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V Spot Actually Shuttered by DOH, With 107 Violation Points
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 11:18AM 
Many thanks to an eagle-eyed commenter for noticing that the reason behind the V Spot Cafe's recent closure for "renovations" is, in fact, an absolutely miserable score from their most recent health inspection.
Yes, even though a restaurant doesn't serve meat, that doesn't mean that kitchen conditions can't be deplorable. The vegan restaurant, on Fifth Avenue between Degraw and Douglass, was shut down by the Depatrment of Health on January 10th after racking up a horrifying 107 violation points. Let's hope that those "renovations" include a complete overhaul of their kitchen.
Click through for all the grisly details.
Sanitary Violations
1) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F.
2) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.
3) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.
4) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.
5) Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding.
6) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility's food and/or non-food areas.
7) Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.
8) Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared.
9) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
10) Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
11) Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
12) Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.
13) Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist.
14) Food contact surface not properly maintained.
DOH Closures in Food, Storefronts
Reader Comments (22)
Oh that is gross.
You, and your readers, can easily find out how their favorite (or shuttered) restaurants fared on their most recent DOH inspections at:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/rii/index.shtml
You'd be surprised at what inspectors find at even the classiest, cleanest places. Getting 107 points is, indeed, deplorable. But, the border between an "A" and a "B" is very porous, indeed.
107 points. Holy wow.
Ew, so glad I never ate there.
Congratulations on your decision to screen comments. A higher level of civility will enhance your site.
This is really unconscionable. I do wonder through what is the threshold for being called out so publicly on a blog for DOH problems. I think this clearly merits inclusion but considering how many restaurants in the Slope have significant violation points I do wonder the fairness involved in calling out, say 7th Ave Doughnuts for theirr transgressions but not calling out all the other similarly situatedestablishments.
Jbob: Just wondering why you are so quick to defend places with 107 violation points? You grew very defensive in the piece about 7th Ave. Donuts with another commenter here, and I fail to see why anyone should whitewash why these restaurants are closing and how they try to hide the truth from potential customers by claiming "renovations" forced them to close. Isn't disseminating information about such conditions a primary purpose of media outlets?
Jbob: Welcome to the blog world. It ain't investigative journalism. It's just an individual exercising his or her right to write anything he or she wants. In this case, it was a necessary clarification of a prior report that a restaurant had shuttered. An observant reader reported that the closing was not, indeed, for cosmetic reasons. There are tons of food and restaurant blogs out there doing the same kind of reportage, many with a nastier tone. In this case, heresparkslope seems to have as its mission reporting on every business, including restaurants, that opens and closes within the confines of our fine neighborhood.
As for this being a public call-out, I seriously doubt whether it qualifies.
Jbob, they got 'called out" so to speak because they have actually been closed down by the DOH!! es, i am sure there are plenty of restaurants with high points, but, if they don't get closed down, they are not reported. When place closes their doors and says they are 'renovating", it was reported. But, then, it was found out that wasn't the total truth, so, the correction was reported. I don't see why this bothers you so much. This is a Park Slope blog and this is a Park Slope restaurant closed by the DOH. Do you own stock in this place or something?
Things that are public record are fair game. While I completely understand WHY a restaurant owner would want to place their own spin on things like this, it's not wrong for others to fill in the blanks for everyone else.
That being said, everyone deserves a second chance to get their things straight. I'm not a huge fan in the least, but they've been pretty successful of getting their pre-packaged stuff in a lot of places, and I'd want to root for them to get their act together. Sure.
So the screening of comments means there won't be another post later, attributed to this screenname, saying "Good! I hate this place!" That'd be awesome.
I never liked that place....happy to see it go!
If you ever look at Fucked in Park Slope, Jbob makes weird, rude and usually uneducated comments ALL THE TIME. Please pay him no attention.
Screening of comments worked for about ten minutes, now disabled.
Thus, comments like Micks two comments, above.
Also never liked that place, Always smelled like crap.
those liars! They've had a sign up for the past few weeks that says they're remodeling, when they just remodeled that place last year! Never going there again!
I will never expect a restaurant to put up a signing saying "Closed due to mice and filth flies. See ya soon!" I get the renovations sign. Fix what you have to fix and work on getting people to see your restaurant as something other than a stinkhole. It can be succesfully done.
Thanks for all the compliments! I beleive I did say that calling out V Spot was warranted if you read what I wrote. They should be called out for such gross dereliction of responsibilities to the public that eats in their restaurant.
What I question is the merit of randomly posting on restaurants more generally for their violation points without mentioning all the other restaurants with similar violations.
The other places didn't CLOSE and this blog discusses things that open and close.
No reason to go around picking out restaurants with violations as that is not the purpose of this blog.
You still have not told us how much stake you own in this place because it makes no sense why you'd have a problem with this blog discussing the closure of a place (As it does it with all closings in the neighborhood).
I heard jbob is a silent partner in the v-spot business.
Prospectpark. Hello? I dont have any problem with discussing V spots closure-Ive now said that twice. I could care less about V spot.
I’m the guy who looked up the DOH inspection records and posted that in the original thread. To whoever runs the blog, seriously you should make checking the DOH site the very first step you do before you post anything about a food place closing down.
But to people who are downplaying this, you are on crack. 107 violation points is insane. Most places that get shut down for violations score from 29 to 50 points. To get 107 points is past belief. So hyping that fact is no exaggeration. That is nasty to say the least.
I really hope no one became deathly ill from this place.