DENVER — Each week, FOX31 and Channel 2 report on recent health inspections for restaurants in the Denver area. This week, we featured one failed location in Lakewood, one failed location in Arvada and a winner in Denver.
La Peep
La Peep, a popular breakfast spot in Lakewood, failed with 11 serious mistakes in August. A Jefferson County health inspector found the following violations:
- No certified food protection manager
- Not enough chlorine in the dish machine
- Sausage not hot
- Eggs not cold
The owner, Kate Wessel, sent the following comment in response to the rating:
“Le Peep takes health inspections very seriously. The follow up inspection does show the critical violations resolved. What it doesn’t show is the response by myself and our licensee to re-educate staff regarding health department regulations and how important they are to us. We are confident this will not be an issue again in the future.”
Le Peep is located at 141 Union Blvd. in Lakewood.
School House Kitchen and Libations
Hand washing continued to be a challenge for School House Kitchen and Libations in Arvada with a repeat violation in August. School House scored nine serious mistakes on their surprise inspection. Other issues included:
- Mac and cheese was thrown out because it was not cold enough
- No throw-out dates were placed on perishable foods
- Tongs and other utensils were not cleaned enough
The owner said the violations were corrected, and sent a statement, including the following:
“We were very upset when we received this inspection report as it does not reflect the culture of our kitchen. With the current trend of all restaurants having tremendous turnover, we are constantly training our employees on correct procedures regarding all aspects of food safety. We already had a strict hand washing/glove policy, but we immediately retrained the entire kitchen staff to ensure there will not be any more confusion. We were disappointed to hear that a cooler that was serviced 3 days prior was not holding temperature the day of inspection; however, none of the food had reached an unsafe temperature…”
School House Kitchen and libations is on Wadsworth Boulevard in Arvada.
Hamburguesas Don Jesus 2
The “A” goes to the hamburger joint on North Decatur Street in Denver for earning two perfect scores in a row.
How restaurants appear on our Report Card
Restaurant Report Card features health inspections in the city and county of Denver, Jefferson County, Weld County, Broomfield and restaurants under the jurisdiction of the Tri-County Health Department. The Tri-County Health Department includes Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties.
An inspection is a “snapshot” of what is happening during the day and time of the inspection. On any given day, a restaurant could have more or fewer violations than noted in an inspection. Also, at the time of an inspection, violations are recorded and can be corrected prior to the inspector leaving the restaurant. If violations are not corrected, a follow-up inspection is scheduled.
The criteria FOX31 Denver uses to give a restaurant a failing grade includes the evaluation of two unannounced inspections by county health inspectors. A failing restaurant must have five or four critical violations on their most recent regular inspection and five or four critical violations on the previous regular inspection. The restaurant may also fail for eight or more violations in one inspection. Health inspectors may conduct critical or follow-up inspections, due to the number of critical violations found during a regular inspection. Those inspections may also be considered for our reports. We recognize restaurants with two regular inspections in a row, with no critical violations, by awarding them an A.
