There used to be droppings on the floor of the Taco John’s in Ames, but the establishment’s new owner said that’s all in the past.

Inspection reports from March 4, 2001, show City Sanitarian Kevin Anderson found mouse droppings there.

“That has been corrected,” said Kathy Vicker, manager of Taco John’s, 129 S. Duff Ave. “I just got inspected two weeks ago and he didn’t find nothing, so . no – that is no more.”

When Anderson spots mouse droppings, he reports the sighting as “inadequate pest control,” and gives the restaurant instructions on how to alleviate the problem. Vickers said the restaurant has had no problems with mice since she’s taken over as manager.

The absence of mouse droppings is not the only change the restaurant has seen. Taco John’s has had three managers in the past year.

“When I got here, [the employees] were not being led. They were being left alone, so things weren’t being taken care of like they should’ve,” Vickers said. “But once I came in here and they knew I meant business, things got better.”

Vickers said she has made cleanliness a priority since she began work in August.

“What I did when I got in here is I came in and cleaned house, started using the cleaning tools, making sure we were using our daily and monthly cleaning lists,” she said.

Taco John’s isn’t the only restaurant that has had problems keeping the restaurant safe.

Of the 180-some restaurants in Ames, inspectors have closed only a few restaurants due to violations of government regulations in the past three years.

Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar, 105 Chestnut St., was shut down for a few hours in 1999 due to improper cooling, heating and storage of food.

Employees were not washing their hands or wearing gloves, according to inspection reports. A look at the most recent inspection report from Applebee’s shows the restaurant has had no major problems since the 1999 incident.

Erica Redman has been Applebee’s manager since August of 2001. She said the restaurant has cleaned up its act, and the employees are following the rules now.

“We haven’t had any problems since then,” she said. “I can’t even remember what the problems were.”

The restaurant is just one example of an establishment that has not consistently met state regulations, however.

Keeping clean

The Iowa Code identifies two types of violations for which a restaurant could be held responsible – critical and sliding.

“The critical violations are the ones that are the most important, because they have to do with the actual safety of the food a restaurant is serving,” said Anderson, who has been inspecting Ames’ restaurants for more than 20 years.

Iowa changed the system a few years ago from a scoring system to inspecting for the two types of violations, Anderson said. Restaurant closures are now at the inspector’s discretion.

“With this new system, since there are no points assigned, we go by critical violations,” he said. “If there are more than four or five criticals [in one inspection], I can tell a restaurant to lock its doors right then and there.”

After a restaurant has been told to lock its doors, Anderson said it has a week to clean so he can re-inspect, or the owners face a hearing to determine whether the restaurant will be allowed to stay open.

Most of the time restaurants in Ames get their act together quickly, he said.

“When I shut down Applebee’s back in 1999, within a few hours, they were calling me to come back and re-inspect,” Anderson said.

“They had everything taken care of, so I let them re-open.”

Restaurant reviews

Fortune House, 223 Welch Ave., is the most recent restaurant to be shut down.

He said the closing came “mainly because of the dirt.”

Fortune House’s November 2001 inspection report shows 14 violations, including smoking and drinking in the kitchen, dirty cooking surfaces, improper hand washing and improperly storing raw meat.

Appetizers were stored in the kitchen at room temperature and eggs were placed on the main cutting board, according to the inspection report.

Restaurant manager Kayel Lee said the reason for the dirtiness was because they were in the process of moving.

“At the time of the inspection, we were trying to move to a new location, so everything was pretty messy at that time,” Lee said. “But he gave us a day to get things clean again, and we did. We were only closed about a half day, and everything looked good to him, so we’re back in business.”

There are other Ames eating establishments with similar problems, though, according to inspection reports.

King Buffet, 1311 Buckeye Ave., is “border-line,” Anderson said.

When he inspected the restaurant May 31, 2001, he found a total of eight violations. Among them were smoking in the kitchen, storing toxic chemicals beneath the buffet, having food placed on unclean surfaces and kitchen employees not wearing clean clothes.

“We every day keep it clean,” said King Buffet manager Henry Cheng, in response to questions about the cleanliness of the restaurant.

King Buffet has also had many complaints – most of which concern patrons finding cockroaches in their food.

Anderson said he responds to customer allegations with a phone call to the restaurant to see what’s being done.

“In [the King Buffet] case, the restaurant knew about it and they had an appointment to get the place bombed in a couple of days anyway, so I just made sure by calling the pest-management company to verify,” he said.

Audubon’s Restaurant, in the Hotel at Gateway Center, U.S. Highway 30 and Elwood Drive, showed eight violations Oct. 2, 2001. Major violations included dirty food surfaces, overall dirtiness of the kitchen and improper hand washing.

During the inspection, Anderson was forced to write on a supplemental sheet – an additional piece of paper used when there’s not enough room to record every violation on the inspection report itself.

“You know you’ve got problems when you have to write on a supplemental sheet,” he said.

Dan Withrow, general manager of the hotel at Gateway Center, said he cannot stress enough to his staff the importance of cleanliness.

“I know our staff has worked very hard to make cleanliness first in the restaurant – it’s job one,” he said. “And everything Kevin [Anderson] has found on his inspections has always been addressed.”

The Memorial Union Food Court had a cockroach problem at the time it was inspected March 12, 2001. Anderson’s remarks on the report read, “Continue measures for cockroach control!!”

Leanne Sundine, assistant production manager for the Food Court, said the staff has been controlling its cockroach population.

“We have a guy come in and spray for us about once a month to two months, and he comes in during our down times and fogs twice a year,” she said. “So, yes, that’s been taken care of.”

Bill Young, associate food service director at the Union, said cockroaches are not an uncommon problem.

“It’s just an ongoing thing you do, control those problems,” Young said. “That’s an old building. It’s a campus problem.”

Preventing problems

Sometimes restaurants have to close to do an overall “bombing” for cockroaches. Still, there are preventative measures owners can do on their own, Anderson said, as long as chemicals are not used near food.

Restaurant managers must also show adequate knowledge about food safety and how to keep the restaurant clean and safe, Anderson said. Informational handouts about sanitation are available through the Sanitation Department.

“If I go and sit down with the manager about the violations I’ve seen, it’s important to me that they know what I’m talking about,” he said.

Twice a year, Anderson conducts unannounced inspections. Safety is what Anderson looks for when inspecting.

He said the most important thing he does as inspector is to make sure no one gets sick from eating at a restaurant.

“If I get a call from an emergency room about several patients claiming to eat at a certain restaurant and turning up sick and in the emergency room, it’s an automatic inspection,” he said. “I know there’s something wrong there.”

Anderson said that situation has “been a very rare thing in my career as an inspector.”

He has “working relationships” with local restaurants.

Treating restaurant owners and customers is always important, though – even when, as in the cases of Applebee’s and Fortune House, the public’s safety is more important than the business staying open.