Rocket Talk: Can Sunday Subway Service Start Sooner?
Newsstand: November 19, 2009
Gender Studies Coming to a High School Near You
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The Art of Not Knowing
At just about noon today, Jesse Ship was walking along Spadina on his way to lunch with a friend when he spotted something slightly less appetizing in the window of Happy Seven restaurant, at 358 Spadina: a rat. He snapped the photo above, of the rat conspicuously beside a Toronto Public Health DineSafe Pass, and sent it to us and to BlogTO immediately, and recorded the video above on his cellphone. As it turns out, he wasn't the only one to see something: CityNews got footage of not one but three rats roaming the store, presumably taking a break from teaching fine cooking to the clumsy but ultimately endearing cooks.
The restaurant has received unconditional green passes in all but one of their past seven inspections, but Toronto Public Health—unlike the last time we contacted them about an unwelcome guest spotted by a reader—have still not shut the restaurant down as of 9 p.m. tonight, and the operator we spoke to on the phone said it could take until as late as mid-day Friday to send an inspector (though a public health manager told the Post that they're investigating). When Torontoist dropped by the restaurant this evening and attempted to speak to the restaurant's management, they told us they had "no comment." CityTV had similar results when their report aired at 6 p.m., but were later told that the restaurant "was aware of the problem and were bringing in pest control experts in the hopes of eradicating [it]."
Photo/Video by Jesse Ship. Additional reporting from Jonathan Goldsbie.
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there are but three restaurants on Spadina between College and Queen that I'll even risk setting foot inside..
maybe these are the same rats from the Dumpling House earlier this year?!
"...Toronto Public Health was notified and promised an investigation. Should their people find any proof of rodent infestation the restaurant would be closed immediately."
The problem, it seems, is that the City doesn't have inspectors who work outside the hours of 9 to 5 or 8 to 4. And it's not just Public Health. The same goes for Municipal Licensing and Standards and Transportation Services and probably just about every other City division. Which is why OptiAdMedia and other companies can get away with driving around projecting ads on the sides of buildings. And why billboards tend to be erected in the middle of the night.
Here's a photo I took half an hour ago; there were about a dozen people inside; Happy Seven remains open until 5:00 in the morning. Citytv also paid another visit.
Inevitable new Toronto flickr camera blog craze:
Early early morning stakeouts of Spadina restaurants in hopes of getting photos of rats running amuck.
Awwww but eughhhhh
This is ludicrous: CityNews (watch the video) is reporting that Toronto Public Health visited the restaurant earlier today and "found no evidence of a rat infestation" and "no problem whatsoever with compliance with public health standards." The restaurant will remain open until further notice.
(Also, because CityNews isn't good at using the internet and keeps replacing the same article on their website with new video and entirely different text, I've removed the link to their article in the body of mine—it's not too helpful for context or extra information if they keep changing it.)
I'm wondering why CityNews is labeling it an "exclusive" when it was published elsewhere well before they "broke" the story.
The rats aren't an infestation ... they're the appetizers. You know how in some seafood restaurants you can pick your lobster, at this establishment you can pick your rat!
you sure it was a rat and not Joanne Kates in disguise?
The restaurant's finally been closed.
That photo should be on the Fail Blog!!
Two comments:
1.I was in a resto on Dundas a few years ago, and a rat scampered down the middle of the dining room during the middle of dinner. When I called Toronto Public Health to complain they obligingly phoned me back a few days later to say that renos in the resto had stirred them up. I guess that's okay then! But I was eating at 6pm on Sunday night -- were they renovating then?
2.TPH officials take loads of free meals and out-and-out backhanders. Have done for years. I know a gentleman who, despite being retired from TPH for many years now, has never paid for a meal in Chinatown and often had box seats at the Dome. That's just the way it is.
So remember, it's not just the complacency of the resto owner. It's also the self-interest of the health inspectors (maybe not all, but many). And to some extent it's also the indifference of the press who are happy to get the pictures, raise a fuss, and then do nothing. Remember the last fuss that got us the signs in the windows of restos? Remember the fuss raised by CITY-TV ten years ago when they got identical shots of mice in a bakery window? What follow-up did they do? Gar-nits, my friends, nothing.