Restaurant Fails Health Inspection With Rodent Droppings, 100+ Degree Interior

A local restaurant failed its health inspection.Photo byMikael SeegenonUnsplash

Successfully running a restaurant, no matter how large or small, relies on several factors, including luck. It’s possible to stay on top of everything, market the restaurant, serve quality ingredients, select a nice location, and even then, if luck is against you, there’s not much you can do. For one new restaurant in the Tucson area, that seems to be exactly the current problem and has led to it failing its health inspection. However, bad luck or not, it’s important to protect consumers. 

Back on February 28, a health inspector visited Luna Cafe for the very first time (ever). Located at 14075 West Kirby Hughes Road in Marana. This was listed as an educational inspection, which is what most first-time restaurants receive. It is a walkthrough of the inspection process and issues are identified along the way. There is no real pass/fail grade given during the inspection, although outside of extreme situations, nothing ill happens to the restaurant. It functions more as a guide to help the owner with future inspections moving forward. 

During the initial visit, there were three violations, including the observation of rodent droppings. The owner did have documented proof of pest control invoices, so they were actively attempting to correct the issue. There were also some drywall issues as well with the cutting board being extremely cut up (it is easy for bacteria to hide inside cut-up cutting boards).

The first non-educational visit took place on August 14. During this visit, the number of violations increased to six. There was not a Certified Food Protection Manager and certificate on hand. The Person In Charge (PIC) was told to have this corrected within 30 days. There was also an issue with the mop sink plumbing as a blackflow preventer was not installed. This is essential to prevent any backflow water from pumping into the facility.

However, the main problem was with the AC system. Restaurant temperatures are rarely taken during an inspection. That is unless it is affecting the temperature of the food. During the inspection, ambient room temperatures directly outside of the closed walk-in unit tested at above 100 degrees. Food inside of the walk-in cooler as well as in cold-holding units must not exceed 41 degrees, and yet ham hit 72 degrees, chorizo was 62, and cooked chicken was 57. 

The staff was informed they needed to make the necessary repairs to the refrigerator and cooling systems, otherwise it wasn’t safe to hold food inside of the facility. Despite this, during a return visit on August 27, the problems still existed, and the restaurant was given a Fail grade.