OT: Restaurant thread

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Dairi Wip was a staple among my extended family here in Winnipeg, and when I moved my family back in '07 it was one of the first places we went. Still a sucker for the hot dogs even though they use the skinnier sandwich slice pickles instead of the quarter wedges, and an order of chili cheese fries hits the spot. And stays on the spot for like 24-36 hours :P but damn is it good.
 
Dairi Wip was a staple among my extended family here in Winnipeg, and when I moved my family back in '07 it was one of the first places we went. Still a sucker for the hot dogs even though they use the skinnier sandwich slice pickles instead of the quarter wedges, and an order of chili cheese fries hits the spot. And stays on the spot for like 24-36 hours :P but damn is it good.
Heath Inspectors paid them a visit a little while back, preparing food under insanitary conditions is an instant red flag for me.
 
Heath Inspectors paid them a visit a little while back, preparing food under insanitary conditions is an instant red flag for me.

Health inspectors routinely visit all restaurants. Depending on the inspector you get they can reg flag very well run clean Kitchens with proper food safe practices for improvements or tweaks they want to see.

Health inspector's are a good resource for operators. Its been a long time but back in the day if we ever had a guest complaint about getting food poisoned (very rare) at one of our establishments we would usually call the health inspector right away and have them come down to do a thorough visit to help us look for issues. If the guest identified the item they ate we would do our best to quarantine any ingredients used in that dish to be inspected (if any where still around).

It’s not an easy business to be 100% compliant at all times, every day, being held to pretty exacting standards, in a highly dynamic work place but it’s certainly the standard you wake up working to hit. As operators we hired Steritec who provide food safety best practices auditing service. They have very exacting standards and do random visits on all our operations and it is one of our most important KPI’s for our teams. Its a pain in the ass and they are way tougher than health inspectors but it does force great best practices onto teams.

Ironically I just visited Dairy Whip this past week and as usual the place was totally spotless and the owner was working as always. I will let @John Agar read the link below and give his more qualified opinion on the incident as reported. Just to be clear I feel totally safe going to Dairy whip as far as health safety standards. Heart condition maybe not so much :laugh: But that is more of a self inflicted wound.


 
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Health inspectors routinely visit all restaurants. Depending on the inspector you get they can reg flag very well run clean Kitchens with proper food safe practices for improvements or tweaks they want to see.

Health inspector's are a good resource for operators. Its been a long time but back in the day if we ever had a guest complaint about getting food poisoned (very rare) at one of our establishments we would usually call the health inspector right away and have them come down to do a thorough visit to help us look for issues. If the guest identified the item they ate we would do our best to quarantine any ingredients used in that dish to be inspected (if any where still around).

It’s not an easy business to be 100% compliant in at all times, every day, being held to pretty exacting standards, in a highly dynamic work place but it’s certainly the standard you wake up working to hit. As operators we hired Steritec who provide food safety best practices auditing service. They have very exacting standards and do random visits on all our operations and it is one of our most important KPI’s for our teams. Its a pain in the ass and they are way tougher than health inspectors but it does force great best practices onto teams.

Ironically I just visited Dairy Whip this past week and as usual the place has been totally spotless and the owner was working as always. I will let @John Agar read the link below and give opinion on the incident as reported. Just to be clear I feel totally safe going to Dairy whip as far as health safety standards. Heart condition maybe not so much :laugh: But that is more of a self inflicted wound.


What a great post. Having never been in the restaurant business at all, I never give a thought to the cleanliness processes that must be involved. I just go and eat!

Thanks for a little insight into the daily expectations.
 
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Health inspectors routinely visit all restaurants. Depending on the inspector you get they can reg flag very well run clean Kitchens with proper food safe practices for improvements or tweaks they want to see.

Health inspector's are a good resource for operators. Its been a long time but back in the day if we ever had a guest complaint about getting food poisoned (very rare) at one of our establishments we would usually call the health inspector right away and have them come down to do a thorough visit to help us look for issues. If the guest identified the item they ate we would do our best to quarantine any ingredients used in that dish to be inspected (if any where still around).

It’s not an easy business to be 100% compliant at all times, every day, being held to pretty exacting standards, in a highly dynamic work place but it’s certainly the standard you wake up working to hit. As operators we hired Steritec who provide food safety best practices auditing service. They have very exacting standards and do random visits on all our operations and it is one of our most important KPI’s for our teams. Its a pain in the ass and they are way tougher than health inspectors but it does force great best practices onto teams.

