Time for my weekly TMJ4 "Dirty Dining" update.
(These weeks really fly by.)
Courtny Gerrish's February 26, 2009, "Dirty Dining" installment spared restaurants bad publicity this week.
It was a Blue Ribbon Award day.
Owners and staff of restaurants with problem reports could breathe a sigh of relief this week.
From the February 26 "Dirty Dining" installment:
Milwaukee: One restaurant sent us a letter, with its clean report. The other Blue Ribbon winner hasn't had a bad inspection since it opened.
Contemporary American cuisine is served up at Tess one block west of Oakland on Bartlett. "People describe the atmosphere was bistro. A small restaurant. Something you might find in the San Francisco area," owner Mitchell Wakefield tells me.
Wakefield sent me a copy of his clean health inspection to recognize his employees' hard work.
Tess gets our first Blue Ribbon Award.
Courtny Gerrish reads her mail and answers it?
Really?
Blue Ribbon winner number two went to The Bay Street Pub on Milwaukee's south side.
[It] hasn't had a bad inspection since it opened five years ago. "Patrons notice it, and we just keep it clean," said owner Mark Paschal.
At this place you drink a majority of the menu, but they do serve up pizza's, Black Angus cheeseburgers and regular bar fare. Paschal and Bay Street Pub get our second Blue Ribbon Award. "We'll put it up on the wall. Thank you very much."
Very nice.
The Brookfield Perkins didn't get a Blue Ribbon Award. No, it was featured as a dirty "Dirty Dining" establishment. Gerrish did a story on that restaurant in December. The written report and the video were posted on the TMJ4 web page, then quickly and inexplicably removed.
Perkins didn't suffer the degree of bad publicity that other TMJ4 targets have because someone involved with the "Dirty Dining" feature scrubbed the TMJ4 website of all traces of the Perkins story.
When asked for an explanation, Gerrish and others at TMJ4 and the Journal Broadcast Group refused to respond. Well, there was one response, from Brenda Serio, but it contained utterly false information.
It's funny. At the end of Gerrish's report on Thursday night, she concluded with this:
Have a restaurant you want me to check out? You can send me an e-mail by going to our website.
I have a restaurant I'd like Gerrish to check out.
She should do a return visit to the Perkins in Brookfield, 585 N. Barker Rd., to see if the place has cleaned up its act since her December 11, 2008 report revealed this:
An employee was cracking eggs and then touching customer's food, all without changing gloves. A cross contamination risk. When we stopped by the manager wasn't talking. "You don't want to comment?" "Not really."
Inspectors had issues with food temperature. Meatloaf and sausage were at 45 degrees. Rice was kept at 47 degrees. The safe cold temperature is 41. Also, inspectors found a cooler as warm as 47 degrees, and Hash browns were sitting out at room temperature.
Children's drink cups used as scoops, sitting in food. Perkins was ordered to use a scoop with a handle, so employees don't put their hands in the food. Also, there were open bags of flour stored on the floor. Dry goods must be sealed in a container and kept off the floor.
For some unknown reason, TMJ4 doesn't want the public to have access to this report that aired at 10:00 PM on December 11, 2008. TMJ4 doesn't want the public to have access to this report, posted on its website for a few short days before being taken down.
For some bizarre reason, Gerrish and others in positions of responsibility at TMJ4 will not discuss why the story was pulled. It's weird beyond words.
Apparently, they feel they aren't obligated to answer legitimate questions from viewers. They're above that I guess. They aren't willing to explain their actions or take responsibility. No one is holding them accountable for their actions.
They just want to be the ones to ask the questions and do exposés.
When it comes to giving answers, they follow a different standard. It's unfortunate.
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