Health Inspectors Look Into Restaurant Bug

Old Town Mexican Caf in Old Orcutt has never failed an inspection in the past according to the Santa Barbara County Environmental Health Services Department.

On Saturday some diners spotted bugs at the restaurant. “We saw one at our dining area and another in front of the door,” Rplando Perez said. Perez was dining at the restaurant for the first itime. Several others turned to Facebook to voice their concerns.

“I was just eating and one of the kids noticed a cockroach coming out of the wall and I smashed it and showed the chefs and they told us about the infestation,” Perez said.

The county’s health agency inspected the restaurant and found several dead roaches and at least 3 lives ones. The community health supervisor, Kathy Cardiel said problems like this, especially in rural areas can happen suddenly.

Cardiel said the inspector ruled the restaurant safe to eat, but they will continue to monitor the pest.

Comment from the owner, Abby Salazar: ” We had an incident that occurred on Saturday July 19th that was brought to our attention, our customer’s safety is our number one priority and we are doing everything we can in our power to handle this situation. We have already contacted our pest control service that comes out monthly to address the situation and get it resolved. We have determined that the problem is coming in on boxes from one of our vendors and we are no longer using the vendor. The health department came out today and we were inspected and we are handling everything in accordance to health regulations. The health inspector ruled as safe to be open to the public. The public’s safety is not in jeopardy. I feel this isolated occurrence is being blown out of portion by an unhappy customer.”