Five Palms Steak and Seafood (April)
3500 E. Sunrise Drive
- History: The restaurant , which has been open since 2013, failed two consecutive inspections in June 2014 and previously failed an inspection in October.
- What the inspector saw: The restaurant received a “probationary” rating during an April 20 inspection, when the inspector observed five critical violations. Temperatures in the restaurant’s refrigerators were higher than code allows, an employee’s take-out box of food was on the prep table, and kitchen equipment and utensils had “excessive build-up of food debris.” When the inspector saw that Five Palms was vacuum packaging seafood on the premises, the restaurant was ordered to “cease and desist (packaging) operations immediately” and throw away all of the product.
- Follow-up: Scheduled May 2.
- Response: “We’ve been changing the kitchen around, since we’re getting ready to start a new menu. We have a brand new staff as of last week,” said Alex Hartleb, who took over as general manager a few weeks ago. “The inspector wants us to focus on the temperature of our product and the walk-in refrigerator. Employees were going in and out that day, which probably brought down the temperature, but the inspection took place well before dinner service.”
