20 March 2012

Angelo Petridis on cafe closures

| johnboy
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This came through the contact form last night and we through was worth putting out there:

OK my place was closed last fri with no warning by mr Dr Dugdale chief health officer, who said “these are common issues in commercial kitchens.Its nothing out of the ordinary,these are common problems….and the cafe s would open in due course.” then goes on to say in other interviews that they were closed as a precaution to serious public health threats.

Well we’ve passed 10 salmonella swab tests and made good their requests for replacing some worn bench tops and tiles,and some general cleaning.

If they keep attacking decent popular high profile local establishments to make an example, at the expense of people’s jobs and reps without a critical health concern at hand is just wrong and only adds as a deterrent for those contemplating getting into this industry.

Angelo Petridis

proprietor My Cafe Manuka

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I am really surprised that it took this long for the Department of Health to check on this cafe.
Oh the stories I can spill on this cafe. Dr. Dugdale, have you checked the cold room in the other building? If you thought the cafe was not up to standard, you will be shocked when you see the cold room. Also, please insist that all the staff go on the books. That cafe has such a huge turnover of staff because so many are treated without respect.

GardeningGirl said :

I imagine it’s easier to achieve in newer premises

Especially if the owner and staff are cleaning constantly! Every damn day, right through the day. Makes me tired to watch them.

It’s actually a bit pathetic that some businesses, like the Majura one, are so determined to do it right, while so many businesses are downright disgusting about it. It’s nice to see the authorities finally doing something definite about it, but what were they doing before this?

GardeningGirl1:30 pm 21 Mar 12

EvanJames said :

Reading about dirty food outlets is quite depressing, and seeing them even more-so. Especially when you know of places that are so clean, you could eat off the surfaces. The cafe at the Majura Park offices is a case in point. That place is spotless. The cleaning and hygiene rules are followed to the letter, and the kitchen is borderline sterile. If some can do it, they all can do it.

I imagine it’s easier to achieve in newer premises but I agree if some can they all can. For older premises surely it’s better to choose a slower time for business and close up for a few days and replace those “worn bench tops and tiles” than to wait for the health authorities to tell you to do it.

colourful sydney racing identity1:20 pm 21 Mar 12

PantsMan said :

However, if I were Angelo Petridis I’d be chcking that i’ve paid PAYG and Super for all may staff first.

You don’t need to do that if you pay cash in hand…saves on workers comp as well…

Reading about dirty food outlets is quite depressing, and seeing them even more-so. Especially when you know of places that are so clean, you could eat off the surfaces. The cafe at the Majura Park offices is a case in point. That place is spotless. The cleaning and hygiene rules are followed to the letter, and the kitchen is borderline sterile. If some can do it, they all can do it.

GardeningGirl12:05 pm 21 Mar 12

What’s the story with the salmonella swabs, is it standard to do a swab during an inspection or only if circumstances indicate closer inspection, and why ten swabs, and what about the other things or is everybody just fixated on salmonella since Silo?
I can’t see the authorities closing cafes for nothing. The media reported ”[Both] premises were unclean and failed to maintain temperature control for critical food items. The ability to clean hands was also compromised on multiple occasions during the inspections.” If indeed all those problems applied to both premises could the proprietor comment on temperature control and handwashing? Oh, and Doctor Dugdale is quoted as saying “The food inspectors most of the time they will offer some advice and there’s no question of closure, but there’s always little things that can be improved. It’s only when there’s a clear risk to the public’s health that a closure is put into place.” Is the propietor saying jobs shouldn’t be at risk until somebody has actually got sick, it kinda sounds like it?

devils_advocate11:34 am 21 Mar 12

I am a bit concerned that the fact of the alleged contraventions being “common problems” is somehow offered up as a factor in favour of the cafe owner.

Whether they are common problems or not has no bearing on the seriousness of the alleged contraventions.

Put another way, the mere fact that I am just as likely to get food poisoning at any number of other establishments in no way reduces my concern about food poisoning at the establishment I am eating at.

It’s getting to the point where I can’t be bothered with casual cafe eating, just eat food I have prepared myself or formal dining at a restaurant (I know, but at least restaurant dining is worth the risk).

The Health Protection Unit people are just Nazis (Godwin’s Law, I know), and they are just doing this to flex their muscle. If they’ve acted with malace, could hit them with a malfesance writ and get some dosh but?

However, if I were Angelo Petridis I’d be chcking that i’ve paid PAYG and Super for all may staff first.

