Lancaster nixes popular food during festival
LANCASTER − A Lancaster Festival favorite will apparently be missing from downtown events this month.
Madison Bar and Grill owner Mike Thomas will not be allowed to sell his fish sandwiches this year from his food truck. The line to the truck is usually long and the smell of cooking fish permeates the air near Main and Broad streets. But city service safety director Paul Martin said Madison’s will not participate this year.
Martin was vague when asked why the city barred Thomas. But he sent the Eagle-gazette a statement saying the city relies on the Fairfield County Health Department’s health and safety inspection process for food trucks.
“Our priority is always to provide a wonderful downtown dining experience,” Martin wrote. “And first and foremost in that experience is the health and safety of our clients, relying on public health experts for this guidance.”
On May 10, the county health department cited the food truck for two critical violations and one non-critical violation,
according to the department’s website. The two critical violations are:
● Employees are not informed in a verifiable manner of their responsibility to report information about their health. Observed no employee health agreement on file.
● Equipment food-contact surfaces or utensils are unclean. Observed build up of grease around fryers, observed residue on soda machine. Ensure that food contact surfaces are clean to sight and touch.
The non-critical violation states:
● Facility not maintained clean. Observed that floors and walls were not maintained clean. Ensure that facilities are cleaned as often as necessary to keep them clean.
The county health department also cited Thomas’ food truck for numerous violations during last year’s festival. Those violations included not having an accessible handwashing sink and food not properly protected from contamination.
But Thomas said his food truck passed a county health department inspection for 2023. He said he thinks the issue may stem from downtown businesses thinking he takes business from them during the festival.
Thomas also said Destination Downtown Lancaster played a part in the ban, but Martin said that organization had nothing to do with it. DDL Executive Director Amanda Everitt also said her organization was not involved in the city’s decision.
But Thomas is not convinced. “So, anyhow, the Destination Downtown (Lancaster) and the city service director apparently got their heads together and said I couldn’t come down after 32 years,” Thomas said. “The city service director said there were writeups from the health department. But I passed for 2022, 2023. I passed for 2020.
“I’ve passed for the last 30 years down there. And no complaints. Nobody got sick. Nothing like that has happened. I don’t know why the city service (safety) director, who is in charge of city streets and traffic lights, is involved with the health department. I have no idea about that.”
Thomas said the ban will hurt him financially.
“Without a doubt,” he said. “But for somebody (Martin) to have that much power and not an elected official . ... For somebody to have that much power to hurt a small business, for being vindictive or whatever it is, that’s just a shame. I don’t know what his reason is for doing it.”
Visit the county health department website at www.fairfieldhealth.org to see the violations against the Madison food truck. jbarron@gannett.com 740-681-4340
Twitter: @Jeffdbarron