Yesterday, we had the drunk rat. With photo.
Today, the Daily News supplies us with a satisfyingly thorough and repulsive report about Trump’s restaurants.
(I’m categorizing this one as “The filthy rich.” Yuck yuck yuck.)
The dirt on Don eateries
By Chris Sommerfeldt New York Daily News
Their namesake is a Mr. Clean freak, but some Trump-branded eateries are just plain dirty.
Mice in the kitchen, filthy food prep areas and broken sewage systems are on the list of recent stomach-turning health code violations at the restaurants in the city, the Daily News has learned.
Health inspections at Trump properties from Midtown Manhattan to the Bronx’s Ferry Point reveal the President’s namesake company still struggles to keep its day-to-day operations clean — though similar infractions have been reported for years.
Violations at the President’s crown jewel and Manhattan residence — Trump Tower on Fifth Ave. — are perhaps the most gag-inducing.
City Health Department inspectors visited the tower’s cafe and grill last July 11 and found “evidence of mice or live mice” in and around the kitchen, according to records that haven’t previously been reported. The inspectors categorized the violation as “critical.”
The inspectors also deemed the restaurant “not vermin-proof” and said its “conditions” are “conducive to attracting vermin” and “allowing vermin to exist.”
Moreover, the eatery’s “food contact surfaces” had not been properly maintained and “unacceptable” material had been used to build some “nonfood contact” stations, making them practically impossible to clean.
The Trump Tower eatery has been written up for various health code violations every year since 2014, including sightings of “live roaches” in 2016 and “filth flies” in 2017. But inspectors have not — until now — found mice tracks at the posh establishment.
President Trump — who’s technically still the chief executive of the restaurant since he never completely divested from his namesake company when he moved into the Oval Office — has a tendency to not clean up after himself, according to a former business associate.
“He has always been far more focused on creating an image for his properties than in spending what it takes to make them excellent,” the ex-associate told The News, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to be candid.
A spokesman for the Trump Organization wouldn’t comment directly on the rodent reports, but said any “minor infractions” were dealt with immediately. The rep also noted the Midtown eatery has an “A” Health Department rating despite the violations.
But a department spokeswoman noted the Trump restaurant is still an outlier, as only about 22% of food establishments in the five boroughs have “mice-related violations.”
Inspectors returned to Trump Tower on Aug. 22 to check out the mezzanine bar — and found another “critical” health violation.
An unidentified “food worker” at the gold-plated bar — where “The Billionaire Martini” costs $20 — was not using “proper utensils to eliminate bare hand contact” with raw foods, according to records.
Additionally, the inspectors found a “single service” food item was reused and improperly stored.
A bartender at the skyscraper shrugged off cleanliness concerns and said his workstation at least doesn’t have rodents scampering around.
“I haven’t seen any mice here,” the barkeep told The News on a recent evening. “I don’t know about the restaurant, but no mice here.”
The health officials came back again Jan. 31 and found Trump cafe and grill workers weren’t keeping certain foods protected from “potential sources of contamination.”
About 12 miles north, at the Trump Golf Links in the Bronx, inspectors detected more “critical” health violations last Nov. 7.
Food contact surfaces at the club’s eatery were not “properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use” or after “activity when contamination may have occurred,” the inspectors reported.
Secondly, the golf restaurant’s plumbing and sewage systems were crap, according to the inspectors.
Records reveal mandatory “anti-siphonage” and “backflow prevention” devices hadn’t been installed as part of the plumbing networks, resulting in floors not being “properly drained.”
The “sewage disposal system,” meanwhile, was simply “in disrepair” and “not functioning properly,” the inspectors said.
Despite the sketchy health inspection records, the President has a long history of bragging about his hotels and restaurants, invariably calling them “beautiful” and “the best,” while knocking other people’s eateries.
“The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” Trump tweeted in June after his press secretary was refused service at the Lexington, Va., establishment because of her role in his administration.
He added, “I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!”