Health inspectors found improvements in food service operations at The U of M Tiger Den with their most recent inspection of the campus dining location.
A March 24 site inspection of the Jones Hall dining location resulted in a score of 88. The most recent score is a marked improvement over the 79 given to the Tiger Den just before the fall 2004 semester began. The previous inspection was the first score below 90 that a University dining services location had received in four years.
Marc Martin knows the pressures health inspectors can put on a restaurant all too well.
The junior graphic design major sat on a bench outside Jones Hall eating a cup of soup from the Tiger Den Tuesday afternoon.
"Health inspection reports concern me," he said. "I always take the time to look at the latest score in a restaurant."
Martin, who has worked at the Dixie Café on Poplar for almost a year, knows a lot of people in the restaurant business who take inspection scores seriously as well.
"People who know that a restaurant has gotten a bad score make a point to tell other people," Martin said. "They take notice and listen."
The standards here in America seem pretty high though, he said.Martin's restaurant was inspected Monday and he said everybody is on edge when they know the health department is coming.
"Cooks have told me that the inspector will follow them around waiting for them to do something wrong," he said. "A server was sweeping at my restaurant Monday and set the broom down instead of hanging it up. I think we may have lost some points for that."
Health inspectors do not dash in and out of establishments when evaluating food storage, cleanliness and compliance with other regulations.
The March 24 inspection report hanging on the Tiger Den wall notes that the inspector was at the location for over an hour.
Tennessee state law requires that inspectors visit restaurants and food stores twice a year.
"The law states that each restaurant must get an inspection in each period from January to June and July to December," said Otho Sawyer, acting manager of environmental sanitation for the Memphis and Shelby County Health Department.
Tiger Den manager Jason Nall said the most recent inspection had no critical violations. Last fall's report had two, one of which was related to a dead roach by the back door.
"We've made a lot of cosmetic improvements in the kitchens where we had lost points for things like chipped paint," Nall said. "We're using The University's pest control services."
Nall said they are also using an outside pest control company which comes twice each month.
"We've made a lot of efforts to correct all of the critical violations from the fall inspection," he said.
Marc Martin was relieved to hear the latest score was much improved."A low score would definitely deter me from eating there," Martin said. "I'd buy drinks there, but I'd probably wait till class was over to go off campus and eat."
Other U of M dining scores include Richardson Towers café - 92, Java City - 95 and the Campus School - 93. The University Center's most recent score listed on the Tennessee Department of Health Web site was an 81 from October 2004.
U of M student Michael Seebeck has also spent some time in the restaurant business and he said inspectors should show up more than every six months.
"I used to work at the Olive Garden," he said. "They always seemed to know when the health department was coming. They'd have that place spot clean."
Health Department employee Otho Sawyer said the inspectors' visits are unannounced, but sometimes restaurant managers and owners know when they might be inspecting down the street.
"The visit is supposed to be a snapshot of what's going on in a restaurant on that day at that time," Sawyer said.
Seebeck said he only pays attention to inspection scores if they are posted right in front of him.
"I'd probably rather not know," he said. "A low score might keep me from eating there, but it would depend on what the violations were. A lot of people probably have no idea what really goes on in restaurants."
