Kosher Restaurant Closed By City Over Food Safety And Related Violations

A well known kosher restaurant in New York’s Diamond District has been shut down by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene after department inspectors found a large number of violations during an inspection carried out early last week.

Kosher Restaurant Closed By City Over Food Safety And Related Violations
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

A well known kosher restaurant in New York’s Diamond District has been shut down by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene after department inspectors found a large number of violations during an inspection carried out early last week.

Taam-Tov, located at 41 W. 47th St., specializes in Russian food. The DoHaMH inspection found 55 violation points, DNAinfo reported, an exceedingly large number.

Restaurant employees were caught scooping food with their bare hands. Evidence of live mice was discovered, as were roaches in food areas. Food was also transported uncovered by restaurant employees.

In 2007, The New York Times called Taam-Tov "the best deal on a street where you can end up spending a fortune,” for a meal.

In Jan. 2011, a DoHaMH inspection reportedly found even more violations, giving Taam-Tov 93 violation points for food safety and cleanliness issues including failure to refrigerate food and lack of a proper hand-washing facility.

Comments

[bessie berelowitz]

and about time the food was disgusting, it had been regurgitated by scheersons followers and served as a starter course.

[David]

Restaurant employees were caught scooping food with their bare hands. Evidence of live mice was discovered, as were roaches in food areas. Food was also transported uncovered by restaurant employees.

Oh, so fairly standard for a kosher restaurant...

As they say, if its kosher it can't kill you.

[PulpitRabbi]

Evidence of live mice was discovered

Truth to be told, I much prefer them live on premises than dead in the soup ;-).

(Reminds me when I saw some mice running around one evening in the display at a posh bakery in Manhattan, after closing time. Even beautifully decorated eateries can have horrendous kitchens and storage rooms full of vermin.)

[A. Nuran]

Kosher is no guarantee of anything except compliance with Jewish ritual. It has nothing to do with safety or hygiene

[Blima]

El Faro Restaurant in West Village Closed by Health Department for Mice

Updated October 2, 2012 1:13pm

WEST VILLAGE — The city closed longtime Greenwich Street standby El Faro Restaurant last week after health inspectors found evidence of mice and improper sanitation practices.

The 822 Greenwich St. Spanish restaurant, which opened in 1927, was hit with 57 violation points for "evidence of mice or live mice present," improper handling of food to prevent cross-contamination and improperly maintained plumbing, according to the city's website.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121002/west-village/el-faro-restaurant-west-village-closed-by-health-department-for-mice#ixzz29YMQykeR

[seymour]

blima

goyin drive on shabbos do you?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Blima is a typical frummie troll using the "tu quoque" logical fallacy. And they think fallacies are only for metzizah b'peh.

[Jeff]

Blima is a typical frummie troll using the "tu quoque" logical fallacy. And they think fallacies are only for metzizah b'peh.

That's about it.

No one in their world ever does anything wrong. EVER. And if you DO find something wrong they can't rationalize their way out of, the knee-jerk reaction is, invariably, "We're no worse than anyone else!" So much for regarding themselves as the pinnacle of creation.

[Lawrence M. Reisman]

The fact that it was closed for health reasons has nothing to do with the fact that it was kosher. There are plenty of non-Kosher restaurants that get closed for health reasons, and plenty of kosher restaurants that get "A" ratings from the Department of Health. That having been said, there are plenty of frum restaurant owners with the same attitude towards the health laws as many frummies have towards the law in general. So boruch haShem for health inspectors doing their jobs right.

[Adam Neira]

I'm not sure about the merits of the restaurant in question but the dish in that photo looks mighty tasty.

