Paint brush as food utensil and a live rodent among Miami restaurant filth

Editor’s Note: A running rodent, poop pellets and a paint brush used for food are among the reasons four Miami-Dade restaurants failed their most recent inspections.

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Usually, the Sick and Shut Down List also includes restaurants from Broward, Palm Beach and maybe even the Keys, but those counties have come up clean since last week’s list.

Once again, we remind you: This list comes from inspections done by the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. We don’t do the inspections. We don’t choose who gets inspected. If you have a complaint about a restaurant, do not email us. Reach out to the DBPR via its complaint form.

Restaurants are closed until they pass a re-inspection. That re-inspection, also called a “callback inspection,” usually occurs the next day. Unless noted below, the restaurants have passed re-inspection and are back open.

In alphabetical order:

Cuban Guys Sandwiches & More, 14685 S. Dixie Hwy., Palmetto Bay

Complaint inspection, two total violations, one high priority violation

This restaurant was shut down almost purely on the volume of flies. And a paint brush.

Over 15 flies buzzed the handwash sink and were “landing on takeout bags and containers behind the register at the front counter.” More than 10 were flying around a floor drain at the front counter entrance and landing on a clean cutting board. Two played on the napkin dispenser at the soda station. More than five were around the drain under the three-compartment sink and “landing on a cutting board where raw chicken was being prepared.”

“Observed a non-food grade paint brush in use at the coffee station.” The inspection didn’t specify whether it was an artist brush or a house painting brush.

La Parrilla Liberty, 1255 Washington Ave., Miami Beach

Routine inspection, nine total violations, two high priority violations

The walk-in cooler’s shelves were “soiled with a mold-like substance.”

Seven roaches were “crawling on the wall by the three-compartment sink and behind an exit sign in kitchen area.”

The prep area can opener’s blade was “soiled with food debris.”

Tip for restaurants and those who cook at home: When you buy reduced oxygen packaged fish, and then let it thaw before taking it out, it starts to become a bacteria breeding ground. That’s why when inspectors see, say, salmon in that packaging thawing in the walk-in cooler, it gets hit with a Stop Sale.

Nick Caribbean Restaurant, 14530 W. Dixie Hwy., North Miami-Dade

Routine inspection, 27 total violations, six High Priority

Ah, that old standby, the most common violation: “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”

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A live mouse was behind a storage cabinet in a hallway at the back of the kitchen.

Other living vermin spotted: about 80 roaches.

More than 20 roaches hid behind “signs posted on the walls throughout the kitchen.” Another 20 were “behind shelves on top of the three-compartment sink.” Ten roaches were behind wooden shelves in dry storage. Ten live roaches stayed inside a broken walk-in cooler. Another 10 roaches hung out around a kitchen area water heater. And another 10 were “on pipes and electrical outlets next to fryers on the cookline.”

Somebody handled “soiled equipment or utensils,” then didn’t wash their hands before returning to food prep or handling clean equipment or utensils.

“The cutting board has cut marks and is no longer cleanable.”

The inside of the microwave had “an accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris. *

The kitchen walls were “heavily soiled.”

This inspection was Tuesday. There is no online record of Nick Caribbean passing re-inspection.

Sonic Drive In, 2699 NW 199th St., Miami Gardens

Complaint inspection, 31 total violations, five High Priority violations

You know when you probably don’t want the inspector to drop by and shut you down after finding “objectionable odors” and 31 rodent droppings, including “four rat droppings?”

Well, never — but especially not hours before more people than the population of Coral Gables swarms toward the stadium across the street for a World Cup game. That’s what happened Monday to this Sonic before Uruguay and Saudi Arabia played to a 1-1 draw at Hard Rock Stadium.

READ MORE: Rodents among stadium area eatery’s violations the day of Miami World Cup game

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