DENVER (KDVR) — 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 Denver, a failed location in Castle Rock and a winner in Denver.
Tupelo Honey (F)
The restaurant near Union Station scored eight critical health code violations in December.
Mistakes include:
- Water was not hot enough at a cook’s hand sink
- Workers were preparing food without buckets of sanitizing solution available
- A dish machine was not sanitizing
- Ribs and meatloaf were not held at a hot enough temperature
Tupelo’s public relations firm said third-party safeguards are now in place and sent the following comment:
“We take our responsibility of safely serving the Denver community and our past 400,000 guests seriously. All inspection observations were immediately rectified and upon reinspection on 12/24/19 show zero violations.
Further safety measures have been taken including: all staff members have been retrained in food safety protocol third-party safeguards have been put in place including monthly Steritech audits, ServSafe certification is being completed for all operations members and we’re accepting additional guidance from Denver Department of Public Health & Environment.”
Tupelo Honey is located at 1650 Wewatta St.
Beau Thai II (F)
The Castle Rock restaurant scored 12 serious health code issues in December, including:
- An employee washed their hands with cold water
- An employee handled raw shrimp and then cabbage without washing hands in between
- No certified food protection manager
- Person in charge lacked food temperature knowledge
The Problem Solvers called and left messages but no one responded, so we went by to check out the restaurant.
An employee told us the manager was not available and we later received the following statement from the Beau Thai team:
“All violations have been corrected and passed with the Tri-County Health Department. We had new employees at the time that have now completed the Food Handler Course through Tri-County Health. We take food handling seriously and will continue on going training with all employees.”
Beau Thai II is located at 1341 New Beale St. in Castle Rock.
Tommy’s Thai (A)
Our “A” grade goes to Tommy’s Thai at 3410 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver for two perfect health inspections 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.
