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My wife drove to Lao Sze Chuan for takeout last night, only to discover that the restaurant had been closed for health-department violations. The details are on the City of Chicago's Food Protection Division website at http://w20.cityofchicago.org/health/sea ... id=1072530

I'm a longtime lurker on LTH, but thought this sad news was important enough for me to register and post.

The City is coming down hard on Chinatown.

I think it's just easy for the inspectors to go from one restaurant to the next there.

I had an excellent meal at LSC on Sat. night. The place was jam-packed at almost 10pm and the whole meal was top-notch.

Tony's Special Three-Chili Chicken was slightly sweeter than I remember from my previous visit, and impossible to stop eating (almost like a good kettle corn). The Ma Po Tofu holds its own as one of the best in town. Spicy, rich, and multi-layered. Dry-Chili String Beans and Chinese Eggplant in Garlic Sauce were perfect sides.

Some of my favorite places have been hit with violations at one time or another. I'm looking forward to their grand re-opening!

Read more praise for LSC.

Best,
Michael / EC

That's easily justified. If one restaurant is overrun by rats or roaches, efforts to correct the problem may well chase the pests into the place next door, if that place doesn't have sufficient controls.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

A little off-topic, but does anyone know if Panang is going to be re-opening?

Panang IS open.

Most of the shutdowns happen one day, the restaurant goes into full remedial mode. Very often the establishment is open and back in business the next day after a follow up inspection.

Most of the restaurant shutdowns are so transitory that by the time they are reported here the problem is already gone. While a competitor may latch onto it as an opportunity to spoil the reputation of another restaurant. It falls into the category of what-comes-round-goes-round and they may find themselves under this dark cloud sometime.

LAZ correctly pointed out how elimination of a rodent at one location may just cause a rise in population at another. In Moscow, my neighbors across the hall were Hindu. They had quite a cockroach problem in their apartment. Can you imagine talking to someone and trying to keep your mind on the conversation when you see cockroaches running up and down the walls? It was a challenge for me! When the wife left town, the husband quietly arranged for an exterminator. I immediately needed an exterminator afterwards because guess where they fled to?

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

I am not Hindu myself, but wonder what relevance your neighbor's religion plays in your anecdote?

Zee

Oh great! I thought this might be the case...thanks Cathy.

I once very gingerly discussed the cockroach problem with the wife. She explained killing was against her religious beliefs which involved reincarnation. While she wouldn't kill them directly like stepping on them like I might do. She did occasionally catch them and toss them over the balcony.

Twenty some years ago, this same lady told me about this wonderful street in Chicago named Devon. You have to go half way around the world to learn about your home sometimes.

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

Thanks for the clarification, Cathy.

I think that it is a shame that the Health Department seems to be targeting Chinatown when I would bet that many Gold Coast corporate-run restaurants have plenty of health and saftey violations. I think that for the most part the owners and employees of the smaller establishments in Chicago's ethnic neighborhoods take a lot of pride in making sure that they remain clean and safe for their customers to dine at. After all, that is part of getting the return business that sustains them.

Of course, I don't think that this means that these smaller, often family owned and operated establishments should not have to abide by the same laws as everyone else. However, I do not support the enforcement of such laws when they are applied unfairly (which I think they are in a lot of instances).

Hikari

I've always thought the the "cleanest" a restaurant will be, is right after re-opening.

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Think Yiddish, Dress British - Advice of Evil Ronnie to me.

The Local Beet's very big list of 2013 Farmer's Markets

Having dealt first hand with the inspection process for many years in Virginia, Houston, Dallas, Tucson, and now Chicago, I'd like to add a tidbit of information about the whole inspection process.

