LAKELAND, FL -- Blimpie is well-known because it's the third largest submarine sandwich chain in the United States.
But one Blimpie location inside a Walmart Supercenter on US Highway 98 North in Lakeland got their name known with state inspectors for different reasons.
On December 14, Blimpie had to close their doors for 24 hours after inspectors observed 15 live roaches of different sizes on the walls in the kitchen.
We went inside the Lakeland Blimpie to get some answers. We spoke with Andy Dulani, who's brother in Seattle owns the restaurant.
Andy knew nothing about their history since he just started there on January 1, so we spoke to Blimpie's parent company, Kahala Corporation.
Anne Christenson, the senior public relations manager sent this response which reads in part, "The Blimpie location in Lakeland was in fact closed as a result of a health code violation that occurred several weeks ago. The restaurant has since been turned over to a new manager and the staff is being retrained under this new manager. The new manager and store staff have worked diligently to resolve the issues and the store has since been reopened."
But there have been a series of other critical issues in previous inspections at this Blimpie restaurant.
From November 2008 to December 2009, state inspectors found 46 critical violations which included flies in the kitchen in four of the last seven inspections and no proof of required employee training.
Over a dozen of those critical violations were documented on August 21.
In that report, inspectors discovered sausage, eggs, and chili not date marked so employees wouldn't know how old the food is.
Also, meatballs, chili and deli meats were stored at improper temperatures that could make customers sick.
Employees were seen handling cash and food without ever washing their hands and onions were stored on the floor.
We did hear back from the Lakeland Blimpie franchise owner, Suhbash Dulani, who lives in Seattle.
He said, "It was an unfortunate situation that occurred and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused our customers. Moving forward with the help of the new store manager, we will take all appropriate measures to ensure this doesn't happen again and that the restaurant is functioning in accordance with all health code standards."
