Dona Maria Closed

[second_pancake]

Yeah, you're right...the parent company filed.  Here's an article I found...
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/12/10/daily26.html?ana=from_rss

I wonder if one of those Baja Sol places is going to come here now.  If so, that would really confuse my husband.  He's from the Pacific Northwest and keeps calling a restaurant Sierra Grill (a "fresh" mex restaurant), Baja Fresh after the restaurants in Seattle.  With the addition of a Baja Sol, I'm pretty sure his mind will explode.

[fpj]

The Dona Maria restaurant on Margaret St in Riverside has been shut down by the Health Dept. Anyone know what happened?  In their last health inspection (11/21/07) they had no violations.

Now that everything is cleared up at Dona Maria's, I shall in my first post ever on this board endeavor to try to shed some light on restaurant inspections; I have experienced them for almost 10 years myself...

First, let's look at the history here:

02/06/2008       Routine - Food  Emergency Order Callback Complied, 0 critical
02/05/2008    Routine - Food    Emergency Order Callback Not Complied, 17 critical
"02/04/2008    Routine - Food    Emergency order recommended, 18 critical
11/21/2007    Routine - Food    Call Back - Complied, 0 critical
09/13/2007    Routine - Food    Warning Issued, 8 critical

When you mentioned that the "last" inspection (on 11/21) had 0 criticals, that's true, but that was actually a call back inspection from 9/13.  Basically, everything that was wrong on 9/13 was corrected, so, no more criticals.

On 2/4, there were critical violations severe enough (more on this at the end) to warrant closure, so the big red/orange sign goes up on the door and the place is closed to the public.

At this point the inspector goes on a 24 hour rotation where s/he has to go back to the restaurant every day until things are corrected.   Apparently s/he went back on the following day, 2/5, and things were still not corrected, only 1 less critical, but on the next day, 2/6, all good, so voila, no critical violations and Dona Maria is back in business.

Now, just a quick closing comment on critical violations: they are WIDE ranging in definition.  So, when the T-U or other media outlets do their reports on restaurants, realize that they can range from an inspector finding an extension cord in use to roach/rodent activity.

Of course, only one side of that will get you shut down

FPJ

[Duke]

  Ok, confused...  Had lunch today at Larry's Giant Subs in 5 Points and Dona Maria's was open and there were people eating outside and in.  Was the closing not permanent?  I've been there once, wasn't really taken by it...