Food safety still a problem at some popular Downtown Santa Ana restaurants

It has been a few months since I took a look at the food safety records of many of the most popular bars and restaurants in Downtown Santa Ana.  The news is not great.

Orange County’s Health Care Agency inspects our restaurants but they are not required to post letter grades, thanks to Supervisor Janet Nguyen who was the key vote against letter grades a few years ago.  She did not tell anyone at the time that her own husband and her then Chief of Staff owned a Lee’s Sandwiches in Stanton that at the time had a terrible health record.

So here is our updated rundown of O.C. Health Care Agency inspections of our local Downtown Santa Ana restaurants:

We will start with the Memphis at the Santora, which got nailed with two major violations (they pose the highest risk of causing food poisoning or foodborne illness) and four minor violations during an inspection on June 27, 2013.  They were reinspected on June 28, 2013, and all was well. Then they got hit again on July 8, 2013, and ended up with two more minor violations that both had to do with “unsanitary conditions.”

The Memphis also apparently has a satellite location that got busted too, back in February of this year:

Chapter One: the Modern Local, got busted in February too:

The Yost Theatre got busted in January and in March:

February and March were bad months for The Crosby too:

The Playground got inspected in March too:

Proof had three inspections in January then another one in June:

A complaint was filed against the Gypsy Den in April – then they got inspected again in May:

The Velvet Lounge was inspected in April too:

The Grilled Cheese Spot, which I believe is a joint project of the Playground and the Crosby got hit in April and May too:

Original Mike’s was hit with a complaint in April after being inspected in February (and they got a major violation during that inspection):

The Copper Door changed owners in May then got hit with several inspections:

Lola Gaspar was inspected twice in March and had two major violations the first time:

Crave Restaurant took over the location where Tommy Pastrami used to be, back in February.  They were inspected several times afterwards:

Au Naturaw has only had one inspection:

And Bistro 400 has only had one inspection as well: