Credit: Yelm’s Puerto Vallarta Restaurant

Why 2 eateries were cited for excessive food safety violations, but only 1 was closed down

Excerpt from The Olympian:

Thurston County recently reported excessive food safety violations at two south Thurston County restaurants, but only one of them was closed down.

Inspectors closed Sonja’s Café in Rainier on March 22 and allowed it to reopen on Tuesday, said Sammy Berg, senior environmental health specialist for Thurston County. Its menu offers American and Asian cuisine for lunch and dinner.

The restaurant, located at 202 Binghampton Road, scored 125 red points and 18 blue points, according to inspection notes. Red points denote violations that are most likely to cause food-borne illness. Blue points relate to the overall cleanliness and condition of the operation.

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The county typically closes a restaurant for at least 72 hours if they log over 100 red points. However, that did not occur for a Yelm restaurant that exceeded that threshold.

An inspector found enough violations to close Puerto Vallarta Restaurant at 802 W. Yelm Avenue on March 24. The Mexican restaurant scored 105 red points and 15 blue points, according to inspection notes.

However, a tallying error caused them to leave without shutting down the eatery. Berg said the inspector mistakenly calculated 95 red points and the error wasn’t noticed for a couple of days.

Berg said the county opted not to enforce a late closure because the restaurant was already making progress on addressing its issues.