Cafe J on 19th Street takes extra steps to take care of their customers by making sure the restaurant is spotless. Their manager emphasizes the key is to have a routine.
“We have a daily checklist for opening and closing, and it’s just kind of things that need to be done, things that needs to be wiped down, things that need to be sanitized, things that need to be … like the fruit and the butters that need to be scooped and labeled and kind of put away according to just kind of the law, really,” says Taylor Ellis, Cafe J manager and bartender.
The City’s Environmental Health Department said they check out any complaint, no matter how big or small.
“Depending on what the complaint is, we usually just go through the process of how the food comes in, how it’s handled, where it’s stored, and just kind of move into how it’s cooked. Basically from truck to plate,” says Matthew Elizondo, registered sanitarian in training.
“I encourage when I’m managing that every single time you come inside from dropping something off at a table, you wash your hands before you touch somebody else’s plate,” says Ellis.
If there are continuous complaints against a restaurant, the city makes sure to keep record of that.
“We’ll mark it as a repeat violation and then we just kind of progress from there. There’s kind of an enforcement chain that we have and it just kind of.. We keep track of the repeated violations that occur,” says Elizondo.
Elizondo says if you have a complaint about any restaurant, you can file a complaint by going to their office or just giving them a call. According to the city’s website, when you file that complaint, you will need to provide the following information:
- Establishment name
- Phone number
- Establishment address
- Detailed nature of complaint
- Complainant’s name and phone number with the assurance that this will be confidential (used only when there is a question about the complaint, but it is not necessary if complainant wish to remain anonymous.)