The Surf Restaurant, Fernandina Beach

[Jerry Moran]

Jim, I think of the 3 major roaches we have to deal with in FL as the following.  Maybe you have some training in Entomology?  I wash my kitchen down with boric acid solution twice a week, and dust the front areas weekly.  No problems so far.

German Cockroach



American Cockroach/b]



Palmetto Bug

[fieldafm]

Most places issue 2 towels a day per cook, and they use them for everything from dabbing a finished plate to blowing their nose.)

This is absolutely the truth!  Its a disgusting practice that while totally abides by the letter of the law... is seriously flawed.  Absolutely my biggest pet peeve!!

Do you really think anyone uses those test strips to check the concentration of sanitizer in the rinse compartment?  They're only there for the Health Inspector.  There is nothing critical about those test strips.

Agreed.  I used to have an imaginary mark on each sink that I knew how much water I should fill up in each individual sink and would have different sized measuring cups for the different sanitizing agents for each sink.  If the dishwasher couldnt follow that simple procedure, well then I don't know what kind of career I could suggest for you.

and is a great place for bugs to hide behind.

Second that!

[stjr]

Nothing more appetizing than discussing the restaurant business among giant pictures of roaches! I am really getting an appetite!  NOT! 

I also remind you to read the NY Times listing of "One Hundred Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do" I posted back aways on MJ:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,6597.0.html

[Jerry Moran]

Jim, you're right about the Palmetto Bug.  I always thought an Oriental Cockroach was a Palmetto Bug.  Guess Grandma was wrong too.

[Jim]

Jerry, did you purposefully provide images that adequately show correct scale or is that just coincidence?

Thought it's difficult to ascertain given the 2 perspectives, those are actually the same bug.  I also believe the bottom pic is a female.

[Jerry Moran]

Just grabbed the first photos that came up on Google.  Wasn't trying to make a point with the size of the photo.  It might be a regional thing, but I've always thought the Oriental roach was a palmetto bug.  Just like some people call a skunk a polecat, but a polecat is a different creature, though both skunks and polecats eject nasty fluid as a defense mechanism.  I can remember my grandmother driving us back to Kingsley Lake from Jacksonville at night  in the early 1960's after visiting with relatives.  There was no air conditioning in her car, so all the windows were down. We would often smell a skunk, usually west of Middleburg on 215, and my grandmother would say "I smell a polecat." Of course, it was a skunk because polecats are natives of Europe and Asia.

[Jerry Moran]

I was advised that "they really dont like to remove things from bills" and "the manager really never will come and see someone".  She goes away, comes back, tells me "the manager has removed your burger but will not come and speak to you."

The server so screwed this up by opening her trap with  ridiculous statements, that the manager, even if she was aware of the problem early on, could not go to the table. The manager should have been notified as soon as the roach issue came up.  Servers should be able to handle standard problems on their own, but when a non-standard problem came up, she should have excused herself and gotten management out there.

[Dog Walker]

A little of the thread, but in the same theme:  A friend of mine stayed in a unit of a well known motel chain.  She noticed that there were German cockroaches running around in the room, went back to the front desk and had her room changed, but put in complaint on one of those forms.

A week later she got a really gracious letter from the manager of the motel explaining that sometimes guests left food in the room that attracted roaches and thanking her for bringing it to their attention.  The letter assured her that the very next day an exterminator was hired to clean out the room and that it was not rented again until all the roaches were gone.

She was pleased to get such a nice letter and was putting it away when she noticed a little slip of yellow paper in the envelope.  She read on it, "Send this lady the bug letter."