Simone was hungry. Based on the premise that, quite frequently, the little hole-in-the-wall places have the best food, she decides to try out a little Mexican place in downtown Bend called “Super Burrito.” She was enjoying the food until it happened: She saw a cockroach.
There, on the woodboard-covered wall right above our little table, sat possibly the most hated animal in the universe: a cockroach. It was brown, about an inch long, and quite obviously a youngster (I’ve come across adult cockroaches in my travels, and they are significantly larger).
My first reaction was one of astonishment. Then, as I fully realized what I was looking at, there was horror and deep disgust. I instantly dropped my burrito. Jeff dropped his fork.
We were out of that joint faster than you can say “cockroach”. Worst is – you just *know* that that little roach wasn’t a loner. I bet there is a Mama Roach, a Papa Roach, and several, if not hundreds, of Sister and Brother roaches. Maybe even an Uncle Roach, and a Grandpa Roach.
It’s a damn scary thought, but to be quite honest with you, I’m pretty damn sure that Super Burrito has been shut down in the past for health violations, as I distinctly remember seeing the familiar “Closed for Health Violation” sign on their door at one point in the past.I can’t confirm that with any thing on Deschutes County’s hard-to-navigate site, as they don’t have a database for violators listed there (which they really should, as a service to the local community — we do have 290 or so restaurants here, after all).
Simone’s going to file a complaint with the health inspector tomorrow. Stay tuned…
Update on 9/13: Simone has posted a follow up. According the the county health inspector, all three restaurants in that building (corner of Wall & Minnesota) have had problems with cockroaches, partially because the building is very old. The restaurant owners claimed the “little pets” (as the inspector called them) had imported themselves with some produce. “Usually”, he said, “this area has little to no problems with roaches.”
What that also means, however, is that some of the yuppie fancy restaurants in that block might also have roaches.
When Simone asked him if the Super Burrito place had had past health code violations, he said yes, but only very minor.
Again, I stand by what I said above: Health code violations should be publicly available, period. I’m sure a FOIA request would get the information, but damned if I’ve got the time to do a formal request.