Comments on: Breadline Has Passed Its Reinspection, Could Reopen By Tomorrow

By: Breadline Back in Business. If You’re a Fan, You Should Go. - Young & Hungry - Washington City Paper

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:53:00 +0000

[...] them out. The restaurant managers have scrubbed the place clean, to the point that it not only passed re-inspection but it also impressed Breadline founder Mark Furstenberg, a man not known for an easy [...]

By: dan riley

dan riley — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:18:07 +0000

Greedy (American)restaurant owners and middle managers would can be primarily concerned with making a profit. They would just as soon sell you an unsafe lukewarm bleu cheese dressing as sell you a safe one. Those kinds of operators require oversight. Knowing that these kinds of jokers will eventually get cited provides, yes, peace of mind.

If you're okay with a Dupont Circle establishment brushing away rat turds from your sandwich bread, knock yourself out, fool.

DOH monitors and educates food professionals on proper food safety and handling. Why is this a bad thing?

By: Arlene

Arlene — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:10:00 +0000

Having just got back from Germany, I enjoyed watching a little mouse roam along the floors of a bierhall, with little to no response from both the establishment and the patrons. I can assure you that many many people in this world survive, thrive even, without the interference of a "health department." And as someone who HAS had food poisoning, at places that have never been closed for health violations, no less, I'm inclined to believe that the health code does little more than provide me piece of mind, much like airport security. You seem to operate under the assumption that most restaurants intend to poison us with their putrid wares and that it's solely the health code that protects all of us from their evil designs. Foolish indeed. Funny....if it's meant to protect our health, why hasn't the health department cited the FDA for allowing such terrible meat and produce into our food stream?

By: dan riley

dan riley — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:43:11 +0000

Arlene is a fool. If you object to your tax dollars being used to prevent establishments from serving contaminated food to people you deserve to be infected. As a food professional and a consumer, I rely on health codes and their enforcement(even the 6-inch rule which everyone in the business is aware of) to keep the playing field level and to protect the safety of all of us. Anyone who has ever had food poisoning would agree.
I do feel that the attention given to them was a bit out of proportion, but food safety is extremely important.

By: Arlene

Arlene — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:35:55 +0000

I'm with the DR on this one. Did I read in those inspection papers that they were storing chickpeas at the incorrect temperature? Well knock me over with a feather. I'm so glad our tax dollars are being put to use on such stellar projects as ensuring proper hummus temperature and making sure my food does not come within six inches of the floor. What if it had only been five inches above? We all would've died.

By: Tim Carman

Tim Carman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:18:00 +0000

Don,

Name me that last three, well-respected D.C. institutions that were shut down by the Health Department, places that weren't some small mom-and-pop shop or some franchise poorly run by teen-agers.

-Tim

By: Bert Covey

Bert Covey — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:00:10 +0000

The ONLY story about this is how much the media picked up on this non-issue up and ran with it. I mean ... even if they were closed for a week ... so what? Places get shut down ALL THE TIME for health-code violations.