Davie pizzeria whose owner lashed out about TV inspection report in January was ordered shut again

A Davie pizzeria whose owner reacted on camera to a failed restaurant inspection in January was ordered shut again last week.

In video footage, the restaurateur of Esposito’s Pizza Bar & Restaurant was seen hurling insults (“Your mother has roaches!”) at a local TV reporter and pressing his forehead against a news camera after being asked about cockroaches cited in a state report. This time, issues included two live roaches, “10-20 live flies” and “temperature abuse” of meatballs and sausage.

“I’m a clean fanatic,” Esposito’s owner, Joe Lay, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Monday night. “[The inspector] hit me with fruit flies. She was in the kitchen for an hour and saw a roach crawling up to the ceiling. I would never give anyone food with bugs in it.”

Lay said an inspector happened to show up on the morning that a walk-in refrigerator coil froze, causing his cooked meatball and sausage to start thawing. He also said a repairman fixed the refrigerator shortly after the inspector left.

Three weeks after the first shutdown, Lay apologized to Esposito’s diners about his pest control woes in a Feb. 14 Facebook post to followers. “We have made adjustments, and this will never happen again as it has never happened in the past 20 years.”

Now, after his third state shutdown in two months, Lay insists his food remains safe and that his family and friends dine at the restaurant all the time.

“To shut me down again? I already got hit at the knees. It’s been 18 years that I’m open. Who knows what’s going to happen to me now?” Lay said.

Esposito’s joins Hachi in Lake Worth Beach and Beehive Kitchen in Fort Lauderdale, all temporarily forced to close last week by the state.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel typically highlights restaurant inspections conducted by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Broward and Palm Beach counties. We cull through inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for “high-priority violations,” such as improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches.

[ FULL DATABASE: See Florida restaurant inspection reports from the last 30 days ]

Sun Sentinel readers may browse full Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade county reports through our state inspection map, updated weekly (usually Mondays) with fresh data pulled from the Florida DBPR website.

Any restaurant that fails a state inspection must stay closed until it passes a follow-up. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR here. (But please don’t contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesn’t inspect restaurants.

809 Lake Ave.

Ordered shut: March 30; reopened March 31

Why: 18 violations (four high-priority), including “five live roaches in gasket of large white freezer chest in kitchen,” as well as an unspecified number of “live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, food storage area and/or bar area.”

The state also discovered five dead flies in a “container storing Styrofoam cups and lids,” and 36 dead roaches on kitchen floor, including “under four stainless-steel freezers” and “under dish machine.” The affected areas were sanitized. Other issues cited: “freezer chest lid torn,” kitchen “floor soiled/has accumulation of debris,” “holes in wall at kitchen entry” and “wall tiles behind cook line unclean.”

During the next-day inspection, the downtown restaurant had one high-priority and one basic violation and was cleared to reopen.

6312 N. Andrews Ave.

Ordered shut: March 28; reopened March 29

Why: 17 violations (five high-priority), including about 27 flies spotted swarming “over linen basket” (which the operator moved outside), “landing on can opener blade, mixer and [food processor]” and flying around a chemical storage shelf.

The report also noted several sanitation issues, including employee items on a prep table (water bottle, cellphone and ear buds). One employee was seen wearing their personal watch “while preparing food.” The state also found “cases of sweet potatoes being stored on the floor” and a “soiled wiping cloth on prep table.”

The state red-flagged two high-priority and one intermediate violation during its March 29 inspection, but cleared the eatery to reopen.

2221 S. University Drive

Ordered shut: March 27; reopened March 28

Why: 12 violations (five high-priority), including two “live roaches crawling on wall by dry storage area with sealed canned goods,” along with “10-20 live flies in dry storage isolated in corner next to back door, flying around sealed canned goods.” The operator later sanitized the dry storage area’s shelves and walls.

The restaurant was ordered stop selling and trash its cooked sausage and cooked meatballs “due to temperature abuse.” An inspector also “advised operator discard” its raw lobster, french fries and beef that were stored next to each other in a reach-in freezer, “due to allergen reasons.”

Finally, the state saw an employee drinking from an “unenclosed beverage container” in a clean dishware area, nothing that “the container does not have a dispensing mechanism to prevent hand contact with lip contact area of drink container.”

The pizzeria was allowed to reopen the next day without a single new incident. The restaurant was previously ordered shut on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 for similar issues with roaches and flies.