Restaurant Report Card: Arvada Tequila’s, Stapleton BBQ and an A+ for Scrumptious

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DENVER — FOX31 Denver’s Restaurant Report Card features an Arvada Mexican restaurant that earned an ‘F’ after a cook was seen sifting through the trash and then handling food.

Tequila’s

Tequila’s located at 12391 W. 64th Avenue in Arvada received a failing grade on our restaurant report card for 16 critical violations in its last 2 inspections including:

A cook was observed sifting through the trash can then preparing food without washing hands.
Bulk mayonnaise was stored open on a shelf for more than 4 hours.
Rodent droppings.
No sanitizer on the cook line or bar.
No thermometer.
The wait staff was unaware of bare hand contact violations.

When asked if the cooks know that they need to wash their hands after digging through the trash can, owner Rodrigo Sanchez said, “Yes, every time we have to. We know that.”

Sanchez told FOX31 that he and his staff recently met with health officials to make sure they have corrected their mistakes, and he says his kitchen is open to his customers.

“If they said, ‘I want to see where you are cooking my food,’ we can show them,” Sanchez said.

Jim-N-Nick’s BBQ

The next stop was Jim-N-Nick’s BBQ in Northfield Stapleton, located at 8264 E. Northfield Blvd.

The restaurant got an ‘F’ for the following violations:

Inspectors found dozens of flies in the kitchen “landing on food and on food prep areas.”
The dishwasher was handling dirty dishes then clean dishes without washing hands.
There was slime mold in the ice machine.
No sanitizer on the cook line.
Feta cheese, ranch, whipped cream and other hazardous foods were too warm.

“We’ve fixed all the issues that we had,” said general manager Tyler Ashton.

He says he’s using the bad inspections as a training tool, saying “If you can learn from it, your operation is only going to get better.”

Scrumptious

Finally, our A+ of the week went to Scrumptious in Olde Town Arvada, located at 7523 Grandview Ave.

The homemade ice cream and candy shop scored back to back perfect inspections.

“I have an awesome staff. We make sure we clean everything all the time,” owner Scott Spears said. The recognition on our report card made him happier than a kid in a candy store.

“I’m super stoked. How can you not be excited?” Spears said.