The Chicago Restaurants, Grocery Stores Ordered Closed Last Week

CHICAGO, IL — Dozens of Chicago restaurants and grocery stores are slapped with fines for health violations each week, but it takes a serious violation for a restaurant to be ordered closed, the city said. Places are ordered shuttered for reasons such as roach and mice infestations, major plumbing problems, food stored at the wrong temperatures and basic food safety rules not being followed, the city said.

Less-serious violations, which don't require closures, often include issues such as poor ventilation, inadequate lighting, worn seal on refrigerators, a few fruit flies and inappropriate materials like cardboard and paper sitting in the wrong places. Restaurants and stores are required to fix those problems immediately.

These were the restaurants and grocery stores that were ordered closed during the week of Dec. 3, according to the city's Department of Health:

• Family's Fresh Meat Mart at 457 E. 79th St. in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side was ordered closed after more than 300 mouse droppings were found throughout the store, the city said. Health inspectors also found five dead mice on the floor behind a furnace in the prep area, the city said. The city also noted another violation: no hot water was found at handwashing sinks in the prep area, health inspectors said.
• Joong Boo Market at 3333 N. Kimball Ave. in the Avondale neighborhood was ordered closed after inspectors found no hot running water at the location, the city said.
• Robust Coffee Lounge at 6300 S. Woodlawn Ave. on the South Side's Woodlawn neighborhood was ordered shuttered after inspectors found no hot running water in the customer bathrooms and several employee hand washing sinks, the city said.
• Manolo's Tamales at 2455 S. Kedzie Ave in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side was ordered closed after failing to correct previous violations, the city said. More than two dozen live roaches were found crawling in the spot's middle prep area, and more than 50 rodent droppings were found in its main prep area, the city said.
• Zachi Express at 3202 N. Broadway in the Lake View East neighborhood was ordered closed after health inspectors found plumbing issues at the spot, the city said. Waste water was found backing up into a sink, and a handsink wasn't draining, health officials said.

Information on which Chicago restaurants and grocery stores have been ordered closed is not available on the city's data portal. The city's public health department has committed to sending Patch weekly reports, and we will publish those as long as they are made available.

Lead image via Serghei Starus/Shutterstock