SUN CITY CENTER, Fla. — Located within the Sandpiper Golf Club in Sun City Center, the Sandpiper Grille is one of the area’s few upscale, full-service restaurants.
“I think I’ve eaten here two times and had the ribs both times,” said customer Wendell Banks, who was finishing up a game of golf.
Banks says he hadn’t heard about last week’s news about a Sandpiper employee who tested positive for Hepatitis A.
And while a restaurant can’t control if an employee gets sick, they can help prevent many of the health code violations an inspector found on the latest inspections.
Sandpiper Grille was shut down as an emergency closure April 3 with 36 violations. It was allowed to reopen the next day.
The issues included mold-like substances inside the ice machine, soda nozzle, beer coolers and microwave, temperature violations on the shrimp (49 degrees F), sausage (49 degrees F), and French onion soup (46 degrees F), along with 8-day-old seafood the health inspector ordered thrown out.
The inspector also documented an unknown-type vermin with a long tail running in the hot water closet outside the restaurant, along with 80 to 90 rodent droppings in the bar area under the ice machine.
“I wouldn’t want to come back until I made sure they had a good clean bill of health,” said Banks, who was shocked to hear the long list of violations.
Health inspectors showed up after getting word of a confirmed case of Hepatitis A and receiving an anonymous consumer complaint alleging the restaurant was “not following sanitary procedures, with food left out overnight … the owner smoking in kitchen area, and also aware employees were smoke marijuana while working.”
“It’s false,” said Sandpiper owner Mike Madden.
But according to the inspection report, the state also found an employee with an open wound on their right hand while making food, multiple cooks and servers touching dirty dishes without properly washing their hands, evidence of employee smoking in the kitchen, with a cigarette butt found on the floor of the walk-in cooler and another used cigarette in a box of lemons.
“I’m not going to continue on with this,” said Madden, unwilling to discuss the violations any further.
And when we asked Madden if he’d be willing to show customers conditions in the kitchen today?
“Not today,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a benefit to anybody.”
Customers like Wendell Banks disagreed.
“If they said that to you… I’d never come back here again.”
The restaurant's owners issued an open letter online to its customers, addressing what they call rumors about the situation.
The letter reads in part:
"The Sandpiper Grille has been inspected at least twice a year with only minor Basic Violations for 7 years, 5 under present ownership. The most recent inspections have been much more in depth for obvious reasons. The Employees and Ownership of the Sandpiper have been working with the DOH Inspectors and Epidemiology very closely each day (including conversations over the weekend) to provide the safest possible environment."
"Only the Sun City Center residents and surrounding communities will determine if we can continue or if we will have to ‘pack it up and go home’. We need your support," the letter said.
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