Dirty Dining: Dandrea's Cafe shut down for a day for rodent droppings

BRADENTON, Fla. - The sign outside reads "Welcome to Dandrea's Cafe" "fresh grouper served daily" and "home-made corned beef hash."

And with that fresh food, manager Dan Lord says the owners work hard 24-7.

"They run an incredibly clean operation," Lord explained.

But the restaurant on Cortez Road in Bradenton had to shut its doors for the day on August 30, after state inspectors discovered rodent activity.

"They don't shut you down unless it's a real health hazard," said ABC Action News anchor Wendy Ryan.

"Oh yeah, there's no question there was a problem there," Lord replied.

On its August 30 report, inspectors wrote "too many rodent droppings to count where syrup and honey were stored." And "staff moved syrup bottles, causing dried droppings to fall on prep table. Staff is not taking steps to clean droppings from shelf to avoid further contamination."

State inspectors also documented 120 rodent droppings near the prep table, cookline, cooler, and ice machine.

But Lord says they took care of the problem immediately.

"We brought the whole crew in. We cleaned, scrubbed, we had traps and everything else going, but we took everything apart, cleaned, and scrubbed the whole place down," Lord explained.

Over the last 14 months 51 critical violations were found inside Dandrea's Cafe, including cross-contamination issues.

In May, inspectors witnessed employees handling raw sausage and raw meats and then returning to food prep without ever washing their hands.

And in January, inspectors discovered soup, chili, roast beef, chicken breasts, bread pudding, cheese sauce and shredded cheese above 41 degrees as some items were improperly cooled and the cooler was not maintaining the proper temperature. Inspectors ordered the soup, chili, and roast beef to be discarded.

"I guarantee there isn't a restaurant around that you can't go into and find one or two things that you stick a thermometer in and it will be in violation of that fine line," Lord said.

Lord also says despite these reports, Dandrea's re-trains its employees all the time and keeps a clean kitchen.

"Anytime there's a problem, we sit down and make them go through all the training all over again," Lord said.

"So you're on it, when something does happen?" Ryan asked.

"Absolutely!" Lord answered.