Ironically I just visited Dairy Whip this past week and as usual the place was totally spotless and the owner was working as always. I will let @John Agar read the link below and give his more qualified opinion on the incident as reported. Just to be clear I feel totally safe going to Dairy whip as far as health safety standards. Heart condition maybe not so much :laugh: But that is more of a self inflicted wound.


As a very naive 19 year old, I have to say I had a fantastic experience with health inspectors, specifically Dean Sargeant.
Back in 1984, before hot dog carts were dotting every corner of the city, I decided to modify an old Dickee Dee ice cream bike into my first hot dog cart. It was crude and there weren’t really many rules yet, but Dean Sargeant worked with me to make it work. I’ll say he was very patient with me. :)
Great memories from those days and I always found them very easy to work with, even as they rightfully started to upgrade the health requirements in the following couple years.
 
Dairy Whip and Venice House next door were my two staples growing up. Glad one of them is still around to give me that chili burger fix.

Really wish Sonya’s on Henderson by the Disraeli bridge didn’t close down. That was the best burger in town.
 
We always called Dairy Whip "Johnny's"... my grandma used to talk about how the owner tried to sell it to her back in the day

Now I'm craving a double Fat Boy, fries, and a vanilla milkshake lol
Johnny’s is across the street from “the Whip”. 2 different restaurants.

2 different Greeks own them.

I’d like to try the updated Le Croissant on Taché.
 
Health inspectors routinely visit all restaurants. Depending on the inspector you get they can reg flag very well run clean Kitchens with proper food safe practices for improvements or tweaks they want to see.

Health inspector's are a good resource for operators. Its been a long time but back in the day if we ever had a guest complaint about getting food poisoned (very rare) at one of our establishments we would usually call the health inspector right away and have them come down to do a thorough visit to help us look for issues. If the guest identified the item they ate we would do our best to quarantine any ingredients used in that dish to be inspected (if any where still around).

It’s not an easy business to be 100% compliant at all times, every day, being held to pretty exacting standards, in a highly dynamic work place but it’s certainly the standard you wake up working to hit. As operators we hired Steritec who provide food safety best practices auditing service. They have very exacting standards and do random visits on all our operations and it is one of our most important KPI’s for our teams. Its a pain in the ass and they are way tougher than health inspectors but it does force great best practices onto teams.

Ironically I just visited Dairy Whip this past week and as usual the place was totally spotless and the owner was working as always. I will let @John Agar read the link below and give his more qualified opinion on the incident as reported. Just to be clear I feel totally safe going to Dairy whip as far as health safety standards. Heart condition maybe not so much :laugh: But that is more of a self inflicted wound.


Awesome post. When I used to work in the restaurant industry we knew of lots of places that had violations. We still ate there because we understood the context and generally knew what the restaurants approach would be to said violation. Of course we'd go to Sal's at 3:00 in the morning and eat chili nips, so our judgement wasn't all sound.

I learned to clean while working as a busser/dish pit guy. Without a word of a lie we had a manager when I started that came out with a white glove and ran his finger over every single surface. Any dirt, clean it again and you aren't getting paid to stay longer, you're just staying longer. Really strong incentive to do it right the first time. I'm still deeply damaged by that experience and I guarantee you nobody cleans a toilet better than I do (we had to clean the bathrooms as well, internal audit times were the worst). :laugh:
 
We always called Dairy Whip "Johnny's"... my grandma used to talk about how the owner tried to sell it to her back in the day

Now I'm craving a double Fat Boy, fries, and a vanilla milkshake lol

When I was very young, I remember we'd call it "The Greek's". Of course, many years later in Winnipeg, I'd realize how that doesn't really narrow it down very much ;)

>"Hey, have you ever been to The Greeks?"
>>"Isn't that the greasy spoon place that puts Cincinnati chilli on their burgers and they also sell gyros?"
>"Yeah for sure, you ever been there!?"
 
Health inspectors routinely visit all restaurants. Depending on the inspector you get they can reg flag very well run clean Kitchens with proper food safe practices for improvements or tweaks they want to see.

