A broken water heater closed down a Springfield restaurant last week, according to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department’s food inspection reports.
Pine Garden, 1725 W. Sunshine St., had its permit suspended on Feb. 12 due to a broken water heater, the report said, and all sinks were between 55 degrees Fahrenheit and 62 degrees Fahrenheit. The owner told the inspector that they had contacted a plumbing service to replace the unit, but that it was not scheduled to happen until next week. The inspector informed the owner that the restaurant could not run without sufficient hot water, so the owner rescheduled the appointment for that day.
Issues found during inspections fall into either priority or non-priority violations. Priority violations impact the safety of the food, such as cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food, improper food temperature and poor personal hygiene and employee health. Multiple priority violations can lead to an establishment being shut down. Non-priority violations alone do not directly affect food safety, such as dirty floors, sticky tabletops or outside trash cans not being covered…