A Darien retirement home received a “C” rating, the worst grade in town Health Department’s A/B/C ratings system, in the inspection reports released Thursday by the Darien Health Department.
Town Health Department ratings certificates are supposed to be displayed prominently, like this one at the Frosty Bear Cafe at Darien Library.
The department released health inspection reports for nine food-serving establishments on Thursday for inspections that took place from Sept. 4 to 9. In addition to the “C” rating, three inspections resulted in an “A,” another five received a “B.”
Keep in mind that a food-serving establishment with a history of good ratings may occasionally get a poor inspection rating, occasionally the best do, and every restaurant normally gets a few things wrong.
Here’s an alphabetical list of the most recently released health inspection results (an explanation of how this list is put together is immediately below it):
—Darien Butcher Shop — 13 Grove St. — Sept. 15 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 89
—Frosty Bear Cafe — at Darien Library, 1441 Post Road — Sept. 11 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 92
—Green & Tonic — 1098 Post Road — Sept. 17 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 93
—Heights Pizza — 882 Post Road — Sept. 11 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 89
—Maplewood at Darien — 599 Post Road — Sept. 14 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 85 — Inspector’s Remarks: “New female employee without documented training; top of bain-marie food holding in the 50s [degrees] (eggs at 56, cheese at 53, cooked chicken at 54, strawberries at 51). All food must be cold held below 41 degrees; some food not covered in storage and walk-in [cooler]; protein puree molds unclean, scoop in storage; unclean prep[aration] surfaces, near microwave, stove and puree station; label all bulk storage items […] in original containers; thawing meat at prep sink and plated puree dinners at room temperature; install splash guard at hand sink next to hard ice cream; shelving unclean under microwave, stove and sides of equipment near fryer.” — Inspector’s Comments: “Note: purees should not be plated and allowed to thaw at room temperature until dinner service! Note: masks should be worn over the nose by kitchen staff. Note: calibrate thermometer–digital one is accurate. Note: chef working with ripped glove, top of hand (brown eggs on site–discussion with chef).”
Image from H.D. website
Part of the Sept. 14 inspection report for Maplewood Darien.
—McDonald’s — Darien North rest stop, Interstate 95 — Sept. 11 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 95
—Palmer’s Supermarket — 264 Heights Road — Sept. 16 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 88
—Tokeneke School — 7 Old Farm Road — Sept. 14 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 99
Image from Darien H.D. website
Part of the Sept. 14 inspection report at Tokeneke School
—Trader Joe’s — 436 Post Road — Sept. 11 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 100
Dates link to the food establishment’s inspection report referenced here (when available, sometimes it takes a while to get posted online), and Darien’s own A/B/C ratings link to a Web page showing several of the restaurant’s recent inspection ratings.
Additional information is given for restaurants and other food-serving establishments rated “C,” and for some others of interest to the public (like schools). When we provide that information here, then words within brackets (“[ ]”) have been added for clarity by Darienite.com; semicolons (“;”) separate individual comments by the inspectors. Each comment separated by semicolons is about a particular violation that triggers a deduction of one or more points from a perfect state score of 100.
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See also:
You can find the past several inspection ratings under the Darien ratings system for food-serving establishments along with copies of inspection reports, including state health code scores on this website.
- Our previous article showing restaurant inspection ratings (Sept. 11)
- STAMFORD online health inspection results
- NORWALK online health inspection ratings (explanation of ratings)
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How Darien’s Food-Serving Places Are Rated
Restaurants in town are rated under the Darien Health Department’s own A/B/C ratings system. Health inspectors also use the state health code regulations to score restaurants, with a perfect score set at 100, and demerits (of 1 to 4 points each) for various code violations.
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The Darien system takes into account problems that are ongoing, so a restaurant scoring higher than others on the state scale may actually get a lower score on the Darien scale.
The “A”, “B” and “C” letter grades a restaurant gets in its last inspection will be prominent on these certificates, which must be posted where customers can see them, and you can use your phone and the “QR” code to the right of the letter grade to get to the department’s ratings website for more information.
Any establishment actually deemed unsafe can be closed by the town Health Department until violations are fixed. Town Health Director David Knauf says that has never happened in the time he’s been with the department.