Inspectors allow Sandbar restaurant in Anna Maria to reopen after third inspection

ANNA MARIA -- The Sandbar restaurant reopened Wednesday afternoon after inspectors from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, who found live roaches on the premises during a routine restaurant inspection this week, cleared it for reopening.

"The restaurant is thoroughly investigating the incident and has corrected the issues," according to a press release sent out by the Sandbar.

In a report Tuesday, an inspector wrote:

"Observed approximately one live roach next to hand wash sink and two near two door stand up reach in cooler, 15 live roaches under steam table in wait station area and 20 live roaches on box under steam table on cook line in the kitchen adjacent to the indoor dining area."

The inspection also found seven other violations, including unsafe food holding temperatures and an ice scoop with no handle.

Joe Rogers, general manager of the Sandbar, said roaches love to make a home in cardboard boxes, and a few boxes were left in the secondary kitchen in the same spot for five to six days. The boxes contained to-go coffee cup lids and no food was in the boxes, he said. But even boxes of non-food items are not allowed to be stored on the floor, as noted in the April 14 inspection report. By the time the staff decided to move the boxes, several roaches had found their way into them.

"For 39 years we've been doing business, we've never had an issue like this," Rogers said. "We're doing ev

erything we can. We take pride in keeping our place clean and this is embarrassing."

Rogers said the restaurant, located at 100 Spring Ave., has the same pest control company service return at least once per month.

The pest control workers have never seen roaches in this part of the restaurant, Rogers said, calling it bad timing because the boxes were stored there.

"Those who know me also know the bar I personally have set for myself, the restaurant, its staff and its product, and yesterday our operation fell short of that," owner Ed Chiles said Wednesday. "We have remedied the issues and our main focus now is determining how this happened in order to raise the bar even higher than before and prove to our guests that this is an isolated incident, not an accurate reflection of who we are."

Rogers said the Sandbar is looking into "how this happened" and is working to improve operations so it never happens again. He apologized for any inconvenience the closure caused and "for letting our customers down."

After Rogers ordered pest service on Tuesday night, inspectors returned Wednesday to re-evaluate. During the follow-up inspection, the inspector found three dead roaches and three live roaches.

"Because we got serviced last night, they get sick and wander," Rogers said. "They become a little more active."

Routine food inspections are different than inspections based on complaints. Routine inspections are conducted at all food service establishments, while the latter result from customer complaints made to FDBPR.

A third inspection around 1 p.m. Wednesday cleared the restaurant, and the Sandbar reopened in the afternoon.

Routine inspections are done multiple times per year, and the number of times a restaurant is inspected is determined by its risk level. Risk levels are determined by FDBPR using the following criteria: inspection and compliance history; the type of food and food preparation; and the type of service.

This story was originally published April 16, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Inspectors allow Sandbar restaurant in Anna Maria to reopen after third inspection."