Urban structures are famous for providing safe harbor to thriving populations of rodents. The density of humans in a major city brings together shelter, food, water, and most other of life’s necessities for convenient access by hungry, homeless rats.
Manhattan, for instance, boasts an average 66,000 people per square mile. To put it another way, all of Chapel Hill and Carrboro’s residents could fit in Central Park with room to spare. Think of what amenities that level of compactness must offer – no scurrying hundreds of yards unprotected from hawks in open fields, no sexless life of solitude, no enduring an endless battering of sun and rain.
Combine these “Club Med” conditions with a female rat’s talent for baby-making (about 300 ratlings a year), and it quickly becomes no wonder cities struggle against the rising Furry Tide.
What does it take for a far less dense, far less populated region to become rat-infested, though? With comparatively sparse surroundings, the accessibility of a rodent’s basic living needs must be dramatically increased in rural regions to compensate and sustain any significant nests. A building’s gotta be a cesspool, in other words.
Keep that in mind as you consider this sanitation report from Franklin Street’s Asia Cafe, which for the past three inspection cycles seems to have been serving fine Chinese cuisine to both its human and rodent clientele.
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POINT VALUE
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EXPLANATION
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-2.5
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Buffet foods kept at temperatures too cool to prevent lethal bacteria growth.
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-2.5
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Cooked pieces of chicken should not be stored in corrugated cardboard boxes.
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-2.5
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Employee seen cutting raw meat without sanitizing hands or table afterward.
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-2
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Cleanliness must be addressed. Most areas in the restaurant need to be cleaned, especially in the kitchen around food preparation zones.
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-2
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Roaches are present, as are mouse droppings by the ice machine.
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-1
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Restroom toilets are very dirty.
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-1
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Floors, walls, and ceilings of the kitchen are greasy and dusty.
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-1
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Kitchen lighting is too dim.
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-1
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Storage closets have many old, expired foodstuffs and are in need of cleaning.
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84.5
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FINAL SCORE
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GENERAL COMMENTS
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Do not keep old, broken equipment stacked up behind the restaurant – this can provide shelter for mice and rats. To-go containers should be kept in sanitary conditions. Throw away old corrugated cardboard boxes. Above all, owners must rectify cleanliness. The entire restaurant is dirtier than should be acceptable.
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