In most if not all kitchens, there are ongoing violations. Beef tenderloins being cleaned by the butcher will be outside of the ideal holding range. Thawed out frozen shrimp sitting on a table ready to be peeled and deveined will also be in the danger zone. Prepared soups and stocks cooling dowen are passing too slowly through the danger zone. Cases of product delivered during lunch service are sitting on the floor during lunch service, and there isn't time to jump off the line and put it away. Then the health inspector then walks in. Cardboard boxes of whatever coming in the back door from various vendors are infested with fruitflies and roaches. Roaches love cardboard. Cases of fresh chicken are dripping with ice cold bloody water from the shaved ice inside the boxes. Working on a 110 degree line with a cup or glass of water (not allowed) and getting gigged for it.
The potwasher has not put, or not put enough, or has put too much sanitizer into the final rinse sink. He also probably doesn't speak any English, just to make it a bit more challenging.

My point is, even a well organized and clean kitchen passes in and out of numerous violations on a day to day, and even minute to minute basis. The health inspectors, by and large are good folks, have a heart, and actually try and help educate as they go about doing their jobs. They are willing to overlook certain violations if they belive you to be serious in trying to run a clean kitchen. There is also the exception to this, but that is another story.

But what really burns them up, however is when they come back six months later for your next routine inspection, and you haven't addressed the four or five violations they told you to take care of last time. That's when they start with the five point violations, and the five day operating permits with a reinspection, or shutting you down even.

Evil,

Thank you, as always, for the perspective of the working trenches.

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

For what it's worth, they're open now. I had an excellent-as-ever lunch there yesterday.

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Ed Fisher
my chicago food photos

RIP LTH.

I got carry out from there last night as well, and I was happy to see that every table was full.

I agree with Evil Ronnie that even good places have technical violations.

I worked in a hospital kitchen in Richmond, VA which was not air conditioned at all. On an average summer day, it was 105F+ inside AND the people were assembling 500+ trays in 2 hours. Everyone had water at their station to stay alive. Was it a violation? Sure. The health inspector passed on that one.

I see three issues that are causing a lot of problems in the foodservice industry.

1) First, recent immigrants often come from places that had different health standards. For example, in one Cleveland restaurant, they would pull out a lot of chicken to prepare and they thought nothing of leaving all out as they chopped it into service sized pieces.

2) In my last two assignments in Detroit and St. Louis, most of my utility people COULD NOT READ although they were "high school graduates". We used all Ecolab chemicals and had to train them using a color chart. That worked real fine UNTIL Ecolab changed a couple of the products that caused and the employee did not notice it.

For the record, I was training the people on chemical usage and that's when I realized that they could not read.

3) In Chicago, you have a lot of restaurant management who speak only English. Most employees are non-English speakers. There is often a breakdown in communications.

Having said that, from my experience (outside Chicago), is that MOST health inspectors are very hesitant to close you down unless you have some egregious issues in the operations or are a repeated offender. Therefore, I tend to avoid restaurants with poor records.

I would make one comment now that I am out of the business. I would like to see the McHenry Co. Health Department spend as much time inspecting restaurants in this area that they spend harassing churches and non-profits who wish to have a dinner. I have seen any number of violations at some of the small restaurants that are on-going.

Just a suggestion: For clarity, perhaps someone could edit the subject line of this thread and add "reopened" and the date?

I had dinner at Lao Sze Chuan in Palatinelast night. Wonderful! We enjoyed Three Colors Homestyle, an appetizer of crisp vegetable shreds in chili sauce; cold Szechwan noodles; Tony's Special Three Chili Chicken, battered fried chicken bits with a mildly spicy coating, green onions and chilies; shrimp and tofu with potherbs (mustard greens of some sort, I think); and lamb with baby bai cai, braised lamb with baby bok choy. The last was seasoned with some dark brown, inch-long hard pods with a licorice-like flavor that I haven't seen before and haven't yet had a chance to research.

I also had a lovely dinner there a week or so ago with Cathy2. We ordered too many dry things, I think, but the ginger spinach and, of course, the tea-smoked duck stick in my taste memory.

Lao Sze Chuan aka Szechuan House
847/991-0888
www.laoszechuan.com
Palatine Plaza
321 E. Northwest Highway
(btween Hicks & Buffalo Grove roads)
Palatine IL 60067
11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Su-Th; -9:30 p.m. F-Sa

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

Great suggestion, LAZ; consider it done.