29-21 Ditmars Blvd (Photo: Google Maps)
July 20, 2018 By Tara Law (updated)
A Ditmars Boulevard restaurant specializing in sandwiches and salads was closed by the Department of Health on Wednesday–but was authorized to reopen Friday.
Create, which is located at 29-21 Ditmars Blvd., was closed after an inspection on July 18.
The restaurant received 60 sanitary violation points for infractions such as flies and hot food items held at an insufficient temperature.
The inspector listed the following violations. The first five were described as “critical.”
) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F.
2) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.
3) Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.
4) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
5) Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.
6) Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist.
7) Plumbing not properly installed or maintained; anti-siphonage or backflow prevention device not provided where required; equipment or floor not properly drained; sewage disposal system in disrepair or not functioning properly.
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42 Comments
What a shame !! I don’t think I’ll be going back there.
The food at CREATE was by far superior to the greasy junk food from the food trucks. I have eaten there a couple times with no issues. Sorry to see it closed.
You guys are all terrible humans with all your crap talking. Eat at your own risk. Nothing from outside of you house is clean… Deal with it, if you don’t clean the lettuce out of the bag… its DIRTY. That being said, NO need to banter at someone’s hard work. If you work in the restaurant business you would know ONE of the most important parts of staying open is Sanitation. Im a restaurant manager, I walk around all day with a thermometer in my pocket for this reason. When the manager doesn’t care, all of these violations can amass QUICK. Management needs to be overlooked.
You said you “walk around all day with a thermometer in my pocket…”. Well, that’s not a smart way of preventing the spread of germs and disease! Please take it out of your pocket and wash it! Keep it in a germ free place. Its restaurant staff like you writing this crap that give good staff members a bad name!
Happy to see this since I got food poisoning after eating there. Their “protein”–including fish–was always just on the counter at room temp. Never again.
So sad after reading all these comments only people in this business know what kind of problem is that you open up the restaurant early in the morning the first things you find out refrigerator is not working right before you pick up the phone trying to call somebody to fix it you see the health department walking 10 minutes after you open the first things they do food temperature and he doesn’t give a crap but what really bothers me the most report like that could destroy somebody Life but at the end no body care
So take yourself and your loved ones and go eat and support the places that have been closed down or look like they are about to get closed by the Health Dept. Go eat somewhere that looks and tastes unsanitary and tell them its fine to serve that to you and pay for it. Do not forget to leave a big tip.
If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant you know the health department is a racket.
Why is the health department not going after the food trucks???
1) Food trucks are EXEMPT from the letter grade system yet they sell food to the public for a profit but have no sinks or bathrooms.
2) Food trucks only accept cash but DON’T GIVE RECEIPTS which equals to massive tax evasion.
3) Food trucks pay their staff under the table which means no payroll tax or Medicare & SS contributions.
WHY ARE THEY EXEMPT FROM ALL THESE RULES & REGULATIONS???
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???
in addition to “Hot Dog Carts” and ALL food carts across NYC…
chill
Absolutely true…….
Sounds like Food Trucks are the way to go!
FYI
http://abc7ny.com/food/letter-grades-coming-to-nyc-food-trucks-carts-/2031275/
Great news! Any business that sells food should have letter grades displayed.
What about the no receipts? Are they exempt or is it not enforced for food carts and trucks?
Some may of got extra protein on their salad (a dead fly). No big deal!
I’ve never been to this place but as a chef I understand that food safety is an important public health issue. If this establishment had these violations then I would say stay away until fixed. We cannot look the other way on this issue. Very slippery slop with a dangerous downside.
Everybody thinks that they can run a restaurant.
Tom Buckley I agree that running a restaurant is an extremely difficult business. I know how little the profit margin is unless the restaurant is full at least 5 days a week. Now with that said should the public turn a blind eye to these violations that can KILL us!?!
So as a fellow business owner and somebody who empathizes with with what these guys go through and the fact that at any given point they have to compete with three food trucks across the street from them while they’re paying a ton of money into rent,taxation another illegitimate taxation,such as this agency called the health department.
I would like to point out that their competitors do not have to adhere to any of the above requirements/violations , in other words let’s take all these violations one by one :
1)temperature;almost everything in a food truck is out of temperature
2)flies unless somebody creates a way to block flies from air food trucks will always have flies
3) sewage system in despair ; ; ; food trucks don’t even have toilets they pee in a cup right before they give you your sandwich r u fn Kidding me their health department is a joke the only reason that they do what they do is for money, this closure besides the business loss and the future business loss cost them at least 5 to 6 k.
For the folks that are not involved in the restaurant business when you read about these violations they seem catastrophic but an actual lady if the health department came into your apartment and he used the armory they have in their code book which is about 1300 points 60 points is a drop in the bucket!!!!
