One Food-Serving Establishment Gets a Dunkin’ in Latest Health Inspection Reports

One Darien eatery 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.

This appears to be the final set of restaurant inspection reports released under the state’s longstanding inspection rules. A new system is beginning. Darien Health Department announced that a new town grading system for health inspection results will be coming out, but the department hasn’t said when. (See this article for more information.)

The department released a total of eight health inspection reports for seven food-serving establishments on Thursday for inspections that took place from March 6 to 15. In addition to the “C” rating (followed by another inspection that resulted in a “B”), three other inspections resulted in a “B,” another three establishments received an “A.”

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):

—Duchess — 306 Post Road — March 6 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 93

—Dunkin Donuts — 967 Post Road — March 6 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 87 — Inspector’s Remarks: “Full bain marie cold holding at 52 degrees (product temperatures: sausage at 52 degrees and eggs at 53 degrees) Air Plus Refrigeration called and on-site at conclusion of health inspection; rinsing utensils at hand sink; no sanitizer set up in the front service area; broken down cardboard boxes and electric fan left on back prep table; grease trap odor (unplugged); both dumpster lids up and ladies’ restroom without a covered waste container; cell phone out on prep counter.”  — Inspector’s Comments: “Note: ice machine covers are off—being cleaned? Dump ice and protect after. Store manager […] was called after temperature violation was discovered. Corrective action was taken and discarding of food by management.

—Dunkin Donuts — 967 Post Road — March 13 — Town Rating: B — State Score: [not available] — Inspector’s Remarks: “No QFO [Qualified Food Operator] on site; not using a three-step manual process at three-bay; gasket on two-door fridge hanging.” — Inspector’s Comments: “All violations corrected from routine inspection. Bain marie at 38 degrees cold holding.”

—Fisherman’s Net — 11 Old Kings Hwy. North — March 8 —Town Rating: B — State Score: 90

—Godgitto — 1015 Post Road — March 15 —Town Rating: A — State Score: 97

—Michael Joseph’s — 1405 Post Road — March 13 —Town Rating: A — State Score: 94

—Pho Fans Vietnamese — 971 Post Road — March 6 —Town Rating: B — State Score: 94

—The Waters Edge at Giovanni’s — 2748 Post Road — March 15 —Town Rating: B — State Score: 92

Each link from an establishment’s name goes to the web page on the town Health Department website showing that establishment’s recent inspection ratings. Links from the inspection dates go to the Web page for the most recent inspection, if it’s been posted.(Additional information on the town Health Department’s food protection program is available here.)

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.

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.

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.

Any establishment actually deemed unsafe can be closed by the town Health Department until violations are fixed.

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See also:

• Our previous article showing restaurant inspection ratings

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