One of Toledo's top-flight steakhouses says it's working to resolve several dozen violations levied recently by the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department.
The Aug. 3 inspection of Mancy's Steakhouse at 953 Phillips Ave. flagged 20 critical violations and 32 non-critical violations. Violations included dirty equipment and surfaces, foods without proper date marks, inadequate temperature control of beef stock, and the presence of "live insects, rodents, and other pests" including flies and cockroaches.
"Many of the violations were fixed while the health inspector and trainee were onsite," said Gus Mancy, who runs the restaurant with his cousin Mike Mancy. Others were resolved within several hours, he said, while some fixes will take more time, such as creating new storage areas in the kitchen and redoing a dual-purpose room that includes a cooler and other supplies.
The upscale eatery is one of Toledo's most famous and it celebrated a century in business last year.
An Aug. 23 re-inspection report provided by the Health Department shows while a number of violations had been resolved, health officials still had a range of food-safety and cleanliness concerns.
A number of repairs must be made to the structure itself, it said, two additional cockroaches were noted, and one portion of the business was "still having an issue with flies."
It said the restaurant was to keep the health inspector up to date on how it was fixing the ongoing violations, including requested roof repairs, ceiling and wall repairs, and pest control treatment.
Health officials had also dinged Mancy's for six critical violations and 17 non-critical violations during a January inspection. Concerns included a server that touched ready-to-eat foods with bare hands, dirty food-processor parts, a dirty ice machine, and coolers that did not maintain proper temperature.
Prior to that, the restaurant's two kitchen facilities had only rarely received critical violations dating back to 2014, Health Department records show. According to the department, critical violations could lead to food contamination or illness if not corrected, while non-critical violations are not directly tied to foodborne illness.
In an interview, Mr. Mancy noted the restaurant has been exceedingly busy and, like many restaurants, has dealt with staffing shortages over the last two years. He said the restaurant is "training people every day" and is now back to being fully staffed, but added staffing was not an excuse.
"This report is not indicative of how we run our kitchen or our entire operation," Mr. Mancy said.
He said Mancy's contracts with Ecolab, a company that offers pest control, and other maintenance and cleaning services. It provides monthly inspection reports that had not previously turned up many of the issues cited by Health Department inspectors, he said.
"We've been navigating a challenging environment for the last couple years, we're working our tails off," Mr. Mancy said. "We consider it a partnership [with the Health Department], we learn from them. Every inspector is different."
He added: "We take pride in serving some of the best food in Toledo, in a clean and safe environment for all."
First Published September 6, 2022, 9:37 p.m.
