Out of the 11 the most recent Darien Health Department inspections, one business in town received a ‘Poor’ rating, with the inspector reporting violations including no soap in the restroom, no hot water in the hand sink and unclean utensils.
Six other food-serving establishments in town received “Good” ratings, including the school cafeterias at Hindley and Ox Ridge schools. Another recent health inspection, at Tokeneke School cafeteria, took place when a device may not have been working, which contributed to a rare “Poor” rating for a Darien school, as previously reported.
Darien Health Director David Knauf said the school district administration was prompt in fixing the problem, and the district has a long history of paying close attention to health code regulations. Darienite.com could not reach a district official mid-afternoon Thursday for comment.
Details about the most recent inspections at food-serving establishments, including links to all inspection reports available online, are at the bottom of this article.
How Darien’s restaurants are rated
Restaurants in town are rated under the Darien Health Department’s own Good/Fair/Poor 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 or that have been fixed, so a restaurant scoring higher than others on the state scale may actually get a lower score on the Darien scale, or vice versa.
You can find the past several inspection ratings under the Darien ratings system for food-serving establishments on this website, and now you can also find copies of inspection reports in the same place.
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See also:
- Our previous article showing restaurant inspection ratings (Jan. 10)
- Tokeneke School Gets a ‘Poor’ Health Rating in Inspection — Meat, Taters Not Hot Enough (Jan. 13)
- You Can Now Read Full Health Inspection Reports on Darien Restaurants Online (Dec. 8)
- Health Director: Chipotle Seems to Have Had Problems Training Employees in Health Practices (Dec. 29)
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Any establishment actually deemed unsafe can be closed by the town Health Department until violations are fixed. Knauf says that has never happened in the time he’s been with the department.
Recent inspection results
Some restaurants and other food establishments display their Darien ratings certificates on their front windows, as Darien Doughnuts did here.
(In the list of health inspection results, below, information is listed by name, address, date of inspection, Darien rating, state score. Dates link to the restaurant’s inspection report online, if it’s available yet, and Darien ratings link to a Web page showing the restaurant’s recent inspection ratings.
(For restaurants and other food-serving establishments rated “poor,” and for some others of interest to the public (like schools) additional information is given: inspector’s comments that led to the state rating and additional remarks on the inspection report [information within brackets has been added for clarity by Darienite.com; semicolons like this (“;”) separate individual comments, each one with a particular violation that triggers a point deduction from a perfect state score of 100 points]. Darienite.com will change abbreviations, punctuation and other grammar to fit our editorial style, usually silently, sometimes with brackets, you can see the original online.)
Here’s an alphabetical list of the most recently released results of Darien health inspections (keep in mind that a food-serving establishment with a history of “Good” ratings may occasionally “Fair” or “Poor” inspection rating, and occasionally the best do, and everyone normally gets a few things wrong):
- Bodega Taco Bar — 980 Post Road — Jan. 11 — GOOD — 91
- Center Street Public House — 22 Center St. — Jan. 6 — GOOD — 95 — the most recent inspection report was not online as of late Thursday
- Fisherman’s Net — 11 Old Kings Hwy. N. — Jan. 11 — GOOD — 93
- Fuji’s Restaurant — 111 Old Kings Hwy. N. — Jan. 11 — FAIR — 90
- Green & Tonic — 1098 Post Road — Jan. 6 — POOR — 84 — [None of Green & Tonic’s inspection reports were available online as of late Thursday] — Inspector’s remarks: “No food thermometer observed during inspection; empty bottles (for raw juices stored on the floor) and beverages in back room; uncovered light in noncommercial fridge; sanitizing blenders at night; sanitizing with baking soda — per employee; utensils in the kale and spinach unclean — sanitize; no hot water at hand sink; no soap in restroom; granular and powders not labeled in back storage area not in original [container]; handle on food utensils stored in the food; bare wood at three-bay sink.” — Additional inspection comments: “Food coming from Greenwich kitchen labeled with sell-by date on the bottom. No soup holding — sold out. […] Several repeat violations.”
- Hindley School — 10 Nearwater Lane — Jan. 5 — GOOD — 95 — Inspector’s remarks: “Two boxes on the floor in walk-in [refrigeration unit]; replace worn cutting boards; floor in need of repair outside walk-in freezer.” Additional inspection comments: “Hand washing observed!”
- Little Thai Kitchen — 4 West Ave. — Jan. 8 — FAIR — 87
- Ox Ridge School — 395 Mansfield Ave. — Jan. 11 — GOOD — 98 — Inspector’s remarks: “Waste water frozen on boxes in walk-in freezer; floors showing signs of wear in walk-in fridge.”
- Stop and Shop Supermarket — 148 Heights Road — Jan. 11 — FAIR — 88
- Tokeneke School — see this article
- Upper Crust Bakery & Cafe — 980 Post Road — Jan. 8 — GOOD — 94
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