In Red Hen fuss, Trump eateries have own woes
Trump Tower restaurants cited for ‘filth’ in 2017
As the Red Hen restaurant that booted Sarah Sanders and received a lashing about cleanliness from President Donald Trump gets set to reopen, a USA TODAY review shows restaurants in Trump family business properties have a similarly mixed history of health inspection violations. ❚ The review was conducted after Red Hen co-owner Stephanie Wilkinson asked Sanders, the White House press secretary, to leave the Lexington, Virginia, restaurant on June 22 because of Sanders’ job in the Trump administration. ❚ Three days later, the nation’s commander-in-chief mounted a Twitter attack on the farm-to-table restaurant.
Panning what he characterized as the Red Hen’s “filthy canopies, doors and windows,” plus an urgent need for a “paint job,” Trump tweeted a heretofore undeclared rule, one possibly learned during his career heading a business with fine-dining establishments at clubs and golf courses.
For anyone who may have missed it, the Trump Rule is: “If a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it’s dirty on the inside.”
The tweet prompted a two-fold question: Have restaurant inspections found the Red
“If a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it’s dirty on the inside.”
Hen to be unsanitary, and how have eateries in properties of The Trump Organization fared in similar inspections?
Here’s a partial comparison, drawn from a review of inspection records in four states and Canada that provides an overview of kitchen cleanliness at the eateries. Inspections capture snapshots on the day they are conducted and may not be representative of a restaurant’s performance over time, regulatory agencies say. The review focused on recent inspection records for Trump-related eateries that appeared to have no ownership or management links to outside chefs or restaurant companies.
The Trump Organization did not respond to messages on Tuesday and Thursday that sought information about the ownership and management of some other restaurants in the company’s properties.
During inspections conducted after Trump’s January 2017 presidential inauguration, his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, have handled the day-today operations of The Trump Organization and the family company’s enterprises.
Red Hen
Tentatively expected to reopen Thursday — with local police on hand for anticipated protests — the Red Hen has a mixed record with health inspectors.
Its most recent inspection, conducted in February 2018, produced no violations. But an April 2014 inspection resulted in one violation for raw beef stored above cooked, ready-to-eat food, as well as thawing meats stored above cookie bars.
A second violation cited a ready-to-eat container of grits stored in a refrigeration unit without being properly dated.
Those violations, issued before a 2016 update of Virginia’s inspection regulations, would have been classified as priority violations now, due to the possibility they could be a direct cause of illness for the restaurant’s guests.
A January 2017 inspection cited Red Hen with a priority violation for having pickles or jams in a sealed container that did not come from an approved foodprocessing facility.
Trump Tower
Trump Grill, a “classic American cuisine” restaurant, and Trump Cafe, which serves sandwiches, snacks and hot entrees, are in New York City’s Trump Tower, the Manhattan skyscraper on Fifth Avenue where Trump lived before he was elected president in 2016. Records for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Health list them as a single establishment. It currently holds the top grade of A, earned from the health agency during the most recent inspection cycle last year. Many diners check the ratings when they decide where to eat.
The first inspection in the cycle, conducted in November 2017, cited a critical violation for “filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies in facility’s food and/or non-food areas,” along with an infraction for “conditions conducive to attracting vermin.”
The health agency’s inspection grading system gives restaurants two chances to earn an A rating during each inspection cycle. A follow-up inspection, conducted in December 2017, cited nine violation points. The total was below the health agency’s 13point limit that could have triggered a lower rating.
Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver
A March 2018 inspection by Vancouver Coastal Health found “signs of rodent activity” in the conven-
Trump Grill, shown in 2016, and Trump Cafe are inside Trump Tower in New York City. Inspectors list them both as one establishment.
tion prep kitchen of the Trump International Hotel & Tower that opened during the prior year in the seaport city of Canada’s British Columbia province.
However, the kitchen was deemed to be in compliance with all other health regulations.
Trump National Golf Club Bedminster
A September 2016 inspection of the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, a New Jersey facility that hosts weddings and banquets along with golfing, gave the club an overall rating of satisfactory, according to a Somerset County Department of health report posted by NJ.com.
However, the report listed a violation for “cutting utensils and utensil holder with old and encrusted food buildup.”
Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach
A Florida inspection conducted in February hit the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach with a high-priority violation for having cases of raw beef stored over commercially produced salad dressings.
The violation was corrected during the inspection, and the restaurant conditions met the state’s inspection standards during the visit, online state records show.
Florida restaurant inspections for the March 2017 check of the main kitchen at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter and for the June 2018 review of the Trump Hollywood condominium tower found no high-priority violations.
The Mar-A-Lago Club
Dubbed the Winter White House by Trump aides, The Mar-A-Lago Club emerged from the Palm Beach, Florida, luxury private facility’s most recent restaurant inspection in April with zero violations.
However, a January 2017 inspection, conducted weeks before a Trump visit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, cited three high-priority violations. They included raw or undercooked fish that had “not undergone proper parasite destruction.”
Like many states and localities, Florida’s Division of Hotels and Restaurants uses the 2009 U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s food code, a three-tier category system for food safety and sanitation inspections.
State and local inspection agencies may modify or add to the system, said Roy Costa, president of the Florida-based food-safety consulting firm Environ Health Associates.
Inspectors assess every part of the eatery, including how well the building is maintained, how food is stored, pest control and whether staff members move between raw and cooked food preparation without changing gloves.