Public Investigator Blog: Milwaukee's Dirty Restaurants

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is getting in on the "Dirty Dining" act again.

Last January, the Public Investigator Blog went "Behind the scenes at your local restaurants." Apparently, this is a monthly exercise.

The January piece highlighted a number of the same establishments that had been hit by TMJ4 and Courtny Gerrish in their "Dirty Dining" features.

Ellen Gabler and Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel seem to be Gerrish wannabes.

They claim to "take tips, chase leads, and solve problems" through their "search for clean and not-so-clean Milwaukee restaurants."

Dirty knives shouldn’t be placed back on their magnetic strip without first being cleaned. Having hand soap in the meat department is very important. So is washing your hands after touching raw meat.

Those were lessons learned this month in Milwaukee restaurants, schools, grocery stores and other spots where food is served.

While plenty of establishments needed to be reminded about basic cleanliness requirements, health inspectors found good news in about 60% of 445 places they inspected in the past four weeks.

Those 267 spots didn’t have any major health code violations, according to electronic records from the city health department. Restaurants that inspectors found in tip-top shape include Little Caesars on S.Chase Ave., Turner Hall on 4th St., the popular Palomino Bar in Bay View, The Dogg Haus on Wells St. and Alterra Coffee on 777 E. Wisconsin Ave, just to name a few.

That’s a peek into our monthly update of restaurant inspections for the City of Milwaukee. You can take a detailed look at every establishment inspected since the beginning of 2008 by visiting our searchable database online.

But before you head off to search for yourself, take a look at what else we found:

La Hacienda on S. Chavez Drive had the most major violations, with 11, in the past month. In late March, an inspector cited the grocery store for moldy vegetables and outdated sour cream. Pans and cutting boards were being stored on the floor, and an inspector noted mouse droppings by shelves near the back door.

The store was reminded to keep soap at the meat department sink and make sure raw meat is not in close contact with ready-to-eat food.

Juan Villalobos, who said he was a manager or owner of the store, said everything has since been fixed.

Again, Gabler and Rutledge have chosen to highlight one of Gerrish's targets, La Hacienda.

If 40 percent of the places inspected had violations, I don't know why there's this overlap again. What are the odds of citing the same establishments?

In any event, you can bet that places mentioned by Gabler and Rutledge don't advertise in the Journal Sentinel.