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Earlier today, Torontoist got sent a series of photos that appear to show a mouse inside Second Cup's 307 Queen Street West location. The three shots (one above, and two after the fold) were taken by Kate Bowen this past Sunday at 2 a.m., while she was waiting for the Queen streetcar.
According to Dinesafe, the store passed its last health inspection, on June 11 this year. Toronto Public Health, where we forwarded the photos after receiving them, is now in the process of investigating the complaint. (They tend to be prompt about these things: when a photo of rats inside the Dumpling House on Spadina was published on BlogTO on February 15, that restaurant was inspected, closed, and fined $6250 by the end of that day.)
After we phoned Second Cup this afternoon and forwarded the photos to them, Second Cup's Director of Operations in Eastern Canada, Jane Stollar, e-mailed to tell Torontoist that Second Cup has "taken immediate action to investigate the matter," including confirming that the franchised store "has a pest-control program in place" which was last inspected and serviced on July 8, and that the store "stores all food items in accordance with our food handling standards and [that] there is no access of our food products or coffee to rodents or pests." Second Cup is taking additional steps to squash the problem, too, requesting that the building's landlord "determine if all other tenants of the building have an active pest-control prevention program in place," and hiring a contractor "to identify any potential access points to retail neighbors above and beside the building to prevent any possible issues as a result of their business practices." Stollar concludes that "Second Cup takes this situation very seriously. Together with our Franchise Partner we feel confident that our current preventative program plus the additional immediate actions will alleviate any further issues. " Well, we'd certainly hope so.
All photos by Kate Bowen.
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Get over it, there are mice in most old buildings. That is why the health department has requirements for food storage, as well as pest control actions. If the Second Cup is following all best practices, there is nothing to see here.
Cheers,
Tuds
I was once pleasantly dining at Izakaya on Front St. when I saw a mouse run around without being bothered by people. I pointed it out to the waitress, who said "oh, don't mind him. He's does that all the time".
Izakaya is now gone.
yah, my house gets two major mouse infections a year. We keep all the our food in plastic storage containers, but the bloody mice seem to be able to live off inedible objects(ie paper, wood, anydamnthing!) and crumbs. There dosn't seem to be a viable way to keep your house mouse proof either they can fit through any hole the size of a dime. And you can kill em off with poison (we do) but unless you can convince your entire neighborhood to do the same they'll be back in a few months.
ughh, excuse the horrid grammar. I cant help it i go to art school
Back in October I went to the Subway at Pape and Danforth and saw two mice running on the floor around the counter. I reported it to Dine Safe, but they said there was no sign of infestation so nothing could be done.
awwwww but then eughhhh
are they going to hurt the little mouse?
I dunno, living in the big city and freaking out over mice seems a little high and mighty. Those darn little guys live just about everywhere, so keep your food safe and the place clean and hope mice are the only pests you have.....
vermin!
I worked at a bunch of different food establishments as a teenager, and every single one of them had mice, which doesn't mean they get in the food or can be totally exterminated. In the case of a certain donut shop I worked in that was named after a hockey player (and not Eddie Shack), we had to totally sanitize the floors and all the food surfaces with bleach during every shift, traps were set, and the supplies were locked up tight, so I didn't even pay the mice much mind.
tim hurten's! vermin!
"I'll have a skinny vanilla bean latte with mouse turd sprinkles, please". C'mon! whats the diff between a mouse and a rat? A half pound? A little cuteness? There's no forgiving a rodent infestation in a civilized metropolis like Toronto. I'm not "getting over it" any sooner than I would the hantavirus
at least they don't have roaches like some starbucks do.
Any place that's totally mouseless is probably out of my league. The other day there was a mouse under my pillow as I slept; I rolled over and it plopped onto the floor and scurried away. Bitch lives in Allan Gardens now, bless his heart.
A mouse got its neck broke in a mousetrap in my house yesterday and verminous as they are it made us sad. Then I held it up in front of the cat and said "you can be replaced you know."
stillalive, you are being a bit naive. You can get nasty diseases from your pet cat too. It is all about safe food storage and preparation practices, and keeping the vermin poulation to a minimum.
By the way, from your link, I don't think you have to worry about mice in your coffee shop. My favourite way to contract hantavirus is "trapping and studying mice".
