In its place, Bing Bistro has opened. The new concept is the second location of a Scottsdale restaurant that serves dumplings and hand-pulled noodles. While the name has changed, the restaurants have an owner in common.
Chris Chen says he was a partner at Stellar 66, working on finding wholesalers for the restaurant and getting diners interested through social media marketing, but not engaged in the kitchen. An article from The Arizona Republic noted that Chen developed Stellar 66’s recipes and had previously run a boba tea shop and a noodle and Shaanxi street food restaurant.
With Bing Bistro, he says he’s working solo and hopes to build out multiple locations of the restaurant. He’d like to leave Stellar 66, and its sordid history, in the past.
When it comes to how restaurants are licensed and inspected, it’s not always that simple.
Restaurant inspectors show up to Valley eateries unannounced. Their assessment of a restaurant and kitchen provides “a snapshot in time,” explains Robert Stratman, Maricopa County’s deputy director of Environmental Services.
More than 70 inspectors fan out across the Phoenix metro area, visiting spots that serve food to ensure they are clean and safe for customers and staff. Food licenses are tied to a restaurant’s business license, so those reports follow the organization. Inspectors’ reports are published in a publicly available online database. Media outlets, including Phoenix New Times, highlight some of the worst and best of those visits.
Stratman cautions against reading the inspection reports in isolation.
“Any establishment can have a bad day,” says Stratman, whose nearly 30 years with the department have included working as a restaurant inspector. “You can walk in, and you never know what’s happening that day. Staffing, supplies, you name it.”
Most of the time, inspectors work with the restaurant staff to correct any issues in the moment. When they can’t, they schedule a time to return. For the dining public, Stratman says the best way to gauge how a restaurant is handling food safety is to look for recurring patterns.
“That’s why we follow up, that’s why we look for correction,” he says.
Among the issues documented at Stellar 66: overspray from cleaning the floors and rinsing barbecue racks dripping onto food.
Fertnig/Getty
That became the case for Stellar 66. The first issue, recorded in June 2024, noted raw meat stored incorrectly, with raw chicken stored above raw pork and raw fish. Rules require meat to be stored according to its final cooking temperature to prevent cross-contamination.
This was logged in the inspection report as a “priority violation,” meaning it “is a major violation that directly contributes to increasing the risk of foodborne illness or injury,” according to the Environmental Services Department.
This issue was corrected then, but when an inspector returned for a routine inspection in October, more potential cross-contamination issues were identified. The inspector saw raw, whole ducks hung on racks directly next to cooked ducks in the walk-in refrigerator. Raw pork was seen stored above cooked pork on one rack and above raw eggs and ready-to-eat food on another shelf. On the cooking line, the inspector noted raw pork stored above cooked duck and raw onions in a reach-in cooler.
There were more issues observed. Hot water had been turned off at the hand-washing sink next to the cooking line, a repeat violation. The inspector saw packaged food “with no English labeling and no (U.S. Department of Agriculture) inspection stamp,” according to the report, which noted that “all food must be obtained from an approved source as defined by law.”
Cooked and prepped ingredients were above or below the proper holding temperature. These temperatures, of 41 degrees and below for cold holding or 135 degrees and above for hot holding, are required to prevent bacterial growth. Several meat items didn't have any date markings, and bins of food were stored on the floor of the walk-in refrigerator.
Most of these issues were addressed at the time, but an inspector returned five days later to ensure food was properly stored and procured from approved sources.
At the time, Stellar 66 was not participating in the restaurant grading system. When a restaurant does, its compliance is tied to a letter grade. The grading system scores restaurants on those “priority items” that "are directly related to foodborne illness" and “priority foundation items,” which "are the building blocks which control for priority items." For example, the first may be improper hand-washing, while the latter may be a lack of soap.
Health inspectors look for items that can directly contribute or lead to the risk of foodborne illness or injury, such as ensuring employees can and do properly wash their hands.
Sean Horsburgh/Unsplash
When a health inspector returned to Stellar 66 in April, the restaurant earned eight priority violations.
Several of the problems were repeat violations, and among the issues, the inspector noted cooked and raw items whose internal temperatures were above or below the required holding temperatures. The sink next to the cooking line did not have soap or paper towels.
Cooked Peking ducks were hung off of racks “in direct contact with pans and packaging containing raw fish,” according to the report.
Two containers of the spice blend for those ducks were stored under a sink on the floor, and the sink was dripping onto the lids of those containers, along with “overspray” from cleaning the floors and rinsing barbecue racks.
The inspector also noted a whole lamb without an inspection seal and "observed two whole lamb heads with organs cooking on the cook line” that had been purchased from a “backyard slaughterhouse in Laveen,” according to the report.
“After further investigation, the lamb was purchased from an exempt meat processor for home distribution only. These meats purchased from this exempt processor cannot be served in a commercial restaurant,” the report said.
Chen acknowledges that the April report was “not good.” As a result, his other business partners quit, he says. It’s unclear who else was involved in Stellar 66, and Chen did not provide additional information about the former partners. Business and liquor license records only tie Chen and his wife to the restaurant.
USDA and state agricultural department officers visited about a week later to inspect the untraced lamb.
“Establishment stated the whole lamb carcass was served due to being an approved source and the second lamb head disintegrated and was discarded. No receipts for the whole lamb carcass was provided at the time of re-inspection,” the report said.
The remaining food in question was turned over to the state for “destruction,” and a reinspection followed for the other violations.
After clearing both of those health inspection re-visits at Stellar 66 in April, Chen opened Bing Bistro in Scottsdale. He then replaced Stellar 66 with the same dumpling-and-noodle restaurant. Both Bing Bistro locations feature open kitchens, and noodles are hand-stretched in front of diners at their table.
During an inspection in June, the new Scottsdale location of Bing Bistro received three priority violations. The inspector noted an accumulation of food residue on surfaces throughout the kitchen and that dishes were not given a final sanitizer rinse. Cooked rice and vegetables on the line were above safe holding temperatures. Large containers of chili sauce were left on the table for use between customers.
When restaurant staff and owners don’t change their actions, that can put them on a path to losing their food license. Before that happens, the county offers access to a free class called “active managerial control,” aimed at helping restaurant leaders put processes in place to improve food safety.
Stratman noted that several staff from the Bing Bistros have voluntarily taken part in a class together.
“I’m trying to do everything professional,” Chen says.
Engaging more than managers or owners isn’t common for these classes, but something Stratman wishes more restaurants should do. Seeing those steps makes the former restaurant inspector optimistic for their future.
“Everything’s pointing in the right direction for them,” Stratman says. “It’s not about only gaining the knowledge, it’s about applying the knowledge.”
On a June 30 inspection, the Gilbert location of Bing Bistro received one priority violation and a “B” inspection grade. The Scottsdale location is currently not participating in the grading system. Both restaurants will receive at least one more routine, unannounced visit from the health department this year.
Bing Bistro
15577 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale1817 E. Baseline Road, #103, Gilbert
