A Roswell restaurant is under scrutiny this week after a routine health inspection left it with a failing grade.
Chicago’s Restaurant at 4401 Shallowford Road, scored a 69 out of 100 during a March 4 inspection — landing it in “Unsatisfactory” territory, according to Georgia Department of Public Health records. Health inspectors documented ten violations during the visit, several of them serious enough to require immediate corrective action.
The most pressing concerns centered on food safety and temperature control.
Inspectors found food stored in the restaurant’s reach-in coolers and walk-in cooler holding above the required 41 degrees Fahrenheit. That violation — one of the most serious on the report — was also a repeat offense. All of the affected food was discarded on the spot.
Improper food storage was another major finding. Raw hamburger was found stored above shredded cheese, sour cream, and diced tomatoes. In the same cooler, an open tray of raw chicken sat above open green beans and raw ahi tuna. Raw cod was found stored above heavy whipping cream in a second cooler. State rules require raw animal foods to be separated from ready-to-eat items and stored according to their required cooking temperatures. The food was rearranged and open containers were discarded during the inspection.
Cooling procedures also raised red flags. Macaroni and cheese cooked earlier in the day and placed in the refrigerator around 1:30 in the afternoon was still registering at 73 degrees when the inspector checked it at 5:20 that evening — well above the required cooling threshold. State rules require cooked food to drop from 135 degrees to 70 degrees within two hours. That food was also thrown out.
The restaurant’s handling of time-sensitive sauces drew additional scrutiny. Hollandaise sauce was being held on the counter at 92 degrees with no documented discard time. Whipped butter was being kept at room temperature in individual cups — also without any time or temperature control procedure in place. The inspector provided management with a written procedure, and the hollandaise sauce was discarded.
Date marking was another repeat violation. Several ready-to-eat foods in the walk-in cooler were found well past their allowable seven-day hold window. Items included grits and sweet potatoes dated February 25th, mashed potatoes dated February 26th, alfredo sauce and mushroom demi dated February 24th, and peppered ranch dated as far back as February 17th. All of it was discarded.
The bar area’s handwashing sink was at the center of four separate violations. The sink had no soap, no drying supplies, and no hot water — and it was being used to store a strainer and a sanitizing bucket rather than for handwashing. The manager removed the items from the sink during the inspection, but the soap, drying supplies, and hot water issues were not corrected on-site. The restaurant has ten days to address those three violations.
Two reach-in coolers were found holding ambient temperatures between 44 and 45 degrees — above the required 40-degree threshold. Both coolers were taken out of service and the restaurant was told to provide a service receipt to the health department once repairs are made.
A follow-up inspection is required.
