Darien Social Reviews: NY Times Likes, Health Dept. Critical [UPDATE]

Update 12:16 p.m., Saturday:

Darien Social's Executive Chef, Nick Bilello, said he found some of the Health Department's recent inspections unfair to the restaurant, which he said has generally had an excellent record and has actively worked to address the inspectors' concerns.

"We have scored the highest scores for a long, long time," Bilello said of the Darien Health Department's ratings, which were very positive for the restaurant's first year, in 2012. "I take such pride in keeping this place to the highest standards."

In one of the inspections, the Health Department was training someone and "came in and tried to make an example of us," Bilello said. He said the inspectors made some mistakes with that inspection. "We weren't happy, and we immediately went to the Health Department" to complain.

Nevertheless, he said, the restaurant worked closely with the Health Department to resolve the inspectors' concerns. "We have been working with them since the day we opened," he added.

Since the negative inspection on Feb. 27, Bilello said, "We have taken hundreds of steps to make sure our staff gets more training."

Bilello pointed out that in the most recent inspection, the restaurant did well, scoring a 94 out of a possible 100.

Original article, 11:40 a.m., Saturday:

While it's not exactly as dramatic as a "best of times, worst of times" mix, the year-old Darien Social restaurant at 10 Center St. is going through some real ups and downs.

First the good news: Patricia Brooks, the Connecticut restaurant reviewer for the New York Times, gave the restaurant a "Good" rating (the middle of five tiers—Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor) in a review published Friday on the Times website.

"The menu [...] has a suitably easygoing spirit, offering the kind of dishes that pair well with a couple of India Pale Ales or glasses of wine," Brooks wrote.

She liked a long list of dishes (and those are listed at the bottom of her review, as well as described in the review), panned the desserts and praised the beer selection:

"Serious beer lovers will be especially pleased with the impressive list of offbeat ales, ambers and lagers on tap."

Brooks was also impressed by the crowd that Darien Social has attracted—most under 40 and quite a lot of them. It looks like a "town hangout" for younger adults, she wrote.

Now for the mixed news: The Darien Health Department has given the restaurant some tough reviews—not entirely bad—that have left it, overall, with a "Fair" rating in the middle of the department's three-tier rating system. The department gave the restaurant passing health-inspection grades twice in the past three months, including the most recent.

But that means the restaurant failed two of the four most recent inspections. So Health Department staff sat down with restaurant management to discuss the state health code violations, Darien Health Director David Knauf said.

"When we have situations like this—or with any establishment, for that matter—that we feel needs more attention, I'll arbitrarily assign monthly inspections," Knauf said. "Sometimes more often than that."

The restaurant had been doing well last year, getting the top ("Good") rating in the department's own three-tiered rating system in each of the last three quarters of 2012, according to the department's rating system Web pages.

First inspection

On Feb. 27, Inspector Barry Bogle visited the restaurant at 12:10 p.m. and found numerous violations, including one that by itself meant the restaurant had failed inspection: some foods were not at the proper temperature.

Bogle found other problems which gave the restaurant a relatively low rating on the state points system of 82 (below 80 is failing). For instance: "Worker washing hands without soap and drying hands with wiping cloth," "Can opener not clean/sanitized—food residue buildup between gear and on blade," and the hand sink was difficult to use with numerous utensils blocking it. There were also no paper towels or soap at the hand sink, according to Bogle. (See chart below for details.)

Second inspection

On March 8, Knauf himself re-inspected the restaurant at 9:55 a.m., didn't see much wrong, and gave the restaurant a passing grade (see chart below for details).

"If they're being neglectful, I can tell by walking through," Knauf said. "It wasn't terrible."

But that wasn't nearly the end of the inspections.

Third inspection

A third inspection was done on at 4:40 p.m. on March 13—this time by Inspector Renford Whynes—and Darien Social again failed to pass it, both because the score was 76 (80 or above is passing) and because the restaurant had one four-point violation.

Whynes found a worker not properly washing his or her hands and an unclean floor, microwave and the outside and floors of cooler units not clean. He found, just as in the Feb. 27 inspection, a can opener not properly kept washed, rinsed and sanitized, although no food buildup on the can opener was noted. (See chart below for details.)

Whynes concluded: "This establishment needs supervision."

In an interview, Knauf shrugged and said the four-point violation on March 13 was a single dented can. The state system considers that enough for a restaurant to fail inspection under requirement 1B of the inspection form: "Food cans in good condition (not dented, rusty, bloated, leaking)".

