Third in a String of ‘C’ Ratings (the Worst) for One Darien Food-Serving Place in Health Inspections

One food-serving place in Darien was rated a “C,” the worst grade in town Health Department’s A/B/C ratings system, in the inspection reports released Thursday by the Darien Health Department.

The five inspections of food-serving establishments took place from Oct. 21 to 28, with three getting an “A” rating, and one getting 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):

—Country Club of Darien — 300 Mansfield Ave. — Oct. 25 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 92

—Satellite Kitchen of Country Club of Darien — 300 Mansfield Ave. — Oct. 25 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 95

—Fisherman’s Net — 11 Old King’s Hwy. North — Oct. 25 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 88 — Inspector’s Remarks: “No QFO [Qualified Food Operator certification] documentation; pies left uncovered during storage on display case; knives, handles unclean in rack; unclean knife rack; char grill unclean; production date needed for grab-and-go dinners, sauces, frozen items that are for sale; better organization needed for shellfish tags; rusty, unclean can opener in walk-in cooler; bathroom door left open to prep area, no self-closing unit on door. Door must be kept closed; front and back doors left open with no protection.” — Inspector’s Comments: “No documentation for QFO. Will have it to the Health Department this week. Much cleaner and less clutter [than the previous inspection]. Need to deep clean handles of knives or replace.”

—Mama Carmela’s — 1981 Post Road — Oct. 21 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 89

—Whole Foods — 150 Ledge Road — Oct. 28 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 93

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 (Oct. 25)
• 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.

 

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.