[moshe]

Jeff and Yochanan and Seymour- sorry I cant agree with you on this one. Blima isnt defending the closed restaurant nor saying frum jews dont do bad things. shes simply calling the bluff of this website as she sees it (not my opinion, hers). Restaurants closing is hardly an issue plaguing the "frum community". Failed Messiah would do itself better if they actually had a mission statement and then followed it. If failed messiah stuck to real issues like sexual abuse, the army in israel, poverty... and spent less or no time on this remote restaurant closed down or this rabbi had sex with a prostitute the site would have much more respect in the community it pretends to seek to enhance. instead it would rather pander to chareidi haters with silly non stories that mean next to nothing, placing itself in a less effective corner and wasting a lot of his own good work. I think this was the essence of her point.

[Jeff]

Restaurants closing is hardly an issue plaguing the "frum community".

It is when one claims to be better than everyone else.

or this rabbi had sex with a prostitute

I think that sort of thing is completely relevant.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: moshe | October 17, 2012 at 09:23 AM

Please.

Standing in that restaurant watching those unsafe and unsanitary practices was KOSHER FOOD INSPECTOR, a mashgiach working for a major kosher supervisor – in this case, the OU.

People need to know that kosher does NOT equal pure, or humane, or safe, or natural, or clean, or any of the other often false claims made by kosher industry spinmeisters and by manufacturers who pay for kosher supervision for products sold overwhelmingly to non-Jews just to be able to make those claims.

Past hat evident fact, I report crime, misbehavior and related stories in the Orthodox and haredi communities.

I'm very clear about that and have been for more than eight years.

And the idea that the Orthodox and haredi communities don't need to know that a major kosher eatery was habitually unsafe, dirty and irresponsible, that it played with their lives and the lives of their children, is preposterous, just as it is preposterous to think that frum Jews shouldn't be told that so many clear and open health and safety violations that took place in front of a mashgiach temidi from the OU.

To say your logic is wanting is, I'd say, a significant understatement of the facts at hand.

[Jeff]

And the idea that the Orthodox and haredi communities don't need to know that a major kosher eatery was habitually unsafe, dirty and irresponsible, that it played with their lives and the lives of their children, is preposterous, just as it is preposterous to think that frum Jews shouldn't be told that so many clear and open health and safety violations that took place in front of a mashgiach temidi from the OU.

Yes, they should be told, but only the Modern Orthodox will care. As for the Haredim - "No one can be harmed while performing a mitzvah!"

[Sarek]

A kosher restaurant being closed by the health dept. is not "...a real issue..."

Right, Shmara is obviously being unfair. Just because the food preparation has been supervised by a rabbi to assure all kosher laws have been followed doesn't mean there can't be rodents and cockroaches running around the food. Just because the rabbi assures no tref is in the food doesn't mean the workers can't scoop up food with their dirty bare hands. Lighten up, folks. Why would you expect a "kosher" restaurant to be "clean" or "pure"?

Oh, wait....

[Rebitzman]

Just because the food preparation has been supervised by a rabbi to assure all kosher laws have been followed doesn't mean there can't be rodents and cockroaches running around the food

You are suggesting that eat mice and roaches is kosher?

[Rebitzman]

Typepad left off my GRIN.

God point Sarek

[Yerachmiel Lopin]

Frankly, endangering the health of customers ought to be a concern of mashgichim. I understand it is not their primary job. But if a place is habitually violating the health code in eggregious ways, doesnt a mashgiach, as a frum Jew have a responsibility, regardless of whether the food is kosher?

[itsakrotzysortaworld]

The restaurant is open. (And the food tastes good.)

[moshe]

ok how about this.

If your goal is to convince charaidim that kosher doesn't mean clean and that if the restaurant says kosher it could still be dangerous, I would say dont put too much effort from my experience they know that.

If your taking on the false advertising of kosher (and i therefore would assume all "false" advertising for profit) I'd say you don't have enough resources to ever take that on and its pointless and useless.

If your goal is to titillate Jeff and others, you are a success story.

If your goal is to bring awareness to the frum community and try to make positive social changes you should make that your agenda and then follow it.

