Health Inspection: Southport Grocery and Cafe Fails Twice

Patch examined heath inspection reports in Lake View, and a new slew of businesses were examined since our last inspection report.

Information was compiled using publicly available data published to the website of the Chicago Department of Public Health's Food Protection Program.

Restaurants can pass, pass with conditions or fail using a standardized procedure. Establishments that pass don't have any critical or serious vocations. Those that receive 'pass with conditions' had serious violations, but the violations were corrected during the inspection. Failed establishments had serious violations that weren't correctable during the inspection. A fail rating does not mean the business's license is automatically suspended.

All inspections are done on a routine canvass, unless otherwise noted. 

Melanthios Greek Char House

3114 N. Broadway
Inspection Date: Nov. 26
Pass

• The Greek restaurant in East Lake View passed, but the inspector noted a few things the owners had to fix. For example, there were missing floor tiles with pooling water near the grease trap, a few coolers didn’t have internal thermometers and the vent in the women’s restroom didn’t work.

Argo Tea

3135 N. Broadway
Inspection Date: Nov. 21
Pass

• Argo Tea in East Lake View passed the health inspector’s test, but a few notes were taken, and the tea joint has to make a couple of changes. For example, Argo Tea needs to buy a probe thermometer to take food temperatures, install a knife rack for clean knives, and owners need to purchase sink stoppers.

Southport Grocery and Café

3552 N. Southport Ave.
Inspection Date: Nov. 19 and 20
Failed Twice

• The Southport staple failed two restaurant inspections in a row recently, with critical issues such as meat cooler temperatures not functioning properly. The health inspector had to hold two coolers with products such as sausage, hummus and chicken salad inside because they weren’t working properly.
• In addition, the interior of the ice machine was dirty and employees in the food-prepping areas weren’t wearing proper hair restraints. However, when the health inspector showed up a day later to do a re-inspection, he found many things had not improved and failed the café again.
• UPDATE: Issues at Southport Grocery and Cafe have since been corrected. Please see the attached photo, provided by the restaurant.

Efes Café

2833 N. Broadway
Inspection Date: Nov. 19
Pass

• While Efes Café in East lake View passed its inspection, there were a few things the health inspector ordered the owners to change. A few examples include removing the “blackened, moldy wall caulking” at one sink and door gaskets in coolers “dirty with encrusted food debris.”

Treasure Island Foods

3560 N. Broadway
Inspection Date: Nov. 16
Pass

• The only thing the health inspector could find to criticize at Treasure Island was one sink. According to his report, the wall at a meat sink was splattered with food and dirty, and some of the caulking was blackened and moldy. 

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