Comment / By Mark Sailors / May 12, 2011, 10:10 a.m.

This is probably the most disturbing thing I have read in a newspaper in the 12 years I have lived here. The records should be in electronic form, it is 2011. The restaurants MUST comply with request to see their health inspection reports, not chase out the people asking for the form, that in and of itself is a crime. Where does a County Supervisor get the balls to bail out someone that clearly violated the law, and then flaunted it in the counties face?

Every restaurant that can not produce their health report should be shut down until it can provide everyone that asks a copy of said report ANYTIME the public requests it.

If you can not maintain your restaurant to STATE standards, close down your deathtrap and find another business.

PS. DA Galliagos needs to make it clear that this type thing will result in more arrests if these things are not addressed by the restaurant community in Humboldt.

Comment / By Shell / May 12, 2011, 1:40 p.m.

Yay to the students and their teacher for taking on such an important subject to all who dine in Humboldt county. I find it incredible that there was such a lack of cleanliness in so many of the restaurants we frequent. I look on Yelp all the time to find consumer driven information on local restaurants — maybe that could be a place where this kind of information can be recorded. Again, GREAT JOB and THANK YOU!!

Comment / By Rasket / May 13, 2011, 8:47 a.m.

“Norovirus infection can occur from exposure to as few as 18 viral particles. About five billion virus particles per gram of feces are shed during infection.”

So you pretty much just have to walk through a fart cloud to get norovirus.

Comment / By setnaffa / May 13, 2011, 4:49 p.m.

Plano, Texas has theirs online: http://egov.plano.gov/RestaurantScores/

Comment / By Chris / May 14, 2011, 8:57 a.m.

Not only is GO-GO Bistro one of the cleanest establishments I’ve eaten in, the food is uniquely excellent as well.

Comment / By beachcomber / May 14, 2011, 1:55 p.m.

Anyone who does deliveries to restaurants has a short-list of restaurants at which they will eat, based on what they see in the kitchen/storage areas. Unless you have a friend that is in the food delivery business, you have no idea what goes on back there. The Reno Gazette-Journal used to print the results of health inspections noting dings and scores and notations when a score put an establishment on”final warning” basis. When a restaurant would close temporarily, often that health report told us all why it was closed. Sometimes the inspectors were on a specific tare to inspect soda guns at bars and can opener blades (imagine how that goo can build up).

I’m sure this made restaurants nervous but it was nice to know your favorite dinner spot didn’t have “rodent feces” or “insect droppings” noted on their report. I can’t help but think that knowing that scores were printed in the paper kept some kitchens cleaner than they would have been with the public being in the dark.

I’d love to see the State make the info available or have the media take on the task. After all, you guys eat at these places, too.

Comment / By Be Angry / May 15, 2011, 3:57 p.m.

Congratulations and thank you students and Marcie for revitalizing relevance in education.

Investigative reporting is effectively extinct in today’s media, a major contributor to the demise of democracy. Even our small-town reporters take occasional “slumming safaris” to homeless camps…never bothering to explain the predatory economic realities that assisted their demise.

Once students develop a taste for relevance, they might even begin to investigate the institutional corruption at HSU…where they must find someone named “Burt” or Heidi” to review public records; like the University Center’s IRS Form 990 revealing the outrageous legacy of life-long bureaucrats and how they used their institutional monopoly to expand their empire, salaries, and titles, far beyond the ability, compensation and accountability of state personnel.

Who knows more about an institution than its members, including HSU, where silence means job-security?

America would be a far different place if its public schools taught the moral imperative of becoming whistle blowers in a nation dominated by gov/corporate collusion and corruption.

A waitress will not squeal about the bugs in the food anymore than a Private will document torture at Abu Graibe.

A culture against mankind.

Comment / By Doug Brunell / May 16, 2011, 6:17 a.m.

Great, but disturbing article. The timing (graduation) made it especially more powerful. Any clean restaurant can now make a great claim for transparency (“We’ve nothing to hide! Here’s out report on the counter!”). Unfortunately, I doubt this will cause the biggest offenders to straighten themselves out. Perhaps an e.coli outbreak will get them to rethink things.

Comment / By Meanwhile / May 16, 2011, 1:31 p.m.

E-Coli???

One-in-three Americans WILL CONTRACT CANCER in their lifetime.

Shouldn’t we be teaching our graduates how to save that $100,000+ for treatments?

Our failure to extract ourselves from obscene levels of consumption has initiated Nature’s classroom and the sixth largest extinction event in life’s history on Earth!

Will we learn anything before Nature graduates us too!?

Better hurry and buy more subsidized plastic wrap, and that ton of jet fuel for your dining experience in distance ports….while it’s still “cheap”.

Comment / By Mason Clark / May 16, 2011, 2:02 p.m.