[Alter Kocker]

As I have said before, I am an accountant in a major North American city. When a client, a major kosher food purveyor was questioned as why he was hit with several health and safety violations in his plant, he responded: "Why should I spend to clean-up, they HAVE to come to me"

That is the attitude.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: moshe | October 17, 2012 at 10:43 AM

Please.

I've been covering the kosher food industry since 2004.

I've broken more than a dozen major stories related to it.

My reporting has been cited by everyone from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to the Forward and the JTA.

I suggest you do your homework before you comment on things – especially things you are apparently wholly ignorant of.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

Evidence of live mice was discovered

The presence of live mice means the food is non-toxic. Anyway, didn't anyone see Ratatouille? It's okay to have mice to in the kitchen; some of them are excellent chefs.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

Taam-Tov, located at 41 W. 47th St., specializes in Russian food.

D.B.A. Café Ptomaine

[sr]

shmarya.
thanks for putting 'moshe' in his place. let him contribute 1% of what you have before he opens his mouth

[Jason]

Restaurant was already reopened for lunch yesterday.

[Jeff]

If your goal is to titillate Jeff and others

I guess I'm developing a reputation.

[Yochanan Lavie]

But don't mice and vermin come from sweat and mud, according to the Talmud? What's unnatural about those?

[Jeff]

Lice come from perspiration, if memory serves.

And I think only one species of mouse comes from dirt, but that's in the Middle East.

[Fleishike Kishke]

Better 1,000 live mice than one dead bug. And employees don't need hand soap, if they wash negelvasser.

[seymour]

well I have to admit Di Fara Pizza | 1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn NY 11230 has been closed down more than once an still they is a line for the pizza and i still say been damn pizza I ever had

[Sarek]

Seymour,
obviously you've never seen the Seinfeld episode, "The Pie."

[moshe]

So your goal is to get some articles published in the NYT and JTA and you use embarrassing stories in the religious community as your resource? Ok good on you. If however your goal is to effect positive social change and awareness in the religous community as you once in a while seem to insinuate um...... You could do a whole lot better, though Jeff would be less titillated to his own admitted regret :)

[Shmarya]

Posted by: moshe | October 17, 2012 at 06:15 PM

Please.

You're a fool.

I report news. That's what I do.

And the fact that you don't like it?

Then don't read it.

[BaltimoreYid]

I have had two cases of food poisoning in the last five years (no I don't eat there anymore) that put me in the hospital. Both establishments are kosher and well known here in Baltimore. All I can say is you buy dreck you get dreck.

[Jeff]

You could do a whole lot better, though Jeff would be less titillated to his own admitted regret :)

Titillation? I live for the day in which you people are gone, when you've over-propagated yourselves into oblivion.

[devorah]

"So your goal is to get some articles published in the NYT and JTA and you use embarrassing stories in the religious community as your resource? "

Your people are NEVER embarrassed or they wouldn't persist in their awful deeds.

[Rocky]

A. Nuran said: "Kosher is no guarantee of anything except compliance with Jewish ritual. It has nothing to do with safety or hygiene." Good points. Kosher also has nothing to do with healthy. Hebrew National kosher hot dogs have sodium nitrite in them. The chemical is widely believed to be a cancer causing agent. Stay away from processed meat, kosher or not.

[Seraphya]

Rocky - Stay away from meat in general not just processed meat for your health.

Health risks should be something a mashgiach should be worrying about. Even from a purely technical Halakhic approach Sakanah (Danger to health) is more important than ritual purity and kashrut for food.

[moshe]

Just read the "about" section of your blog and the letter to David Klinghoffer. I stand corrected you state the goal clearly, exposure. I mistakenly thought it was impact. I guess my only question is..... Is it worth it?

[dh]

Is what worth what?

[quinn]

The restaurants which don't follow the rules and regulations of the food safety measurements should be closed, because it is the matter about health, health is wealth,we shouldn't loose our health.

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[Baruch Bikini]

You are what you eat! Schlock!!!!!

[hugo cavendish]

Show me a hygienic kosher restaurant and I'll show you a rabbi with a ham sandwich!