailed explanation.

August 2018 was a sad month in restaurant health inspections. An uninspiring 17 restaurants landed on the Maricopa County health inspector's D List. A number of people forgot what gloves were for. There were a few eggshells where there shouldn't have been. Some poor tomatillos were "covered" in mold. Here's the where and how of last month's D List.

Barro's Pizza
3141 East Indian School Road
"Observed employee leave establishment through back door. Employee returned to establishment and was observed handling pizza cutting utensils and use them to cut a Ready to Eat pizza that was coming out of the tunnel oven. No hand washing occurred between activities."

Barro's Pizza
950 East Riggs Road Space 11, Chandler
"Observed employee blow into gloves and proceed to don gloves. Discussed with employee to wash hands again prior to donning gloves, and to not blow into the gloves. Employee removed gloves and re-washed hands. Blowing into gloves can cause possible contamination, and should never be used as a method to don gloves."

Denny's
3205 East Bell Road
"Cook handled/cracked raw shell eggs then went to handle clean equipment without changing gloves or washing hands. Second cook handled raw chicken and beef items then went to handle ready to eat food and clean equipment without changing gloves and washing hands. All employees were asked to wash hands and did so."

Bosa Doughnuts
3722 East Indian School Road
"Observed an employee take customer money and touch the inside of a single-service bag for doughnuts before with unwashed and ungloved hands. Employees must wash hands between tasks, such as handling customer money and handling food service equipment."

US Egg Eatery
7119 East Shea Boulvard, #101, Scottsdale
"Observed easy chopper with organic matter growing between push and push block as well as the blade kit on easy chopper with food debris stored as clean. Person in Charge discarded easy chopper."

Hideaway Lounge
3215 East Thomas Road
"When to Wash Observed employee handle and crack raw shell eggs into a bowl in order to make scrambled eggs. Employee was then observed touching utensils and margarine bottle and using apron to dry face. Employee was then observed discarding gloves and placing a new pair on and continue to handle utensils and clean dishes. No handwashing occurred."

Babylon Gyros & Shako Mako Grill
5826 West Olive Avenue, Suite B101, Glendale
"All cold holding units and coolers were not operating. Walk-in had internal ambient of 64° F, make table on grill side was at 51° F, and Secondary make area was at 49° F. Technician called."

Sinbad's Restaurant
3544 West Glendale Avenue, Suite D1
"Observed employee drop glove onto the floor, pick up glove, and proceed to place other gloves on hands without a hand wash. When brought to attention, employee washed hands and placed new gloves on hands. Ensure hands are washed when switching tasks and when contaminated."

Mariscos Suchilango
7537 West Thomas Road Space N13-N14
"Unadulterated and Honestly Presented Crate of tomatillos were covered with mold in the reach-in cooler. Discussed frequently going through all products to ensure that they are safe and unadulterated. Items were discarded."

Spartan Pita and Gyro
4502 East Thomas Road
"Observed significant food debris on meat slicer. An employee stated the slicer had been used earlier in the morning (3+ hours before) and had not been washed/sanitized afterwards. Additionally, strainers were found hanging with clean dishes with food debris stuck to and hanging off of the food contact surface of the strainer."

Overeasy Restaurant
211 East Warner Road, Gilbert
"Cleaning Procedure Observed employee wash hands by placing under running water. Inspector instructed employee to lather hands for 20 seconds prior to rinsing."

The Local Chandler
55 West Chicago Street, Chandler
"Observed employee use their cell phone while wearing gloves. Employee discarded gloves and donned new gloves without washing hands first. Discussed with PIC that hands need to be washed in between different tasks and when donning new gloves."

New China Buffet
2939 North 24th Street
"Observed employee slicing Ready to Eat (RTE) washed oranges with bare hands. Employee stated the sliced oranges were to be placed on the buffet line. Employee discarded oranges (see embargo form). Please ensure hands are washed per code and employees do not contact exposed."

Murrietas Carniceria No. 2
1911 West Broadway Road #12-16, Mesa
"Observed bag of raw meat in hand wash sink. Discussed hand wash sink requirements with the PIC. PIC removed meat from sink at the time of inspection. Hand wash sinks must be accessible at all times and used only for hand washing."

Romero's Mexican Food
2700 West Van Buren Street
"Pozole had formed a thick skin on top. Per person in charge it was cooked by morning crew so said 9am. Item did not reach 70 degrees within two hours and was embargoed. Discussed cooling policy and procedure. Item need to be cooled in shallow pans and stirred frequently."

Old Chicago
5695 West Bell Road, Glendale
"Cut tomato stored on top of several raw eggs in shell in top section of reach-in cold holding unit. Per staff, tomato will be used in ready-to-eat food. Discussed food storage requirements with staff. Instructed staff to discard tomato (placed on embargo) and move raw eggs to bottom shelf to avoid cross contamination of raw eggs with ready-to-eat foods."

Golden Rule Cafe
808 East Jefferson Street
"In the walk-in refrigerator, cooked rice, cooked greens, and chopped cabbage temped between 46-51*F. Using the min/max thermometer, the ambient temperature of the walk-in was 50.1*F. PIC was advised to discard all TCS food items inside (see embargo form). There is not adequate refrigeration to support the amount of TCS food present (see violation #31)."