Zoo restaurant briefly closed after violation

WEST PALM BEACH — The restaurant at the Palm Beach Zoo, Tropics Cafe, was shut down Wednesday after inspectors cited it for 10 violations, including fresh rodent droppings in the kitchen and food storage areas.

The restaurant at 1301 Summit Blvd. was cleared of all violations and re-opened Thursday, according to a Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation report. Tropics is operated by Spectra Hospitality and Venue Management, previously known as Ovations Food Services. Spectra is owned by Philadelphia-based Comcast Spectacor, a subsidiary of Comcast Corp.

Dave Anderson, West Palm Beach-based regional vice president for Spectra, said the restaurant worked closely with the zoo to remedy the violations. Since the restaurant is surrounded by heavy foliage, there’s the possibility the rodents were driven to higher ground by Hurricane Irma, Anderson said, as the problem had not occurred in the past.

The restaurant’s three high-priority violations included:

■ Rodent activity as evidenced by more than 25 fresh droppings found in such areas as on top of the dishwasher, under a prep table and in a dry food storage room.

■ An employee failed to wash his or her hands before changing gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food. A food handler left a station and returned to food handling with no hand washing.

■ A vacuum breaker was missing on a hose bib at an outside mop sink.