ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — For the second time in three years, an Indian restaurant in St. Petersburg is the subject of an emergency closure by state health inspectors.
Clay Oven Indian Restaurant is located in the 9000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Street in St. Petersburg. The restaurant was ordered to close Aug 30 after an inspector documented 36 violations, including food stored on the floor and the employee handwashing sink being blocked by a table, filled with paint brushes and with no available soap or paper towels.
There was also temperature abuse on the cooked chicken, goat, and cilantro yogurt sauce.
The inspector goes on to document an “objectionable odor” coming from inside the oven, finding the heavy accumulation of grease/food debris inside, along with 50-plus rodent droppings and “small hairs” presumably from the rodents.
“That’s a huge concern,” said frequent customer Justin Dial. “That’s crazy!”
And it’s not the first time. 10News first visited the restaurant back in December 2015 following an emergency closure due to many of the same issues.
Back then, the owner admitted his restaurant had a rodent problem that was out of control but blamed the building’s old age.
The establishment was shut down with rodent droppings around the bar, in the food prep area and around the oven according to the 2015 report.
Now, nearly three years later, it appears the issue isn’t much better.
"The first time, maybe you give them a chance to clean it up, but if it happens again and they’re blaming it on the building, no, there’s no third chances,” said Dial.
Along with the restaurant’s history of health code problems, Clay Oven was also written up on the latest inspection for automatically charging a gratuity without properly disclosing the practice on the restaurant’s menu and on the bill. The inspection report stated the restaurant was reprinting the menus to correct the problem.
The restaurant was cleared to reopen Sept. 1.
As for Dial, who once considered himself one of the restaurant's biggest fans, he says his days as a loyal customer may be over.
“Where’s the garbage can so I can throw this food away?” he asks. “I don’t think I’ll ever be coming here again.”
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