One restaurant in Darien 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 just two health inspection reports on Thursday, for inspections that took place on Nov. 15 and 19. The other restaurant 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):
—Scena Wine Bar and Restaurant — 1077 Post Road — Nov. 15 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 85 — Inspector’s Remarks: “Employees not answering cooking-temperature questions twice … must document training; large salad bain marie at 52 [degrees] (product temperature of food in various zones of the fridge); raw poultry over open containers of sauce; bare hand with bread upon entry to kitchen; rinsing herbs in hand sink; pasta-making equipment stored unclean; some items not labeled and shellfish tags not stored with shellfish; ice scoop stored on top of ice machine; faucet handles broken at bar hand sinks (manager ordered replacement parts); floor unclean in walk-in [cooler] and kitchen.” — Inspector’s Comments: “Strong odor from water-wash hood system. Large batch cooling discussion. Cutting boards showing signs of wear … replace.”
Inspector’s comments and remarks section of the Nov. 15 inspection at Scena Wine Bar and Restaurant.
—Steam Darien — 971 Post Road — Nov. 19 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 89
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.
For restaurants and other food-serving establishments rated “C,” and for some others of interest to the public (like schools) additional information is given. 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 (Nov. 14)
- 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.