GREENFIELD — A Greenfield Indian food restaurant may face having its food license suspended or revoked by the Board of Health or be ordered to hire a full-time employee to oversee the establishment’s food safety operations after a series of failed health inspections and a repeated failure to fully correct the problems.
Health Inspector Brianna Eichstaedt told the board recently that the Clay Oven at 286 Main St. was previously ordered to close for a week on June 22 after years of poor inspection results.
Some of the violations were considered serious “red-critical” violations that could threaten public health, including rodent problems that resulted in clean, ready-to-serve bowls being stored in bins with fecal droppings inside and insect carcasses on prep counters, she said. Those incidents and the owners’ repeated failure to address them prompted the suspension, Eichstaedt said.
When the restaurant was allowed to re-open, the Health Department conducted weekly inspections, which have since turned up numerous ongoing violations, including failure to properly and safely store raw meats, allowing raw meat to be stored over ready-to-eat food, failure to store and serve foods at the proper temperatures, ongoing pest control and sanitation problems, and improper control or venting of the grease generated by the restaurant’s kitchen equipment.
“Since re-opening, the Health Department has conducted weekly inspections and has since seen an improvement, and, although I have wanted to change the weekly inspections to bi-weekly or monthly, I have not yet felt satisfied to do so,” wrote Eichstaedt in a Sept. 7 report to the board. “… Each week, I conduct a thorough inspection as well as a re-inspection from the previous week. I am having a difficult time getting full compliance each week.”
Eichstaedt recommended that the board order the owner, Shashi Sharma, to appear for another hearing on Sept. 21 at 5:30 p.m.
“The owner(s) are required to attend the September 21 (meeting) to discuss with the Board the lack of improvement and continued repeat violations,” said Nicole Zabko, the town’s health director. “The Board, if they so choose, can revoke or suspend the establishment permit.”
If the permit is revoked this time, Eichstaedt said, it could be made permenant, with no way for the Clay Oven to ever regain it. Alternatively, Zabko said, the board could order the restaurant to hire a full-time food safety consultant, for as long as necessary to turn conditions around.
Sharma, who according to town records co-owns the restaurant with partners Madan Rathore and Swostik Rana Magar, said in an interview he’s done everything he can to improve conditions at the establishment, and he believes it’s all now being done the proper and correct way. He said the restaurant performs a major cleaning each week, and “every night everything is taken care of in the proper way.”
He added that he’s considering reaching out to an independent inspection service to get a second opinion of the situation. Sharma invited a reporter to photograph his facilities Friday.
An inspection performed Friday turned up no “red-critical” food safety violations, but did turn up a variety of less serious facilities violations, Eichstaedt said. Those include “a film of grease coating all of the kitchen appliances … rodent droppings in the mop room … an employee observed reaching into prepared rice with their bare hands … grease dripping from wall exhaust fan … and food splatter on the walls,” the inspection report reads.
During the board’s last meeting, Eichstaedt said the restaurant staff appeared to be unsure of ServSafe food safety standards, despite having undergone formal training. Though a professional cleaning crew came in to completely overhaul the facility earlier this year during the closure, the restaurant does not appear to have maintained that level of cleanliness just two months later, she told the board.
“This can’t continue,” Zabko told the board. “There are important things they’re not understanding about food safety.”
Members of the board expressed concern that patrons could become seriously ill if the problems weren’t fixed, prompting their decision to call the owner before the board.
“I can’t bring myself to let this go on, someone is going to get really sick,” said board member Tammy Mosher.
Zabko said Friday that food code violations are not uncommon in restaurants and the Health Department tries to work with the owner to fix things, but when issues rise to this level and occur with the frequency that they have at Clay Oven, action must be taken.
“We try to work with them so that it doesn’t reach the point where they have to go before the board. When that happens, it’s not good. It’s quite a process to get it in front of the Board of Health, it’s when there’s a build-up and we’ve exhausted all of our efforts,” Zabko said. “When it’s so really basic in nature, the things that the establishment is struggling with, that’s a tough one to say ‘let’s continue’ — something has to change.”
Zabko said the building that the restaurant is housed in does not appear to be a factor in the code violations seen at Clay Oven, since similar restaurants like Thai Blue Ginger — just two doors down — have had relatively clean inspections.
“You have a place similar in nature, and we’re not seeing the same problems,” Zabko said. “If you’re completing inspections and having the same problems, then you look into the building. It’s pretty clear here it’s very different.”
Restaurants are routinely inspected every six months.
The Clay Oven opened in 2013.
In the health agent’s report to the health board on June 22, she said the Clay Oven has been “written up for the same violations since their first routine inspection conducted on March 20, 2014.” After three routine inspections were conducted and the same violations were occurring between March 2015 and January 2016, I began spot checking the establishment where I continued to observe the same critical violations.”
It’s this pattern of problems that never seem to get resolved that has motivated the health inspectors to bring the case before the board.
You can reach Tom Relihan at: 413-772-0261 ext 264
or trelihan@recorder.com
On Twitter, @RecorderTom