TAMPA, Fla. — Located in New Tampa’s Cypress Shopping Center, NY Guys Grill and Smoothie has its share of loyal customers.
“I like everything about the place,” said frequent customer Maher Laghawani. “Actually, they make special omelets for me all the time. I love it!”
But most might NOT love this restaurant’s recent health inspection history.
The establishment was shut down by the state July 11 with 18 violations, including an employee with no hair restraint preparing food, grease accumulating on the floor under cooking equipment, and temperature violations in the sliced gyro meat and grilled chicken, along with live roach activity near the hand washing sink, around the reach-in cooler, and under the prep table and grill.
10News stopped in Tuesday to check on conditions in the kitchen a week later the restaurant was shut down and then cleared to reopen. But when we arrived, we found a restaurant that appeared to be open but with no employees manning the front counter.
After a while, we decided to head around back to see if we could find any employees there. Out back we spotted a man wearing a NY Guys T-shirt who at first put his hand over our camera and then ran back into the restaurant and locked the door.
When we got back to the front entrance that door was also locked and the lights inside the restaurant shut off.
Minutes later, a woman named Tamara show up trying to get inside.
“I’m pregnant and I’m craving something to eat,” Tamara said. “It’s about lunchtime, so it’s time to feed my baby.”
But Tamara says she had no idea about the restaurant’s previous violations.
We read her off a list of where the health inspectors reported finding roaches.
“That’s already too many,” she said. Pregnant mothers are especially at risk of foodborne illnesses due to weakened immune systems.
Tamara says she’s surprised Florida doesn’t do more to warn customers of restaurants with potential problems.
“I’m not from the area. Where I’m from they have gradings up on the window. I feel like you should have a grade because you don’t know what’s behind the scenes.”
Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulations does publish inspection reports online for everyone to see, but for customers like Tamara, looking up reports before every meal seems unrealistic.
“Not everyone decides to go onto the internet and says let me look it up on the internet,” Tamara said. “If there was a letter grading on the window, it would be a little easier.”
You can view the entire inspection history for NY Guys Grill and Smoothie by clicking on the link here.
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