"Cases of Hantavirus infection contracted in Canada and the United States have been associated with:
• Sweeping out a barn and other ranch buildings
• Trapping and studying mice
• Using compressed air and dry sweeping to clean up wood waste in a sawmill
• Handling grain contaminated with mouse droppings and urine
• Entering a barn infested with mice
• Planting or harvesting field crops
• Occupying previously vacant dwellings
• Disturbing rodent-infested areas while hiking or camping
• Living in dwellings with a sizable indoor rodent population"
a mouse. big deal..i mean, really people, there aer much worse thing to freak out about. I would hazard a guess that almost all restaurants see mice, and even rats, once in a while in this city..and really, given the general attitudes of so many restaurants in this city concerning cleanliness, i doubt that mice should be your major concern.
yeah, you're right. I just thought the "getting over it" line was witty and winning.
I do find it a little 'strange' that everyone is letting The Second Cup off scott free when a few months back, there was that COLOSSAL outrage at the Dumpling House in Chinatown. It's like franchised white people places are given a pass, but the Asian joint in the heart Chinatown, they're fucked. You assume that there's a festering infestation on Spadina but across from Moses Znaimer's - no way, not possible.
Just sayin' is all.
Boycott them. The coffee sucks anyway and is horribly overpriced.
The Dumpling House had rats. Lots of them.
mice are gross, but...
if the mouse ran in an opened door...then its not an infestation.
signs of droppings near the food? then that's more of a concern.
yes, it is not appealing to see it, but honestly, Torontoist should be proud for helping to put the Second Cup franchisee out of business because one mouse was seen in the store.
There's good reporting and then there's context. be tactful and report concerns to DineTO and let them decide if there's an infestation.
again, one mouse isn't an infestation.
It helps to read the post before commenting, atomeyes.
"It helps to read the post..." - without doubt!
In any case, I don't think saying it's not a huge deal is letting them off the hook. I mean, I doubt there is one single restaurant that has not had mice. Especially around that area of Queen West - the amount of human traffic and garbage there seems to tell vermin "Come in, free food for all!".
As an aside to this story though, it seems lately that some 'news' agencies tend to try to create news rather than report it...680 has been particularly bad about this in recent months (hell, since rogers took over it's been getting worse and worse)...Torontoist may not really be guilty here, but i find that the writers, while not having perfect grammar ("After we phoned Second Cup..." - phoned is a word?) are usually pretty leading in their commentary.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/phoned
Esteemed writer David Topping,
I re-read your article. what do you not understand?
you are kind of getting on my last tit with your comments in the comment section lately.
my point, in case i wasn't clear: its shitastically brilliant to post this story as you did. the owner must be glowing with the free publicity you gave their location via your Torontoist story.
next week, i will post a story about me finding a hair in my salad when i ate at some Toronto restaurant, and not really wonder if my story will damage the restaurant's business because we do not know the context of how the hair ended up in the food.
you see...although your story did continue to state that you called 2nd cup and DineTO to find out the restaurant's status, do you not think the damage was done by your opening paragraph, which states that a mouse was found in that 2nd Cup location?
you think people will say "oh, but Dine TO says that they passed inspection a month ago, so I shouldn't worry"??
no, its the intro paragraph which conveys the message to the reader. and the message here (and i will put it in a Toronto Sun-esque headline for you to understand): Second Cup Infested With Mouse!
stillalive - The Dumpling House had rats on top of the counter where food is prepared during restaurant hours. Much different than having a mouse on the floor of the coffee shop at 2 am.
"next week, i will post a story about me finding a hair in my salad when i ate at some Toronto restaurant, and not really wonder if my story will damage the restaurant's business because we do not know the context of how the hair ended up in the food."
Hahaha that's gold.
Part of the trouble is that there is a city-wide problem with mice and rats. We can't leave our back door open at work thanks to the ballsy rats nearby, who will try to run in once it gets dark.
"i will put it in a Toronto Sun-esque headline for you to understand"
Exactly my earlier point - so-called journalists basically making news and steering opinion...
I was walking behind College Park a couple of weeks ago when I spotted a couple of animals scurrying ahead of me. Hmmm, I thought, they don't look quite right for squirrels. Then it hit me - they were rats, fer chrissake!
Mice don't freak me out as much as rats, especially if it's only one or two. As other posters have commented, mice are everywhere (check out the subway tracks) and are pretty hard to eliminate entirely.
Having said that, I expect food establishments to take every precaution to ensure their products remain rodent-free and from what's been reported it sounds like that's exactly what Second Cup is doing.
I noticed this morning that the second cup in question now has a yellow conditional pass sign in the window. I was in a hurry, so I didn't read what for, but it was dated July 16th.
That is indeed the case—it was issued a conditional pass yesterday, but, significantly, the inspector determined that the store has "adequate pest control."