As the Food Service Director of South Bay Union School District, I would have appreciated the opportunity to comment on this issue prior to publishing. I fear that this article does a great injustice to our school, and the great employees who provide hundreds of safe, nutritious meals each day. I would have asked the author and investigators to seek out documented follow-up actions, or to allow facilities to insert their response, particularly those listed under the “Seven stomach-churners” sidebar.
On behalf of South Bay Elementary School, I can assure every reader that we have a safe and clean kitchen. In the quoted report, it is noted that South Bay Elementary has a documented preventative service contract with a professional pest control company. This service is performed monthly and was in place long before the inspection took place. I would have welcomed the opportunity to share many of the successes that we’ve had here at South Bay Elementary and the many thousands of dollars in repairs and upgrades that we’ve performed over the past several years. Given the opportunity, I would have also pointed out that like other schools in Humboldt County, we require every cafeteria employee to maintain a current food safety certification. I hope that the Journal would consider the implications of publishing a one-sided report, such as those listed in your article, and that you would avoid the temptations of exploiting the potential shock value of any given topic.
Mason Clark, Food Service Director, South Bay Union School District

Comment / By Heather Maddox / May 16, 2011, 8:23 p.m.

A little over a year ago, I went to the Health Department to get a tetanus shot. While I was there I asked if there were other shots that I needed for the area. They recommended that I get our hep shots if we ate out ANYWHERE in Humboldt County. All it takes is one person to make you sick at an establishment, no matter how classy you think it is…..

Comment / By Allie / May 17, 2011, 9:38 p.m.

Fantastic article, students! I’m impressed with the digging you did and shocked at the results. I love how the story was broken up in sidebars and fact sheets. And, the interactive map is a great touch.

Comment / By Chef Paul / May 21, 2011, 2:45 a.m.

I am a professsional Chef with a forty-plus year career in many diverse culinary environments. I have always been amazed that State and County Health Services are not provided more ‘teeth’ to prosecute those establishments in the industry who do not comply with the provision of stringent health and public safety standards regarding safe food handling and sanitation. A public health inspector should be given the legal mandate to immediately close any establishment on the spot and issue a citation to the offender. The citation should be worded such as it leaves no ‘wiggle’ room or be subject to contrary interpritation. First cause closing should be for one month and the citation will stand as a matter of public record. Upon fulfilling the necessary nomenclature which will allow a reopening if the establishment becomes 100% compliant within the 30 day time frame, a series of follow up inspections
should be implimented with no prior announcement of an inspection.

Most kitchens take pride in their sanitation procedures and it is not a traumatic event for them to have health inspectors arriving at any time to do full inspections.

There will almost always be those in the industry to which their ‘bottom line’ is more important than the safety of their patrons. These people need to be identified and publicly exposed in order to have any effect.

I would support a three seperate violation finding within a six month period to be just cause to revoke their permits and licences, effectively shutting them down permanently. And I know most professional Chefs’ would agree without any hesitation.

Comment / By Jillian / May 22, 2011, 8:36 p.m.

I have been a server at Chapala for 5 years, and was a frequent customer before that. Overall, I was disappointed in the way the NCJ presented this article. To start off, yes, Chapala was mentioned once because a “very large container of refried beans was found left out for 24 hours”. While it is impossible to know the circumstances just by reading the health inspection report, a simple phone call, e-mail, anything would have shed light on the issue. As it is, the large container of refried beans was not just “left out” on the counter. It was stored away in our walk-in refrigerator. What we didn’t know at the time was that since the container was very large, the center of the beans were not cooling fast enough to adhere to the requirements. When this was discovered, we immediately began storing the beans in smaller containers which allow for faster cooling. We have since received a new inspection report (not mentioned in this article or uploaded to the interactive map) acknowledging this improvement, and would be happy to show our “clean bill of health” to any customer at any time. I’m sure many other restaurants have followed the recommendations made by the County, and were disappointed in the injustice this article did to their establishment. Just to be clear, I do think the article was a good idea. It is a worthwhile project, and I am all for accountability. And hopefully it will motive the restaurants that need it to clean up their act. But considering all of the months of effort that went into this project and article, why not take the extra step to actually contact the restaurants which are being mentioned before publication to determine if there were any follow-up actions, or even to get a response. Truth above sensationalism, please. I invite everyone to stop by Chapala and enjoy some delicious Mexican food. I personally eat there about 4 times a week!

Comment / By Love Humboldt, but / June 16, 2011, 12:29 p.m.

I have lived in Humboldt County for several years. Lived in California my entire life. I have never seen so many dirty restaurants as in Humboldt County. My family and I have discussed it quite often and do not go out very often because of it. And I am just commenting on the unsanitary conditions in the sitting areas. Restaurants and environmental sanitation seem to take a back seat in this county. Seems so antiquated.