Cheap said :

Who would have guessed that the cafe owner was greek?

Yeah and all builders are Croatian.

F***wit

Felix the Cat9:50 am 21 Mar 12

niknak said :

Just as well health inspectors don’t close down establishments over crappy, disinterested service or the cafe would have been closed down years ago.

Wouldn’t be the only cafe, or indeed shop of any kind. There would be quite a few.

c_c said :

lol, maybe Angelo Petridis should learn to write and talk before getting all agro.

Angelo, maaaate, listen to me carefully, I saw your staff one morning coating your benchtops in insecticide. They sprayed the chopping surfaces, the food prep surfaces, where people’s food is made. It’s probably why your benchtops were stuffed, that stuff eats away at surfaces over time.

If you need to spray so much that I can smell it on the street outside, you’ve got problems.

Get your house in order. Like so many cafe owners you have a bad attitude, a Basil Fawlty complex even. You screwed up, wear it of get stuffed, because there’s plenty of cafes out there who don’t sink to your level.

It makes me laugh when people have a go at people learning to write, then they have a spelling mistake.

lol, maybe Angelo Petridis should learn to write and talk before getting all agro.

Angelo, maaaate, listen to me carefully, I saw your staff one morning coating your benchtops in insecticide. They sprayed the chopping surfaces, the food prep surfaces, where people’s food is made. It’s probably why your benchtops were stuffed, that stuff eats away at surfaces over time.

If you need to spray so much that I can smell it on the street outside, you’ve got problems.

Get your house in order. Like so many cafe owners you have a bad attitude, a Basil Fawlty complex even. You screwed up, wear it of get stuffed, because there’s plenty of cafes out there who don’t sink to your level.

OK I dont go there often these days, but Angelo might like to tell us how often he is there, managing the place, rather than letting some fresh faced kid be in charge.

“Well we’ve passed 10 salmonella swab tests and made good their requests for replacing some worn bench tops and tiles,and some general cleaning.”

So basically it was fn fillthy

Just as well health inspectors don’t close down establishments over crappy, disinterested service or the cafe would have been closed down years ago.

Maybe if Mr Petridis got his house in order it wouldn’t be a problem. Frankly, I’m quite glad we have public officials who will shut down establishments who don’t make the grade.

ThrowawayAccount said :

Here’s an idea – not sure how well it would work. Perhaps we should kit out the health inspectors with cameras / video cameras and publish the evidence of unsafe practiceses for the general public to see. Then there would be less chance of disputes or objections like this from the owner of the establishment..

So not only a Privacy Act nightmare, and terrifying to civil liberties advocates, but riddled with fallacies.
Based on this analysis, it sounds like something this Government would try.

ThrowawayAccount6:50 pm 20 Mar 12

Here’s an idea – not sure how well it would work. Perhaps we should kit out the health inspectors with cameras / video cameras and publish the evidence of unsafe practiceses for the general public to see. Then there would be less chance of disputes or objections like this from the owner of the establishment..

I am pretty sure there was a “critical health concern” because ACT Health has not only closed his cafe but others recently (another three come to mind). I am sure it wouldn’t have been knee-jerk and would have been the last option to take following a breach in the kitchen. And in my opinion it is a shakeup to the industry that has been long coming. Even charity BBQs out front of hardware stores are subject to inspections so why not cafes? We have more cafes/restuarantes per head than any other capital city in Australia, that doesn’t make health concerns take a back seat and make owners complacent.

just mean, that mister doctor chief health officer, eh? why would you want to listen to such an ill-informed, irresponsible officious official like him? he’s only got a phd in medicine and an extensive publications list and work experience in epidemiology and public health and therefore can’t possibly make a reasoned decision to excersice powers that are also open to scrutiny by his government agency and the assembly, unlike your credentials. which are..?

perhaps he was just closing the establishment in protest at its name? after all, it’s your’s, not his…

“..decent popular high profile local establishments…”

Good to see that he hasn’t lost his sense of humour despite such extreme persecution.

At the risk of injecting facts into the debate… is it public knowledge what specific reasons were given for shutting My Cafe down? The OP fails to detail what the “non-critical health concerns” were.

Cheap said :

Who would have guessed that the cafe owner was greek?

Please elaborate…

Who would have guessed that the cafe owner was greek?

colourful sydney racing identity1:07 pm 20 Mar 12

I am a little sus about this, I am sure that it would not have been closed own on a whim, there must have been something beyond ‘common issues in commercial kitchens’.

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