Food for Thought Report 5.1 - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

Hooter's at 4950 South Loop 289 had eight critical violations.

• Several foods, including raw chicken were as high as 62 degrees. Cold foods must be 41 degrees or below.
• Baked beans were not at least 135 degrees.
• An employee put on new gloves without first washing their hands.
• There was no soap at a hand sink.
• Lemons were in another hand sink.
• A bleach cleaning solution was too strong and could potentially be toxic.
• The bleach solution in the mechanical dish washing machine was too weak. According to the report: all items were to be washed, rinsed and sanitized by hand until the machine was repaired.
• Several food contact surfaces were dirty, including: mold in the ice machine, a heavily soiled can opener and dirty bowls were stored with clean dishes.

According to the manager all violations have been corrected. The report show all but one were corrected at the time of the inspection.

Now to Jessie's #2 at 6606 West 19th Street, where inspectors found 9 critical violations.

• Beans that were above the safe cold temperature were thrown away.
• An employee put on gloves without first washing their hands.
• An uncovered drink was on a prep counter. An employee dumped a drink in a hand sink, and another employee used the hand sink to fill a sanitizer bucket. Hand sink are for hand washing only so there is no potential for cross contamination.
• There were no towels at a hand sink.
• Cans were dented.
• Cooked rice did not have an expiration date.
• Toxic items were next to food and sanitizer solutions were too strong.
• Multiple plates were chipped.
• The report states that the proper food safety knowledge is not being passed on to the employees. According to the report the person in charge at the time did not know who the certified food manager was for the restaurant. It also states that during the past inspection, it was requested that the food manager's certificate be faxed to the Lubbock Environmental Health Office, and nothing was ever received.

We attempted to contact Jessie's #2 for a comment, but no one answered our phone calls.

According to the report, most of the violations were corrected while the inspector was there.

get more>> Web Enhanced 5/1/08 Food for Thought 5.1 Here is a complete list of the restaurants and their violations for the week ending on 5/1/08.

Now to this week's only top performer who says being food safety certified keeps them serving up perfection.

"You know we have to take a test on food safety; so that keeps us well informed on how to keep our kitchen clean," Shawn Stephens, co-owner of Cast Iron Grill, said.

Located at 1711 Avenue K, this downtown hot spot for breakfast and lunch is a two-time top performer, "It's an accomplishment. It's something that we strive for everyday. Being a top performer."

"We have a lot of breakfast menu items, a lot of home country cooking. (For) lunch we have chicken fried steaks, lots of daily specials, chicken dumplings, pot roast (and) meat loaf. Our homemade desserts are cooked in-house daily. We have cinnamon rolls that we cook from scratch. We have an open kitchen as you can see, and the guests that come here keep us honest, and we don't have room for error."