Santa Clara County inspectors closed 18 food businesses in October; all but one cited vermin

Top image: The Santa Clara County Government Center in San Jose. The county’s Department of Environmental Health inspects retail food facilities. Photo: Xnatedawgx / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

By Celeste Marchetti-Okoro, Food & Dining Reporter

Santa Clara County health inspectors ordered 18 food facilities to close between Oct. 1 and Oct. 23, and 17 of those orders cited the same reason: “Food is subject to contamination from vermin.” That is according to the closure list on the county’s SCC DineOut inspection portal, which the Chronicle reviewed on Oct. 24.

The list is the county’s public record of closure activity over the past six months. A closure means inspectors found a condition serious enough to stop operations until it was corrected. Most facilities on the list reopened within days. A closure is a snapshot, and a business with no reopening date on the list may have resolved the issue after the list was last updated.

Still closed as of Oct. 24

Five facilities closed in October had no reopening date posted when the Chronicle checked:

• Dalat Cafe Restaurant, 408 E. William St., San Jose: closed Oct. 23 (vermin)
• Le Boulanger, 301 Main St., Los Altos: closed Oct. 23 (vermin)
• Atulya Bharat, 1710 Berryessa Road, San Jose: closed Oct. 22 (vermin)
• Sumo Sushi Boats, 355 State St., Los Altos: closed Oct. 22 (vermin)
• Taqueria La Veracruzana, 1510 Jackson St., Santa Clara: closed Oct. 5 (vermin)

Closed and reopened in October

The other 13 October closures had reopened by the time the list was checked, according to the county’s dates:

• Swaraj India, 1855 El Camino Real, Santa Clara: closed Oct. 22, reopened Oct. 23
• Urban Grill Indian Cuisine, 1214 Apollo Way, Sunnyvale: closed Oct. 14, reopened Oct. 17
• Pho Morgan Hill, 16965 Monterey Road, Morgan Hill: closed Oct. 9, reopened Oct. 12
• Baekjeong San Jose, 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa Clara: closed Oct. 8, reopened Oct. 9
• Barebottle Brewing Company, 2520 Augustine Drive, Santa Clara: closed Oct. 8, reopened Oct. 10
• Eaping Fresh Chinese, 1040 Grant Road, Mountain View: closed Oct. 8, reopened Oct. 10
• La Jaiba Taqueria, 10 E. Hamilton Ave., Campbell: closed Oct. 8, reopened Oct. 9
• Lake Vista Liquors, 1123 Lawrence Expressway, Sunnyvale: closed Oct. 8, reopened Oct. 10
• Mrs. Fields, 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa Clara: closed Oct. 8, reopened Oct. 13
• Popeyes Louisiana Chicken, 1783 E. Capitol Expressway, San Jose: closed Oct. 6, reopened Oct. 13
• Denny’s, 910 Saratoga Ave., San Jose: closed Oct. 1, reopened Oct. 2
• Great Indian Cuisine, 2026 Agnew Road, Santa Clara: closed Oct. 1, reopened Oct. 2. This was the only October closure not tied to vermin; the county cited “failure to protect food from contamination.”
• Thanh’s Produce, 1816 Tully Road, San Jose: closed Oct. 1, reopened Oct. 6

Himalayan Kitchen at 820 E. El Camino Real in Mountain View, closed Sept. 30, reopened Oct. 21 after a three-week closure.

Repeat closures

Two restaurants closed in October have been closed before in recent months. Urban Grill Indian Cuisine in Sunnyvale was also closed Sept. 22 and June 23, so the October order was its third in about four months. Pho Morgan Hill was also closed Sept. 22, reopening Sept. 27, 12 days before its October closure. Both reopened after each closure, according to the county’s dates.

How to check a restaurant

SCC DineOut posts inspection results and the county’s color-coded placards (green for pass, yellow for conditional pass, red for closed) for permitted food facilities. The portal’s facility search was unavailable when the Chronicle tried it on Oct. 24, though the closure list loaded. Diners can also look for the placard posted at the restaurant.

The Chronicle did not contact the businesses listed before publication. Any of them may send updates or comments to editor@southbaychronicle.com, and this article will be updated with any reopening that is confirmed.

The long view

Vermin dominate the county’s six-month closure record. Most entries cite contamination from vermin, and water outages, sewage problems and permit lapses appear only occasionally. In September the list shows 39 closure orders, including five separate permits at one San Jose Safeway store on Hamilton Avenue that closed together on Sept. 14 and reopened the next day. Most closures last only a few days, which suggests problems are usually fixed fast once inspectors step in. The repeat cases are the exception worth watching. For diners heading into the holiday season, the closure list and the placard at the door are the quickest public ways to check a kitchen’s recent record.