PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — In December, Melvin Wright says he noticed an empty parking lot at Pinellas Park’s Loon Fong. He didn’t realize state health inspectors ordered the restaurant to close with 39 health code violations.
“39? That is a lot. People have to eat there,” said Wright.
Among the violations, a black or green mold-like substance inside the ice machine, household pesticide stored by the clean pots and pans, a moldy pepper ordered to be thrown out. and dead roaches in the paper towel dispenser and by the walk-in cooler, along with rodent droppings behind the chest freezer next to the cook line, by the ice machine -- even five inside a chewed-on box of flour used to make customer food.
“I know I’m not ever going in there,” said Wright.
So 10News stopped in Wednesday to check on conditions now that the restaurant has had two weeks to get things cleaned up.
A man who identified himself as the person in charge told us all the issues were taken care of but did not want to allow our camera anywhere near the kitchen.
“No… no, no, no,” said the manager. “My lawyer said no.”
But we didn’t need to check out the kitchen because the health inspector was already there doing their own follow-up inspection.
The restaurant was written up Wednesday with 27 more violations, including more dead roaches, more rodent droppings and more slime in the ice machine.
“No, I don’t want to do nothing,” the manager told us.
And while the manager didn’t want to discuss the problems, his potential customers say they won’t be back.
“That’s people’s food,” said Wright. “That’s stuff that goes inside your body. Nobody wants to eat food with rodent droppings!”
Following Wednesday's state inspection, Loon Fong was allowed to remain open but will now require yet another reinspection due to the ongoing issues.
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