As a journalist, I've covered a lot of bad news. Shootings. Hurricanes. Crimes, both petty and felonious. But one phrase from my reporting haunts me more than most: "biofilm on the ice machine."
That description comes up often in the roundups of Tennessee Department of Health restaurant inspection reports that I have covered in Nashville. Trust me, Googling the definition of "biofilm" will not make you feel better about that next cold soda you order.
To be fair, the most remarkable thing I've learned covering health inspection reports is how well most restaurants score. Nearly every month, the median score of Davidson County restaurants hovers around 97 out of 100. And even the worst offenders often boost their scores into the 90s on a follow-up inspection.
Of course, the picture is not always that rosy. Here are some lessons I've learned digging into the inspection reports of the restaurants with the lowest scores in Nashville.
What happens when the health inspector is not around?
I've read reports where employees stick their fingers in a bowl of salsa to taste it. They pick up things off the floor, and then go back to cooking without washing their hands. They walk in from the outside and get to work without washing their hands.
If the bad behavior is in the report, that means the inspector saw it happen. What worries me more is wondering what goes on at these restaurants when the inspectors are not around.
Why do fancy hotels often have low scores?
I expected that plenty of food trucks, whose operators often lack the resources of a full restaurant, would often land on the list with the lowest health inspection scores. What surprised me most, however, is how often the kitchens at high-end hotels score poorly.
How do these hotels not have better management of their restaurants? Is this a sign of the post-Covid-19 era when the tight labor market continues to make it difficult for businesses to maintain full staffing?
And if you suspected that the kitchens at many Broadway bars often get low scores, you would be correct.
Keep the meat on the bottom
Proper stacking can keep customers from getting sick. Routinely, restaurants are cited for putting raw proteins like beef, chicken or shrimp above prepared, ready-to-eat food. The raw proteins, which might be fine after cooking, could leak onto the food below. Normally, the inspector just has the restaurant move items to the proper shelves.
This has made me more careful about my own refrigerator at home. I now keep a space in the bottom clear for storing raw meats and seafood.
What's worse than warm raw meat?
When I read about flies, occasional cockroaches and mouse droppings in an inspection report, that doesn't bother me too much. Maybe I expected infestations in low-scoring restaurants? What really turns my stomach is how often raw meat is found at temperatures that would be considered balmy in the spring. Normally, the meat is around 60 degrees because a cooler is broken. But does the staff not notice that the steak is lukewarm when they pull it out to grill?
You know what is worse than warm beef? Warm sushi.
I've read way too many inspection reports where sushi bars are not keeping the fish well-chilled. I'll admit that I've often taken a chance and eaten at restaurants that look dubious. But when it comes to sushi, I'm not ordering unless the place looks pristine.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Lessons learned tracking Nashville restaurant inspections: Cockroaches and lukewarm sushi
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