From The Past: January 19, 2007

We rarely eat fast food. I know I have mentioned eating Charlies, but I really don’t consider them fast food. They cook the food fresh while you wait and then you take it away in a Styrofoam container. It’s always hot and delicious.

We rarely eat McDonald’s. Andrew and Ashley eat it sometimes and when they do, Kevin and I eat something else (like Charlies). I have learned what my body likes and doesn’t like and I try to listen. It doesn’t like Mickey D’s. In fact, it rejects it completely by going straight through without stopping. Capeesh?

When we eat out, we eat at what I consider to be, nice restaurants. There are no plastic seats or toys given with your kid’s meal, and we are waited on hand and foot. We enjoy Outback, Ruby Tuesday’s, Tony Roma’s, Johnny Carino’s, Texas Roadhouse, and so on. There is a clear difference between these places and places like Wendy’s and Burger King.

I like a more relaxing atmosphere when I eat. Fast food joints make me feel anything but relaxed. There is one Mickey D’s in particular in Lexington that I consider the worst as far as stress levels are concerned. It has an indoor play area.

I have some advice to anyone who has never been to this location and would one day like to have children; don’t ever go in there. If you do, you will make up your mind right then and there that you are never going to have children. I’ve been there once on a Saturday afternoon. There were about a million people in the place and to beat all, a birthday party was in full swing. I said to myself, “Never again.” With the play area, this restaurant attracts people with small children. This is great for those people; however, I like to eat in peace and without small children running around screaming with no real adult supervision.

Why am I telling you this?

Because the restaurant inspections came out in The Winchester Sun and I just finished reading them. I have a few I would like to direct your attention to.

* The first one that really popped out at me was Cassell Creek Golf Course. They scored an 83% because they were storing their Styrofoam containers in the mop sink. Among the spices, they apparently also kept some sort of cleaner. Can you imagine the damage a mix-up could cause? On the follow-up visit they scored a 99%, but who really cares.

Someone once told me that the health department informs these places in advance when they are going to be inspected. So, if they scored this bad on inspection day knowing the health department was coming, imagine what the condition is normally. I say who cares about the follow-up visit because they know what they need to do to impress the health department by then. If you think things stay that way when they leave, you’re delusional. I personally don’t think they deserve ANY advance notice. Why shouldn’t the health department see it on a normal day instead of a “cleaned-up” version? I don’t think it’s very fair to the public.

* The Corner Drug Lunch scored a 79%. Geez, it must have been bad in there! Their hand wash sink wasn’t working correctly, they had open drinks in the food preparation area, and insects were there on the premises. Lovely. I can tell you that I ate there in the summer of 2005 and there were flies flying around my head. I shouldn’t have to swat at a fly while I’m in a restaurant. When was the last time you dealt with annoying flies at a nice restaurant? The follow-up visit was 98%. They must have bought a fly swatter.

* What a surprise this is! Dairy Queen scored an 81%. They had the same problems as some others like, open drink containers in the food preparation area. There was no soap in the three-compartment sink so how were they washing their hands? Oh yea, there was also a RODENT in the FOOD PREPARATION AREA. Now, it doesn’t say if the rodent was alive or dead, but does it really matter at this point? I don’t think so. Their follow-up was 99%. As Ralphie said in A Christmas Story,

“Now I could never be sure, but I thought that I heard the sound of “Taps” being played. Gently.”

* The paper doesn’t list each infraction. I am guessing they only list those they deem are the most important. For some reason Papa John’s Pizza scored an 84%. All the paper says is that the garlic sauce was at room temperature, and once again, an open drink was in the food preparation area. To me, this is interesting because the garlic sauce I get is ALWAYS at room temperature. What temperature is it supposed to be? Their follow-up was 100%. You remember what Sipsey said in Fried Green Tomatoes,

“Secrets in the sauce.”

Is this the reason I sprint for the bathroom after this meal?

Many more places had less than stellar inspections including another pizza place and several small grocery stores. We frequent one of these grocery stores during the summer months to buy fresh tomatoes. They have better tomatoes than you can find at any supermarket because they come straight from a local farmer. But, they also have a deli counter. I have always wondered how they pass inspection when they allow smoking behind the counter. Heavy smoking. I didn’t know you were allowed to have a Marlboro smoldering in an ashtray while you made someone a ham sandwich. Interesting, huh.