ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — State health inspectors with Florida’s Division of Hotels and Restaurants kept busy last week, shutting down nine restaurants across the Bay area with serious health code violations.
We begin on beautiful St. Pete Beach with Shark Tales Beach Bar on 75th Avenue. The restaurant was shut down May 17 with 23 violations, including small flying insects (too many to count according to the health inspector) found swirling around near the slicer, in the dish area and along the cook line.
The restaurant was also cited for both roach and rodent activity. with droppings found mainly in a storage area, on top of canned food items, and in a broken sink in standing water and also in the bar area.
The restaurant’s owner blamed the pest issues on an air conditioning unit that broke down for two weeks, requiring staff to open all the windows, plus the building’s old age.
The owner did allow our camera into the kitchen where we found neat and tidy conditions and no more roaches or rodents.
The company provided us this written statement:
“As the owner of Shark Tales, I take a lot of pride in putting out the highest quality and the freshest food. This situation has been an ongoing challenge for us since hurricane Irma. We will continue to do everything in our power to provide a clean and healthy establishment for our guests to enjoy.”
Our next stop was downtown St. Pete and The Cider Press Café at the corner of Central Avenue and 6th Street.
The extremely popular restaurant was shut down May 15 with 14 violations, including live roach activity -- the health inspector finding one crawling near a banana. The violations on the inspection did seem minimal, but owners say state health inspectors have a zero tolerance for roaches.
And finally, we have a Restaurant Red Alert Repeat, Repeat Offender. 10News paid a return visit to CS Kobe & Italian in the ICOT Center off Ulmerton Road in Clearwater.
This time the restaurant was shut down May 15 with 30 violations.
The restaurant was cited for improper use of insecticide powder found in the bar area, along with lots of live roaches on the cook line near the flat top grill, crawling along the reach in salad cooler and in a cabinet with items like paper napkins, cups, and plastic ware.
An employee who answered the phone on Tuesday told 10News the restaurant’s pest control company had the issue under control.
The restaurant has failed to meet state standards on every single one of their past 12 inspections since October 2016.
Here is the latest list of restaurants shut down by state health inspectors for the week of May 14, 2018.
*Cider Press Cafe
601 Central Ave
St Petersburg
*Sportscasters
2655 E Bay Dr
Largo
*Midway Bar & Rest
2050 US 92 W
Lake Alfred
*CS Kobe & Italian
13505 ICOT Blvd Ste 207
Clearwater
*Shark Tales
677 75th Ave
St Pete Beach
*Courthouse Cafe
315 Court St
Clearwater
*Brew Pop Brewery
2122 US Hwy 92 West Unit 4
Auburndale
*Mountain Comforts Coffee Cafe
3550 53rd Ave West
Bradenton
*Valenti Restaurant
1200 E Venice Ave
Venice
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