The food trucks are around for local residents and workers in the area. One can purchase greek, latin, arabic and indian cuisine from one of them.
There are so many restaurants on Ditmars and few have been shut down by the health dept. Eat at your own risk. There yelp reviews are nothing to brag about either.
110 points…stop lying
The article says 60 I didn’t make that up,the article did.
The food trucks are a completely unregulated business.
1) They pay NO RENT & only require a city license for a small annual fee regardless of where they park.
2) They are EXEMPT from the letter grade system yet they sell food to the public for a profit but have no sinks or bathrooms.
3) They pay their staff under the table which means no payroll tax or Medicare & SS contributions.
4) They only accept cash buy DON’T GIVE RECEIPTS which equals to massive tax evasion.
WHY ARE THEY EXEMPT FROM FOOD REGULATIONS THAT PROTECT THE PUBLIC?
WHY ARE THEY NOT FORCED TO GIVE RECEIPTS AND PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE OF TAXES???
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???
The pee item is why I would NEVER eat from a truck!!!!
Bro you’re over here comparing create to a food truck??? Can’t both the create and the food truck both be discusting? I ate at create 1000 times but some of those violations are hard to look past. Thank you create but my family and I are done.
I am not making any excuses for Create or any other restaurant. However, I think it’s completely unfair that the health inspectors are not properly regulating the food carts & trucks. Especially given that street vendors like King Falafal & Souvlaki Lady on Ditmars Blvd are a lot busier, sell a lot more food & make a lot more money than the restaurants they are parked by but are somehow EXEMPT from most of the health code regulations that keep the public safe. On top of that, they only accept cash while not giving receipts. This is UNFAIR not only to the restaurants but more importantly to the public buying their food.
THEY NEED HEALTH GRADES DISPLAYED ON CARTS/TRUCKS!
THEY NEED TO GIVE RECEIPTS & pay their fair share to Uncle Sam!
Those food trucks you mentioned above make good money because the food is good, quick to buy and affordable. Many of the people buying from them are locals who live or work here. Many restaurants that opened up on Ditmars try hard to attract visitors and rely on them to make money. I am sure all those wanna be food critics nowadays are also the ones calling the health dept at the site of anything wrong in the restaurants. Plenty of families and single people in the ditmars area and not everyone wants to pay for an overpriced meal or have dinner with a bunch of loud drunk people.
You mentioned that Ditmars restaurants try hard to attract visitors for an overpriced meal which is BS!!! These restaurants are business that employ many locals, pay taxes, are strictly regulated by city & are trying to survive.
The main reason the food carts & trucks can charge artificially low prices is because they have an unfair advantage to the restaurants.
Most of the food sold in restaurants is paid by credit cards which means (like it or not) they have to pay taxes meanwhile food carts/trucks ONLY accept cash & DON’T GIVE RECEIPTS which means they’re not paying taxes.
Restaurants have mandatory health grades informing us on their cleanliness but food carts/trucks are EXEMPT from health grades yet they sell the same product to the public.
Restaurants pay very high rents meanwhile food carts/trucks park near them & only pay a small annual license fee to city.
We need common sense reform!!!
We need Health Grades & receipts from all street food vendors!!!!
You’re saying that you ate EVERY DAY for 2.7 Years. I think you’re Full of Shit.
Yes the comparison has been made. Either Create or a food truck will give you explosive diarrhea. If you enjoy hot rusty waters exploding from within, then you have options!
I’ve been a customer at this store since it opened, never had a problem with the food.
Couldn’t agree with you more best place on Ditmars for health meals and juices
Fitrition that just opened on Steinway street off of 30th Avenue is my new spot!
The best place is in your kitchen. People are so lazy they would trust their health and well-being to strangers who are only interested in their money. On top of that they serve food that could make them sick. Yet there are those who defend these actions because it hasn’t happened to them. Consider yourself fortunate you didn’t consume anything that landed you in the emergency room
Apparently the health dept did have a problem with the way food was being handled. “The restaurant received 60 sanitary violation points for infractions such as flies and hot food items held at an insufficient temperature.” Personally, I am disgusted that I ate their last week with friends. I will never go back. I expect way more from a place that is new and pricey for it to be closed for the above reasons.
MP Taverna was shut down by the health dept on Ditmars for a day and it closed its doors permanently after a couple of months. It is very hard for a place to recover when it is shut down by the health Dept and it is all over social media. These places open up, have misconceptions about how “tremdy” the area is and then figure it is fine to slack on things like cleanliness and food quality because the ditmars crowd/area is not what they thought it to be.
and?
Tremdy…what the that means?
Avoid Closure by Following Board of Health GUIDELINES. It’s simple but many of these places should be closed.
Yes and those Board of Health Guidelines should be applied across the board to everyone that sells food with no exemptions!!!!
#Healthgradesforfoodcarts
#Receiptsfromfoodcarts