Would you like fruit flies with that?

Over the past six months, popular Ann Arbor restaurants and bars have received health code violations for dirty cutlery, food cooked at improper temperatures and the presence of fruit flies.

But in interviews over the summer with The Michigan Daily, local restaurant managers and owners of establishments with violations said that these problems have been corrected and their restaurants comply with all health codes. A few owners permitted the Daily to tour their cooking areas in an effort to prove that changes had been implemented.

Every restaurant in Ann Arbor that is open year-round has unannounced inspections twice a year by the Washtenaw County Environmental Health Division. Inspection results are a matter of public record on the Washtenaw County Environmental Health Department’s website and are divided into critical and non-critical categories according to the Michigan Food Law.

There are eight sanitarians who inspect restaurants, as well as day care centers and swimming pools across Washtenaw County. From Jan. 1 to June 30 there were 1,304 critical violations and 4,473 non-critical violations in the county, according to Kristen Schweighoefer, an environmental health supervisor for Washtenaw County.

This summer, the Daily looked into how some student hot spots like Sava’s State Street Café, New York Pizza Depot, Raja Rani and Bar Louie held up to Washtenaw County health inspection reports.

Sava's kitchen temperature hotter than usual

In an exclusive tour given to the Daily, Sava Lelcaj, owner of Sava’s, addressed her restaurant’s previous critical violations. The restaurant received several counts of food maintained at improper temperatures, unclean food contact surfaces and improper labeling of some ready-to-eat foods during a June 9 inspection.

Lelcaj said the temperature of the food in the preparatory areas was higher than usual because the inspection took place on a 90-degree day during lunch hour, when heat from outside comes in through open doors. The food bins containing the ingredients need to stay open during the lunch period due to the increased number of customers, Lelcaj said.

Schweighoefer wrote in an e-mail interview that the weather should not affect standard food temperatures.

“The outside temperature should not have any bearing on a restaurant’s ability to keep its facility clean or to follow the requirements of the food code,” Schweighoefer wrote.

During the June inspection, Sava’s received a non-critical violation for fruit flies that were present in the upstairs bar and around the soiled linen area downstairs, where tablecloths are kept before being sent out to be laundered.

Lelcaj said the flies are naturally attracted to the fresh fruit used in the juicing area and the liquor in the bottles of alcohol. Though the fruit is replenished throughout the day and cylindrical cups are placed over the alcohol at night to keep away insects, the flies are still present during the summer, Lelcaj said.

Since the inspection, used alcohol bottles are also now washed out before they are placed in the basement to be recycled, Lelcaj said.

In the health inspection report, the health inspector instructed the restaurant to keep its side and front doors closed to prevent the entry of potential pests. However, the side doors were open at the time of the Daily’s tour.

Lelcaj said after the June inspection, the restaurant tried to keep the doors closed, but it became hazardous for servers walking to the patio while holding trays of food. Therefore, Lelcaj said she chose to keep the doors open until a better solution can be implemented.

Though Lelcaj said she recognizes health inspectors have an important role, she said their suggestions are often hard to follow, like in the case of the doors.