The Pacific Beach restaurant that was the subject last month of a warning from county officials about possible hepatitis A exposure was also preparing for an administrative hearing after repeatedly violating California food laws, according to San Diego County inspection records.

The inspection issues at World Famous are an unfortunate coincidence, restaurant managers say, having nothing to do with the hepatitis A situation. Also, they say, any health issues have been addressed.

Still, the restaurant’s health scores put it in rare company among eateries that have received poor marks from the county.

County records show inspectors gave World Famous a grade of 83 following a Sept. 8 inspection and scheduled an administrative hearing because of a longtime pattern of noncompliance. One week later, the hepatitis case was announced and the restaurant closed, voluntarily and temporarily.


Restaurants rarely receive a grade that low, according to county data. Since 2013, about 450 facilities out of more than 17,000 inspected have received a score below 90, a U-T Watchdog review of county data shows. About 260 received grades of 83 or less.

According to restaurant owner Dieter May, World Famous has been in operation since 1970, with some changes in ownership and name.

The 83 score was the first time the restaurant’s grade dipped below an A since at least 2013. Its score had been averaging 90.4, compared to a county average of about 95.


General Manager Erik Berkley said the Sept. 20 hearing was not punitive and was not solely prompted by the low grade.

“We weren’t in trouble. We weren’t being punished,” Berkley said. “We were brought in and asked certain questions about what they’ve seen over time and what we’re doing or going to do about it.”

After the hearing, the restaurant was required to pay $612 for a re-inspection, which later brought its score back into the 90s.

County officials said the hepatitis site investigation on Sept. 13 was unrelated to the other, more routine, health inspections. In a statement about the health inspections, county officials said, “the facility corrected all major violations.”


According to inspection data from May 2013 to September of this year, county officials have visited World Famous at least 19 times over a four-year period. Nine were routine inspections. Of those nine, seven required re-inspections, ordered by county inspectors based on the number or severity of violations. County officials paid the restaurant two more visits — a site investigation in September and an impromptu call in July 2014 following a complaint, which proved to be unfounded.

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According to county inspection records, the restaurant at 711 Pacific Beach Dr. was cited with seven violations under the California Retail Food Code on Sept. 8, a week before the hepatitis A announcement.

The deli slicer and can opener both had an accumulation of cheese and other food debris.


“Observed employee use metal tongs to retrieve fish from fryer, then knocked the tongs on the inside of a trash can to disperse excess food/oil,” the inspector said. “Tongs were placed in container with other utensils. Multiple points of trash bag observed to be melting.”

The inspector also noted that wiping cloths, which are used to sanitize tables and food stations, were being stored in the aprons and pockets of various employees in the kitchen and bar.

Inspectors noted another five issues on a reinspection three days later, county records show, and found “approximately six adult cockroaches in the downstairs dry storage area” and two more in bait traps on the main floor during a site investigation on Sept. 13.

All culinary employees are currently in or have already completed training courses on the best food-handling practices, Berkley said. The restaurant has also increased its pest-control maintenance and hired professional cleaning crews to clean at the end of each day and completely sanitize restrooms once a week.


“I am terribly disappointed that we had that going on,” Berkley said. “There were bad habits among some of our employees and they have, of course, been corrected.”

Berkley did not comment on the repeated violations that led up to the hearing, as the majority occurred before his employment with the restaurant.

Inspection records show there was accumulated residue and debris on the bar gun nozzles, meat slicer and floors, dust on shelves near the food prep area and unsanitary serving utensils and wiping cloths in May 2013. A re-inspection was set for later that month, but inspectors did not visit the facility until late June. All of the violations were corrected.

A year later, the restaurant was cited for the same violations, in addition to a problem with fruit flies by the bar. Most of the issues were corrected on site. A routine inspection in March 2015 identified food debris on clean knives and improper storage of serving utensils. In October 2015, the facility’s dishwasher was operating without soap and employees were storing dishes from the washer with other clean items.


The outbreak of hepatitis A, a liver infection caused by a virus that is highly contagious, has killed at least 19 people in San Diego County and put more than 350 others in the hospital. As of Tuesday, 507 cases have been identified.

The disease is typically transmitted through contaminated food, which is not the case in San Diego’s outbreak. Health officials say the disease is being transmitted here from feces to mouth, a problem made worse by the region’s growing homeless population with limited access to basic sanitation.

The county’s Health and Human Services Agency reported on Sept. 15 that anyone who dined or drank at World Famous in Pacific Beach on specific days and times may have been exposed to a person with the hepatitis A virus.

County and restaurant officials would not say whether the exposure was linked to an employee or a patron, but the list of exposure times — each eight or nine hours long on given days — suggest it was more likely to be a restaurant worker than a customer.


Berkley said he was notified of the possible exposure prior to the county’s announcement and immediately shut down operations. There was no evidence of hepatitis A contamination in the facility, Berkley said, but a private hazardous materials company was brought in to do a deep cleaning overnight as a precaution.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food handlers can spread hepatitis A, especially when handling uncooked food such as fruits and raw vegetables, but there is no indication that food code violations at the Pacific Beach restaurant led to or worsened the outbreak.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, the incubation period for hepatitis A ranges from 15 to 50 days. County officials declined to release any new information about the potential exposure at World Famous because the incubation window, starting from the dates of exposure in late August and early September, is still open.


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