Walked into a closed coffee shop in Portland 3 days before the health inspection report dropped

I was visiting Portland last month and stopped by a little coffee shop on Belmont that had a sign saying 'closed for deep cleaning.' Thought it was weird because it was 2pm on a Tuesday (peak hours). I peeked through the window and saw them hauling out old espresso machines and scrubbing the walls. Three days later, the health inspection report went viral - they got a 72 and had rodent droppings in the back. I wish I had taken a photo of the sign, because now it feels like a dead giveaway. Has anyone else stumbled into a place right before it got exposed?

3 comments

3 Comments

rodriguez.mia7h ago

@nina_hall48 I get where you're coming from but honestly I think people read way too much into "deep cleaning" signs. Restaurants are grimy places most of the time. Even the clean looking ones have stuff going on behind the scenes. I used to work at a bagel shop that would shut down for "deep cleaning" every quarter and it was exactly that, just scrubbing the vents and degreasing the hood. No health scares. No secret outbreaks. Just a messy job nobody wants to do while customers are around. If anything the public shaming of places that try to fix problems before they get caught probably makes other owners less likely to do it.

williamw7510h ago

Did they actually admit it was a health issue or just say "deep cleaning"? Thats the part that gets me, trying to play it off like its just routine maintenance.

nina_hall489h ago

Yeah @williamw75 you're right about that. I used to roll my eyes at people complaining about this kind of thing, figured it was just standard procedure. But after seeing how they handled the whole thing at my local grocery chain last month, it changed my mind completely. They shut down for "deep cleaning" two days in a row and then a week later three employees tested positive for something they wouldn't name. Made me realize the "routine maintenance" line is usually just a cover.