[URBAN NOTE] "Lights Out for the Green Room?"

[rfmcdonald]

I can't say that I'm surprised. While I've nothing but good memories of the Green Room, I also have never eaten anything there after the first time I went.

On September 22, Toronto Public Health shut the Green Room down. For the fourth time in two years, the popular Annex hangout had failed its health inspection—two times more than any of the sixteen thousand other restaurants, bars, and "premises" that fall under Toronto Public Health's purview. It hasn't reopened since: a sign tucked in the alleyway entrance says that "Green Room is temporarily closed for renovation," and a manager says they'll be back on October 15. But they might not, ever. What's more, the owner (current or former, depending on who you ask) is nowhere to be found—not at the Green Room, and not at any of the other downtown restaurants thought to be associated with him. For now, he's a ghost, and soon, his restaurant might be too.

Since December 23, 2008, the Green Room has amassed no fewer than eighty-six cited health infractions from Toronto Public Health's Food Safety Program, all collected in their DineSafe Establishment Inspection Report. Of that staggering number, fifteen infractions are in the "critical" category, the most severe and serious; these cover things like "fail[ing] to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated" (in the Green Room's case, twice), "fail[ing] to prevent a rodent infestation" (also twice), and "fail[ing] to wash hands when required" (once). The City of Toronto has taken legal action against the Green Room several times for those violations: the restaurant's fines since the beginning of 2009 now rest at $6500, a total that's likely to rise as a result of the September 22 inspection, which resulted in seven court summonses.

Over the last two years, the Green Room's infractions have netted the restaurant three Conditional Passes (a sort of probation, which sees the restaurant re-inspected shortly thereafter) and four Closed notices by order of Toronto Public Health. One particularly bad four-day stretch, from February 3 to 6 in 2009, saw the Green Room receive a Conditional Pass, fail its subsequent inspection two days later and be forced to close for "fail[ing] to prevent gross unsanitary conditions," and then, a day after that, while they were closed, fail another follow-up inspection, be issued another Closed notice, and be cited for even more infractions—including one for failing to properly display their food safety inspection notice from the day before.