Who Inspects Woodstocks' Local Restaurants?

EVER WONDER WHO ACTUALLY INSPECTS RESTAURANTS IN OXFORD?

The odd time I might decide to take my family out to dinner and when I do, we generally go out for pasta or pizza or something that everyone can pretty well enjoy without too too much suffering. Usually we prefer to pick out a comfortable spot, or are ushered to a spot chosen by the host/hostess and then like all patrons, wait our turn for service.

Generally at this point we are busy reading through the menus, and making decisions on what to order and the such. Quite often we don't really have the time to look around until we've ordered our drinks.

Yesterday we decided that we would dine at one of those big franchise pizza typed places where all the rage is the stuffed crust thing...

I was not impressed with the surroundings at all, and after the waitress left started doing a precursory check on what was safe to touch and what wasn't.

The blinds.

I might have considered closing the blinds for my partner(the wind was howling through the windows...making it a chilly experience at best)but the sickening amount of grease stains on the handle area(and almost all of the area where one might possibly reach to pull the blinds down) kind of put me off...so instead I offered her my sweater to ensure that she remained warm enough.

Having to be concerned with the large amount of filth on the blinds was kind of gross....until I looked at the walls, and the window sills, the booth fronts and sides, and the fabric that upholstered the bench seats, and realized that the place more than likely hasn't been cleaned since it was opened.(okay...that might be a little much, but it sure is filthy.) The dirt was so immense that even the little stand up menus they place on the table had to be moved with a napkin because of the enormous food debris that was stuck to them.

We spent the rest of our time there imagining what those unidentifiable "chunks" of food were on the walls, and by the end, had devised a new family board game using pieces of food and chunks of sauces that had dried up on the walls and benchseats. (with the leftover pizza that was now black that was wedged between the bench seat and the wall we made a wonderful board.)

So, I wonder, just who in Oxford inspects these places, and is there no inspection of dining rooms? And if there is, do they warn them before they come to inspect?

The reason I ask this is because as far as I am concerned there is no way on earth this place could pass any inspection with the amount of filth and dirt that could visibly seen on the walls, the seating, the window sills and the blinds. The floor was carpeted so it was impossible to determine the extent of the dirt on the floor...but I imagine it was not good. I think that if someone did a bacteriological test on this place...we'd see several new species of bacteria.

And that was only one restaurant.

Now this brings me to the other pizza competitor in town.....the big one, you know, the one with the big building, huge ad budget...and the fruit fly problem.

Twice in less than 3 months we went out to the big box pizza place, and twice were greeted by the new wave in servers....the fruit fly flock.

Now hey, I will say that I don't mind a bit of meat the odd time in my diet, but, I kind of prefer to decide on the type of meat it is...and fruit flies do not constitute meat as far as I am concerned.

twice in a few short months we went to dinner here...and both times spent the time swatting away fruit flies.

At the time we wondered how long they had been opened now and determined that the time frame was less than 2 years, but the accumulated dirt...and chunks of stuff on the walls(even as high as the hockey pictures on the walls)belied that fact...it looked like they had been there as long as the other pizza place on Dundas. The dirt seemed very similar and I began to wonder if they were moving this dirt back and forth between the two restaurants in order to gross me out.

We called the company anonymously and told them they had a problem...they must have had call display because their management called back to apologize.

Now I don't mind when someone says sorry, but when they say sorry and continually commit the same crime over and over again then I become suspicious of their intents.

So we began to analyse the problem and determined that the one common theme between these places was the usage of student labour to perform most of the tasks. Heck, even some of the management was student labour.

Now me having raised several children have always had an issue with those kids in my home, and that issue is personal hygiene and of course handwashing. And of course, how many kids in your home do a "spectacular" job of cleaning their rooms or their laundry or just cleaning up after themselves? And how many times have you had to tell your own children to wash their hands after they say pick their noses, or go to the toilet, or any other 'dirty" activity?

You may catch my drift on this now.

The Board of Health should be ramping up inspections of food services.

And there should be a rating system in place for inspections similar to what other jurisdictions have instituted.(like Toronto)

In fact, both of these places were so dirty that I doubt I will ever eat there again...and I suspect this problem is county wide. And I wonder who is doing their job at the board of health???

next time you go out for lunch somewhere...take a good look around at the menus, the underneath of the tables, the floors and walls...and drop me a line and let me know what you see.

In fact, I think there should be a photo contest to go with this one.(no, you will not win a free meal at any of these places)

jim bender, woodstock