Osler's Razor

I read with some alarm the news that two restaurants I knew in Waco, the Lake Brazos Steakhouse and Samarai Japanese Steakhouse, were permanently shut down for health code violations. As to the latter, the Waco Tribune Herald reported the following:

... local health officials closed the restaurant Aug. 9 for violations that included a roach infestation, blocked sinks, unclean food equipment and indications employees were living there, including the presence of a clothesline over a sink, a health official said. “It was pretty bad,” said David Litke, a spokesman for the Waco-McLennan County Health District.

Yikes!

As for the Lake Brazos Steakhouse (again, from Mike Copeland's story in the Waco Tribune Herald):

Litke said inspectors closed the waterfront Lake Brazos Bar & Grill on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard after completing a routine inspection early Tuesday afternoon.

“It was determined to have multiple and repeat violations,” said Litke, who declined to release the health department’s full report on what inspectors found, but did summarize the violations.

He said that:

* Food was not consistently kept at a safe temperature;
* Equipment and surfaces that came in contact with food were not being kept clean and equipment was not in good repair;
* Employees were not following good hand-washing practices; and,
* Managers did not show adequate knowledge of food safety.

“All of that, rolled up, led to the temporary closure,” Litke said. “Their permit to operate is up for renewal and the inspection was part of that process.

I ate at that place! I'm a little surprised that the "Managers did not show adequate knowledge of food safety," given that we are talking about things like hand-washing and heating food.

My favorite restaurants, though, closed (if they did) for reasons other than health law. Let's remember them today, in haiku. Here is mine:

Sparky Herberts, gone.
Grosse Pointe's clubhouse for riff-raff,
Secret world writ small.

Now, you write one! Just make it about 5/7/5 syllables. The winner gets their bio here on Monday.