Tables and chairs were empty on Tuesday night at Habanero’s Mexican grill after being shut down for major health violations.
Restaurant owner Christian Castaneda did not want to be on camera but he gave 23ABC a tour of the business Tuesday night after being closed down.
The health department closed Habanero's for 10 violations including rat droppings and live roaches. In a written statement, Castaneda said most of the work needed was cosmetic and that their priority is people’s safety.
The restaurant has seven days to meet the health department’s standards or risk being shut down permanently.
Customers, unaware of the closure, showed up for dinner only to be turned away.
Meanwhile Mimi’s Cafe down the street reopened their doors Tuesday afternoon after being shut down for a week.
Some customers said they think these closures are wakeup calls for the restaurants. Others say they wouldn’t give these restaurants another try.
Mimi’s Café full Statement: "This afternoon we felt confident to re-open Bakersfield Mimi’s Café for regular business. I want to reiterate that the health and safety of our Guests is our top priority, and we worked with the health department to ensure we are exceeding the standards of the community prior to re-opening. We brought in a new manager to lead Bakersfield who will continue to ensure zero tolerance for non-adherence to our high standards. He has an excellent track record of health inspections as well as independent inspections from Steritech, our third party health and safety inspector. We also enlisted a third party company to retrain our associates on food safety, and we made equipment repairs. We want to thank the Kern County Health Department for their support and guidance through the re-training and re-opening." -Stuart Gee, EVP and COO.
Habanero’s full Statement: "We would like to thank our local news for allowing our local business to give our statement, and allowing us to clear any questions or concern local consumer might have. Our priority has been and always will be the people’s safety. Having experience in the restaurant and hospitality industry for over 20 years we are confident to state that our restaurant is clean, and maintained above standards. Our staff has always made sure our food meets proper temperatures and safe handling standards. Most of the work being made is cosmetic, and we are working with Health Department in approaching any concerns they have before we reopen. As we stated before our priority will always be the people, so we invite anyone in our community once we reopen to see for themselves. Kitchen tours will be available after reopening. We will work hard to stay a respected establishment in our local community. Thank you for your support."- Christian Castaneda, Owner
