Durham restaurants draw yellow and green cards

DURHAM -- Diners in Durham can now look for the green go-ahead for health-inspected restaurants.

With the launch of the new DineSafe program, food establishments -- including restaurants, grocery stores and day cares -- must display a green, yellow or red sign based on their inspection status. Green means all is well, yellow means the establishment was substantially not in compliance with provincial rules and a red means a closure.

On Monday March 2, the first round of inspections under DineSafe resulted in two yellow cards, for the Akashia Japanese and Korean restaurant on Kingston Road West in Ajax and Wie Geht's Amigo on King Avenue East in Newcastle.

Ken Gorman, director of environmental health for Durham, said the Ajax restaurant received a yellow because of the level of cleanliness of food contact surfaces, food storage issues which could result in possible contamination and temperature abuse. The Newcastle restaurant's citations included food not being stored at the proper temperature, lack of paper towels and soap at the food and hand sink areas and sanitation problems with the floor, walls and equipment.

Both restaurants have been re-inspected and received green cards.

Doris Paxis, manager at Wie Geht's Amigo, said she got her green sign Thursday.

"I had electrical work done, because of that I had a yellow sticker, but clearly I have a green now," she said.

Ms. Paxis said she didn't get comments about the yellow from customers and doesn't think it will affect them coming into the restaurant. Overall she said she thought the new DineSafe program was fine.

The owner of Akashia, who did not provide his name, spoke through a friend translating to English. The restaurant indicated they thought the problem was that they had been using cleaned soy sauce buckets to store items like flour and sugar.

The restaurant received a green card within 24 hours of the initial inspection.

"Now is everything fixed, only one day yellow, so it's not a big deal," said the friend.

Overall on March 2, 30 other establishments got green cards. The next day, 35 put green signs in their windows, including Akashia, and there were no yellows.

Among those getting the green go-ahead was Applebee's in Ajax on Kingston Road. Kitchen manager Norman Schwehr said it wasn't any different from previous inspections, though some customers have asked what the green card means.

"I think people who go to restaurants want to know what's going on in the restaurant where they're eating," he said. "If there's a green card in the window, personally, I'd be very happy to go into that place."

The Halibut House on Victoria Street East in Whitby also drew a green card on Monday. Supervisor Julie Chea said the store gets inspected every five or six months. She suspected there would be an inspection in late March, but was a little surprised to get the visit on Monday.

"When they come, I don't feel nervous because the store is always clean," she said.

Mr. Gorman expects about 80 per cent of establishments to earn a green this year and said things are going well with the new program.

"Some people are very excited ... one got their green sign and they were cheering and clapping."