D's Fleetwood Diner closes after violations noted by Health Dept.

Thu, Jul 29, 2010    to del.icio.us

GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP — D's Fleetwood Diner closed days shy of its one-year anniversary after receiving several repeat violations from the Ottawa County Health Department.

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Grand Rapids resident John Liguri opened the diner at 17250 Hayes St., near the Grand Haven 9 movie theater, on his 51st birthday: July 20, 2009. The '50s-style diner that featured food buffets and American, Italian and Greek dishes, closed nearly a year later on July 18.

Liguri's son, Anton Juljdjuraj, took over ownership of the diner last November, while Liguri remained its manager and representative. They lease the building space from Libster Building LLC of Bozeman, Mont., which purchased the property in the summer of 2008.

About six months after the restaurant's opening, the county Health Department conducted a routine inspection and found 12 "critical violations" of the 2005 FDA Food Code adopted under the Michigan Food Law 2000 — according to Debra VandeBunte, the department's food safety supervisor.

"That's a lot for a restaurant's first inspection," she said.

Health Department documents the Tribune obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the restaurant failed to comply with several areas of the food code over the course of several months, including using time and temperature control for keeping foods hot or cold, hygienic practices, protecting food from contamination by employees and facility maintenance.

During a Feb. 1 inspection, documents state that a container of cottage cheese inside a walk-in cooler was recorded at 70 degrees. On the same date, the restaurant had failed to mark the date on some foods — including milk, mashed potatoes and open lunchmeats. Employee beverages were found uncovered next to the microwave and on the preparation table, and the inspector observed employees having bare hand contact with hot dog buns and cooked hot dogs.

A Health Department inspector returned to D's on Feb. 16 for a routine re-inspection and found that most of the violations had been corrected, VandeBunte said. Another follow-up on March 1 showed that three of the remaining four violations had been corrected, and all were corrected by the third re-inspection on March 16.

"But, because of the numerous times of inspections and routine re-inspections, it's automatic grounds to schedule a compliance conference," VandeBunte said.

The compliance conference, which documents show had been rescheduled twice due to scheduling conflicts with Liguri — was held on April 6 without him; however, he was still required to pay a $150 fee for the hearing.

During the hearing, VandeBunte and other Health Department staff outlined details of what was expected in the restaurant's day-to-day operation: control temperatures of potentially hazardous foods according to food code standards, ensure proper date-marking of ready-to-eat foods, ensure the discarding of outdated food, ensure good hygienic practices according to food code standards, and ensure proper glove usage and proper installation of plumbing devices according to food code standards. The restaurant was also required to submit standard operating procedures for the Health Department's requests by April 14, according to the department's documents.

At that time, the Health Department sent the restaurant a packet of information on standard operating procedures and the required information to be included, according to VandeBunte. As of Tuesday, they have not received the seven procedures that were needed based on six violations.

A month later, the Health Department followed up from its compliance hearing with another inspection, and found hot/cold food violations, improper time control policy and uncovered employee beverages, VandeBunte said. While they had been corrected by the June 1 re-inspection, Health Department officials had already scheduled an informal hearing with restaurant officials.

"After that point, the problems continued and we had to have an informal hearing where we take a look at what's happening, why it's happening and how can we solve it," said Adam London, the Health Department's environmental health manager. "... It's not acceptable to have critical violations over and over because it's putting our visitors and citizens at risk."

"They're being reactive to the reports, when we want them to be proactive," VandeBunte said. "They're only doing these things when we're there."

At the June 16 informal hearing, where Liguri was present and required to pay a $300 fee, Health Department officials requested six provisions needed to correct the violations — including having a certified food service manager on duty at all times by June 30, having employees go through proper training regarding cold holding of foods, as well as training of covering employee beverages and using time only as a control to prevent bacterial growth on food — and submit verification for each by June 18. The Health Department also requested that the restaurant submit a risk control plan and use a checklist for each shift that includes personal hygiene — such as wearing hair restraints, food preparation, hot and cold food holding, food storage, and cleaning and sanitizing equipment — and that it be kept on file for three months.

None of these requests have been fulfilled, VandeBunte said Wednesday.

Liguri, a Montenegro native who operated a diner similar to D's on 44th Street in Kentwood prior to opening the Grand Haven Township diner, argues that he was using a time control policy chart that the Health Department gave him. The laminated sheet that hung above D's kitchen coolers states that foods can be left on the "cook line" for up to four hours; after which, the food must be discarded if it has not been used. It featured a left-hand column to list food items and a "time in/time out" column to write down times, "which I was doing that," Liguri said.

The form, included in the Tribune's FOIA request, was approved by the Health Department, but is not part of the standard operating procedures, Health Department officials said.

"It is not an S.O.P., we gave him this to use as a tool," VandeBunte said. "... There was no active managerial control. They had no system set up that prevented from getting people sick."

The Health Department conducted its latest inspection of D's on July 12 to see if it was in compliance. A few violations were recorded, including one repeat violation: hot/cold food holding.

The next step of enforcement was a $250 civil citation, which was issued two days later and has not yet been paid, VandeBunte said.

Liguri argued that the Health Department was out to shut down his restaurant and questioned the inspectors for the violation write-ups when they "didn't know their own codes," he said.

"They were working against me to throw me out of here," Liguri said. "I couldn't work with the Health Department anymore — they're so prejudicial."

Liguri closed up shop early last week, saying the Health Department was "going to shut me down anyway."

"I would not open another restaurant in the borders of Ottawa County ever again as long as that prejudice organization (Health Department) is in place," he said Wednesday.

Both London and VandeBunte argue that the Health Department attempted to work with Liguri and had no intentions to shut down D's Fleetwood Diner.

"We were never out to get him," VandeBunte said. "We need to have restaurants in our area, but we need them to be safe and follow the regulations. We can't be in a restaurant 24/7, we just see a snapshot, so a restaurant has to prevent these things from going on."

"We never intended to cause him or his business harm," London said. "But we're here to not only enforce the food law of the state, but also to look out for the public and protect the public's health. ... I can assure you there was no motivation to drive his business out of Ottawa County. We want to see every business be successful here." Michael Libster, a managing member of Libster Building LLC, said he was "shocked" about D's closing and found out about it after they had already moved out of the building.

"It was a surprise that it went vacant," Libster said Wednesday. "We're trying to figure out what the next step will be."

Libster said he has a "number of inquiries" — likely for another restaurant business — to use the property with a possibility of obtaining one of the township's many available liquor licenses.