Tomfooleries on the Plaza was shut down yesterday by the Kansas City Health Department for a multitude of infractions, many of them critical.
After a routine inspection last week, the Plaza mainstay had 25 citations, 17 of them for critical actions such as employees eating, drinking or smoking around food, employees not washing hands, raw chicken stored next to heads of cabbage and, most dangerous, food in steamers in the dangerous temperature zone of 40 degrees to 140 degrees. Bacteria thrives at these temperatures, often causing food poisoning.
Perhaps the most troublesome charge levied by the health department was, "the person in charge could not demonstrate knowledge of foodborne disease prevention."
The complete list of violations from June 22 is on KMBCs Web site. (PDF)
On the follow-up visit yesterday, the inspector noticed that several of the violations hadn't been corrected, including the cross-contamination and employees eating, drinking or chewing tobacco around food. So the city shut down the restaurant.
"Due to establishment having a history of repeat critical and
non-critical violations and the cease of operation from today's
(06/29/09) re-inspection," the inspector wrote, "the establishment's permit holder must
contact the Kansas City Health Department to set up a meeting to
discuss their inspection history and to discuss the prevention of further repeat critical and non-critical violations for the future."
Tomfooleries isn't allowed to open until a full re-inspection is completed and the inspector reinstates its permit.
Meanwhile, an electrical fire over the weekend set off the
sprinkler systems at Baja 600and ended up flooding the basement with several feet
of water. The power went out, and the restaurant had to throw out all its food inventory. It's currently
getting its utensils and equipment cleaned. It will need to completely
repair its basement before re-opening, a process that will take more
than a week.
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Too bad about Baja 600, that's a great place. Hope this doesn't harm them too much.
As for Tomfooleries, I hope no one responsible ever works in the restaurant business again. Unfortunately they'll probably just pay the fine and go right back to their bad behavior in 6 months. It's a shame, since there are so many people out there trying to make great food and keep their customers safe...
If so, shouldn't they have been able to find a kitchen manager who knew the health code?
The question isn't so much whether they could find one. It's whether they pay enough to attract someone reasonably competent.
Too many places these days appear to hire on the basis of whether the employee will accept shit wages and piss in a bottle on command. That's not exactly a recipe for quality.
I thought Tomfooleries was a big service-industry after-hours hangout. Is that not right? If so, shouldn't they have been able to find a kitchen manager who knew the health code?
"I find it hard to believe that any restaurant in this kind of economy would blatantly diregard the warning and be unprepared for the follow-up visit"
If you'd ever met the owner Barton you'd believe it. That guy is the biggest jacka** I've ever met in or out of the restaurant industry. Serves him right - karma's a bitch
Holy crap! I can't say I'm particularly shocked, but I find it hard to believe that any restaurant in this kind of economy would blatantly diregard the warning and be unprepared for the follow-up visit. And they don't even have anyone there that is knowledgable enough to know how to prevent foodborne diseases? Jeezy chreezy. Most of that shit is common sense, for fuck's sake!
It's been quite some time since I've eaten there, anyway. But I have to say that aside from the brunch on Sunday, I never, ever had a decent meal there. The last time I tried eating there for dinner, they served me a salad that was completely inedible, it was so rotten. I had to send it back, when it shouldn't have even left the kitchen it was so obviously bad.
This should hush up Bull E Vard's claim of them having the best fish & chips in the city.
That temperature stuff is by far the biggest concern. Almost all of the refrigerators were above temp and many of the warmers were not hot enough. Add to that the other violations and a stupid name like Tomfooleries, and it's a recipe for disaster.
It's good the health department has some balls, but I do hope Tomfooleries learns its lesson and makes it back open.
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