Health Department hearing

With the restaurant failing two out of the three most recent inspections at that point, the Health Department called in Darien Social management for a hearing to discuss the situation.

The Health Department has other options if it considers the case more serious—it can close a restaurant down temporarily or even call for it to be closed permanently if it thinks management won't work to solve ongoing problems.

"At a hearing, we sit down with them to make sure everybody understands what's going on," Knauf said. The restaurant management discussed what it was doing to fix ongoing problems.

The meeting also helps the Health Department better understand any challenges the restaurant may have, he said. For instance, he said, sometimes a restaurant may have new employees who may not follow health regulations on the day the inspector was present; sometimes a restaurant doesn't know if a refrigerator may be broken.

Fourth and most recent inspection

Another inspection then took place (the most recent) on Thursday, April 4. Darien Social passed with 94 points and no four-point violations (see chart below).

"They looked really good at the last inspection; they looked really good when I went in," Knauf said of the restaurant. "I don't look at it as a place that's a high risk for people to be there—which is why it's open. If not, it would be closed."

DARIEN SOCIAL'S FIRST QUARTER 2013 HEALTH INSPECTIONS

Under the state rating system for health inspections, points are deducted from a perfect 100 score. Either a score below 80 or any violation worth four points in the state's system trigger a failure to pass inspection and call for the restaurant to rectify the situation and a reinspection by the local health department to make sure it's done. More frequent inspections are done when health departments are more concerned about a restaurant's practices. Darien Social appears to have received more visits in the past three months than any other restaurant in town. Colons (";") separate inspectors' remarks referring to different violations.

Darien's rating system, independent of the state's but largely based on the same inspections, gives a restaurant a "Good," "Fair" or "Poor" rating and considers each restaurant's practices over a longer time period.

Darien

Rating

Inspection

Date

82 - FAIL

with

three

4-point

citations

[Four-point citations: "Potentially hazardous foods received at proper temperature" (1E) the inspector didn't comment on this; "Handwash facilities accessible/convenient to use" (13C); "Personnel hands washed, clean/Proper handwash procedure" (13D)]

"Seafood and chicken uncovered on bottom shelf of under-counter refrigerator; worker using bare hand to dispense ready-to-eat salad from one container to another—topping off; hand sink blocked with numerous utensils; worker washing hands without soap and drying hands with wiping cloth; can opener not clean/sanitized—food residue buildup between gear and on blade; soiled wiping cloths not properly stored; in-use wiping cloths not sanitized between use; blade of can opener and pizza cutter not clean; no paper towel at hand sink-cookline and warewashing area. No soap at hand sink-cookline; pizza cutters stored between table and wall surface; single service articles not properly stored—inverted; floor area in front of walk-in cooler and freezer not clean."

95 -

PASS

76 -

FAIL

(based

both

on

points

& one

4-point

citation

[Four-point citation: "Food cans in good condition (not dented, rusty, bloated, leaking)" (1B)]

"Food can not in good condition on shelf; worker did not wash produce before cutting; food uncovered in cooler units; worker did not minimize bare-hand contact while preparing ready-to-eat food; handwash sink was blocked and not convenient to use; worker did not wash hands clean, worker did not follow proper hand-wash procedures; worker did not use proper sink for washing hands; can opener not washed, rinsed and sanitized; soiled wiping clothes not kept in sanitizer; can opener blade not clean, inside of microwave not clean; no paper towls at handwash sink; food-dispensing utensils improperly stored in food that could possibly cause contamination; cooler unit not maintained—has ice buildup around doors; outside of cooler units not clean; bottom of cooler units not clean; floor in kitchen not clean; this establishment needs supervision."

94 -

PASS

Editor's note: The violations above may be compared with Darien Patch's reports of other recent Darien Health Department inspections (comparing inspection reports in different cities or towns can be problematic because individual health departments may be stricter or easier in their interpretations of the state health code):

• "Recent Darien Health Dept Inspection Reports" Friday, April 12 (five recent inspections)

• "" April 6 (a detailed look at inspections for 12 other restaurants that were given a "Fair" rating in the Darien Health Department's own rating system and two more that received "Poor" ratings in it, all from January through March 2013. Through an oversight on the part of Darien Patch, Darien Social's low rating was not mentioned, but an alert Patch reader, Cath, saw the omission).

Editor's note: This article originally was published Saturday. The timestamp has been changed for layout purposes on the Home page of Darien Patch.