DENVER — Our Restaurant Report Card takes us to Evergreen where restaurants are experiencing the great outdoors in their daily operations according to Jefferson County environmental health inspection records.
Beau Jo’s Pizza – Highway 74
Beau Jo’s Pizza on State Highway 74 earned an “F” for 11 critical mistakes in its last two inspections including a wild animal in the food.
In August a customer “observed a chipmunk walk across the salad bar … states chipmunk ate potato salad … and the foods were not replaced,” after reporting the theft to a server.
Inspectors also say, “Wing and pizza pans are not washed, rinsed and sanitized before reuse.” The report said employees had “bare hand contact with pizza and basil.” Also, the inspection said the staff was not educated in food safety.
FOX31 Denver’s Heidi Hemmat asked Brian Grazer, the manager of the restaurant, “Does the staff here know what to do if a wild animal is walking across the food? Grazer replied, “Yes, we have reinforced our training on that. We pride ourselves on customer service and customer safety and we do our best to give them delicious food in a safe way.” The critical and non-critical violations have been corrected.
Willow Creek
Next, our report card takes us to our second failed restaurant, Willow Creek, which is just a few miles north on Upper Bear Creek Road in Evergreen.
The high end restaurant on the edge of the lake faced 15 critical violations after inspectors were on site in August.
The inspection report said that “food being prepared on prep table outside. Facility is not approved to prep food outside. Prep table must be removed.”
But, when we stopped by the restaurant last month, we saw food being prepped outside. Hemmat asked workers, “Do you think this is sanitary?” But, the staff said they were not prepping food and asked us to leave.
Inspectors cited the restaurant for employees wiping dirty hands and dirty knives on an apron. The report said food was stored at too warm of temperature which can make you sick. And, a “full fly strip was stored over clean dishes.”
The owner of the restaurant said, “…we believe that an interview and televised report at this time would be misleading … The recent health department report is not an accurate or full picture of our restaurant … but in any event, appropriate corrective action was taken.”
Seasonally Yours
And our “A-plus” of the week goes to Seasonally Yours, a fresh fudge shop in downtown Evergreen. Owner Janice Stutters said, “I have staff that has been in the restaurant business for many years and they taught me. And, we just keep things clean.”
Finger licking fudge with a Grade “A” health inspection is pretty sweet. “It’s kind of exciting.” Stutters said.
Check Your Favorite Restaurants
- Follow this link for restaurants in the city of Denver
- Follow this link for restaurants covered by the Tri-County Health Department (Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas counties)
- Follow this link for restaurants covered by Jefferson County
