BRADENTON, FL --A squirrel and many of his buddies have caused some real problems for The Banana Factory Restaurant on West 14th Street in Bradenton.
On February 24th and 25th state inspectors shut down the restaurant for rodent activity, after finding over 100 rodent droppings around the bar and deck area.
"Did you just not know the problem was that bad?" asked ABC Action News Anchor Wendy Ryan
"No, we didn't," said Marti Slocum, the manager of Banana Factory for the last 10 months.
Slocum blames the rodent activity on squirrels that were just overly friendly and hung out with customers who would feed them.
"The rodent problem was the squirrels. I didn't realize that a squirrel was a rodent," said Slocum.
Slocum put up "do not feed the squirrels" signs to help alleviate the problem.
"They would even eat out of your hand," Slocum admitted.
But this wasn't the first time the restaurant was warned about their rodent activity.
In February of last year, state inspectors found more dry droppings by that same bar area.
And when they were shut down a few months ago, inspectors also documented more than two dozen live roaches inside the kitchen. They were at the bottom of the food preparation counter and inside a shelf near the cookline.
"The roach infestation is done. It's all been cleaned up. We found where that was coming from," Slocum said.
During four inspections over the last year, Banana Factory has accumulated 58 violations, of which 38 were critical. That includes the way employees handled food.
State inspectors found pot roast, meats, and chili not date marked, which can allow old food to be served. And cold food in the cooler was 46 and 47-degrees. The state food code says that all cold food should be held at 41 degrees or colder.
"And what about the issue of temperature violations?" Ryan asked.
"Its all been corrected, everything. And they've all gone over their training on their food handling again so we're ready," Slocum said.
Slocum says the restaurant has made many changes including having all employees go through a weekly and daily cleaning list.
"We have new rules for every person that works here as far as cleaning. Certain things have to be done every day, certain things every other day, including the kitchen," Slocum said.
We did see the cook put gloves on and Slocum says they're doing all they can to make things right.
"So for those people out there who can see this report online, what would you say?" Ryan asked.
"Come back please because it's clean. I mean you can look around and see it's clean," Slocum said.
