Pooping roaches and bad food get Coral Gables, South Miami-Dade restaurants shut down

A short Sick and Shut Down List can still be thick with violations and vermin. Such is the case here, so let’s get to two Miami-Dade restaurants that failed inspection last week.

But, first, the parameters: What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. These are the restaurants that fail inspection. A restaurant that fails inspection remains closed until passing a re-inspection.

We don’t do the inspections. We don’t control who gets inspected. We don’t control how strictly the inspector inspects. If restaurants in your part of South Florida are not included, we have nothing to do with that. If you see a problem and want a place inspected, contact the DBPR.

We don’t include all violations, just the most moving, whether internally or literally moving (because it’s alive or once was alive). Some violations get corrected immediately after the inspector points them out. But in those situations, ask yourself, why did the violations exist in the first place? And, how long would they have remained if not for the inspection?

We report without passion or prejudice, but with a few dashes of humor (and, probably, indignation and exasperation).

Now, in alphabetical order...

Delicias Latinas, 20916 S. Dixie Hwy., South Miami-Dade: Routine inspection, 10 total violations, five High Priority violations.

Ah, yes, there’s the customary “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”

In the useless-as-wet-Kleenex reach-in cooler, the inspector found cooked beans, cheese and cut lettuce all way too warm — 51 to 56 degrees when they need to be under 41 — for safe serving and slapped all with Stop Sales.

You have to give a microwave middle child neglect for it to get bad enough for the inspector to note, “Interior of the oven/microwave has an accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris.”

Speaking of ovens, one had one live roach, another had three live roaches and another roach was “crawling on the kitchen floor near the food preparation table.”

Delicias came correct for Saturday’s re-inspection.

Maroosh Mediterranean Restaurant, 223 Valencia Ave., Coral Gables: Complaint inspection, 15 total violations, four High Priority violations.

Delicias had the ice machine, but Maroosh brought out our pet peeve, “In-use knife/knives stored in cracks between pieces of equipment.” The inspector saw “kitchen knives stored between equipment...”

Also in the kitchen, all the appliances had a “buildup of food debris/soil residue on equipment door handles.” The inspector also described the shelves, the food containers inside the walk-in cooler and the top of the stove as “soiled with food debris.”

As for the food, pepper sauce, yogurt, hummus and cut tomatoes that needed to be at 41 degrees or under in the reach-in cooler measured 54 degrees. Stop Sale. Basura.

The inspector counted four roaches running under the prep table, two crawling under a kitchen storage area, nine roaches on cookline shelves and 10 on shelves by the steam table. They left “roach excrement and/or droppings present at several places in the kitchen and equipment.”

When the inspector returned the next day, the soiled equipment remained soiled as were the door handles. The roaches apparently weren’t only regular, but fertile.

“Observed approximately 100 live roaches between equipment at cook line. Also, several dead roaches on the kitchen floor...live roaches all around the kitchen or the cookline area, crawling around the shelves, the floors, on top of the equipment, and on the gaskets of the reach-in coolers.”

Maroosh passed a second re-inspection on May 24.