Health inspector's are a good resource for operators. Its been a long time but back in the day if we ever had a guest complaint about getting food poisoned (very rare) at one of our establishments we would usually call the health inspector right away and have them come down to do a thorough visit to help us look for issues. If the guest identified the item they ate we would do our best to quarantine any ingredients used in that dish to be inspected (if any where still around).

It’s not an easy business to be 100% compliant at all times, every day, being held to pretty exacting standards, in a highly dynamic work place but it’s certainly the standard you wake up working to hit. As operators we hired Steritec who provide food safety best practices auditing service. They have very exacting standards and do random visits on all our operations and it is one of our most important KPI’s for our teams. Its a pain in the ass and they are way tougher than health inspectors but it does force great best practices onto teams.

Ironically I just visited Dairy Whip this past week and as usual the place was totally spotless and the owner was working as always. I will let @John Agar read the link below and give his more qualified opinion on the incident as reported. Just to be clear I feel totally safe going to Dairy whip as far as health safety standards. Heart condition maybe not so much :laugh: But that is more of a self inflicted wound.



I concur with ps’ and his view of Health Inspectors… they are extremely important in keeping the public safe.

I taught my managers and crews to not see them as being adversaries, but as someone you ran towards not away from.

Food safety is the very basic of quality food and we were absolutely fanatic in ensuring internal compliance to well established food handling standards, it was a constant mantra for our back of the house teams.

Food is very personal, it goes into our bodies.

The best compliment given to me was from a man extremely at risk due to immuno-suppression; I knew he was a very frequent customer of ours as we kept track as matter course in the front end re: a Service That Sells ethic but I had no idea why. This gentleman stopped me one day to thank me for our staffs’ efforts as he had given up all other restaurants, he was so sensitive to what was served to him, they always made him ill, but never with us. It gave him a life outside his Home.

As for Dari-Whip, given the nature of ground beef, the surface area created, and the risks of E. coli bacterium propagation, with the reported risks possibly being still not fully understood, the Health Dept may have issued a memorandum to follow strict standards re: testing for degree of internal temperature - Probe Thermometer use. Or the lack of use of probe, post memorandum. Aka - degree of doneness.

Cross contamination with handling in prep of fabricating is another critical point with raw ground beef is another prime suspect.

Who here BBQ’s in the back yard and leaves pink in their burgers ? Or use a temp probe on said burgers?

Crickets…

My Chef training has never left me; I am still a meticulous pain in the ass. No apologies.
 
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Best pizza I have tasted anywhere. The restaurant had larter's golf course also make a very good pizza
Living on the River Road between those two places, I second your recommendations. Slightly diffetemt styles but both very good. Thomas at Larters inherited the pizza recipe and oven from Lisi's Ranch House on north Main Street.👍👍
 
When I was very young, I remember we'd call it "The Greek's". Of course, many years later in Winnipeg, I'd realize how that doesn't really narrow it down very much ;)

>"Hey, have you ever been to The Greeks?"
>>"Isn't that the greasy spoon place that puts Cincinnati chilli on their burgers and they also sell gyros?"
>"Yeah for sure, you ever been there!?"
The Greeks was a very polarizing restaurant as a St. Boniface landmark. I had a boss who said they served dogfood. My dad went there from the beginnings, that Kennedy picture was there as long as I can remember. The brother peeling potatoes in the back. It's the kids running it now, it's not the same as before.

Mr. Mike's was a good one. Paladin was a good breakfast spot in St. Boniface. The better restaurants now are probably in Southdale.
 
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Living on the River Road between those two places, I second your recommendations. Slightly diffetemt styles but both very good. Thomas at Larters inherited the pizza recipe and oven from Lisi's Ranch House on north Main Street.👍👍
Man...Lisi's Ranch House used to be a favourite years back! The last time we popped in there prior to it closing, I recall that it was a bit disappointing
 
The Greeks was a very polarizing restaurant as a St. Boniface landmark. I had a boss who said they served dogfood. My dad went there from the beginnings, that Kennedy picture was there as long as I can remember. The brother peeling potatoes in the back. It's the kids running it now, it's not the same as before.

Mr. Mike's was a good one. Paladin was a good breakfast spot in St. Boniface. The better restaurants now are probably in Southdale.

My parents insisted that there was some kind of corporate espionage that happened when someone went from one restaurant to that place and brought the competitor’s chilli recipe with them. I’d honesty be surprised if that wasn’t the case, and there wasn’t far more such incidents with the level of competition that went on there.
 

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