By Vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

The week of Christmas was a tough one for owners and staff of Sugars Restaurant in Overton. On Thursday, December 29, the restaurant was visited by a Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) inspector for a standard, yet unscheduled, six month inspection. The inspector ended up slapping the restaurant with a 40 demerit C grade; down from the quality A grade for which the local restaurant has been known for many years.

The demerit was not enough to close the restaurant, but was enough to land the restaurant as the weekly spotlight on the Las Vegas KTNV Channel 13 News feature “Dirty Dining”.

“I’ve never had this happen before in twenty years,” said Metz. “Of course, we are a well-known place and people know that we take care of these things here. When I see an issue, they know I’ll take care of it.”

Unfortunately, Metz was taking a day off and was not in the restaurant on the day of the inspection. And what began that day as a routine health inspection which customarily lasts about 45 minutes, became a two and a half hour in-depth probe of the restaurant.

One of the more serious violations included improper thawing of meat products.

“We usually thaw the meat in cold water,” Metz said. “But that day they were thawing it on a table.”

There was also cooked food found at the wrong temperatures.

“Some of that was food; like some baked potatoes wrapped in foil; that we had set aside to be thrown away,” Metz said. “But they had set it aside to cool before throwing them out.”

There were also violations for expired food items as well as food being stored in unapproved containers.

“We used to be able to use cleaned and sanitized containers; like the plastic margarine or sour cream containers,” Metz said. “Now we have to have hard plastic commercial containers.”

Other violations included trace amounts of mold found in an ice machine, stains found on a soda fountain, and an employee with an expired health card.

The restaurant was also cited for not having a thermometer on hand to test the temperature of its tap water. In addition it received citations for not displaying an approved alcohol awareness sign at its bar and for not displaying a message on the menu warning that undercooked eggs and meats can be hazardous.

The restaurant was also cited for inappropriate building materials on the bathroom walls. The materials are the same that the restaurant has always had and no previous violations on this matter had been cited. But the codes have since changed and the restaurant is being required to remove the old materials and replace it with compliant materials, Metz said.

Metz said that most of these issues had been resolved by the day after the inspection.

“We had everything cleaned up and in compliance the next day,” Metz said. “Then we had a meeting with our employees and brought everyone onto the same page. We have instituted some policies and are imposing tough penalties for employees that cut corners or do things wrong.”

Metz said that she was eager to restore the restaurant to its A rating. But because of the holiday it was taking time to get a second SNHD inspection completed to clear the demerits.

“As soon as the (SNHD) offices were open after Christmas I went down to pay our fines and request a re-inspection,” Metz said.

But by that time, the inspector was off for the holidays.

Metz hopes that the re-inspection will be scheduled and completed this week.