Brew HaHa in downtown Wilmington closed Thanksgiving week for rodent droppings

Meredith Newman | Delaware News Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Here's how restaurant inspections work Restaurants in Delaware are inspected about every six months, according to the Office of Food Protection. Here's what inspectors look for.

Correction: A version of this story incorrectly stated what the state required in order for the business to reopen and it incorrectly stated that Brew HaHa had hired a pest control company.

The Brew HaHa in the PNC building in downtown Wilmington was temporarily closed by the health department during the week of Thanksgiving after a state official found rodent droppings on counters and under equipment.

The Division of Public Health ordered the popular Delaware coffee shop, at 222 Delaware Ave., to close on Nov. 26 due to a rodent infestation, according to the inspection report. The coffee shop was allowed to reopen the next day.

Jillian Willis, director of operations, wrote in an email that the coffee shop has "deep-cleaned" the eatery and sanitized all equipment. It also contacted its pest company, which regularly performs bi-weekly inspections, to "treat the café again and seal off any small entries he could find in the café."

Since the inspection, Brew HaHa! has "taken even stronger measures" in monitoring.

"We take the cleanliness of our cafes with the utmost seriousness, and invest heavily in systems and monitoring to keep our cafes as clean as humanly possible," Willis wrote in an email.

During the routine inspection, the official saw droppings on the front counter, behind and under equipment, in the dry storage space and in between the freezer and refrigerator, according to the report.

BEHIND OUR REPORTING Why we're doing this story

After the closings of the Burger King on Concord Pike and Waffle House in Smyrna in June 2018, The News Journal/Delaware Online learned the health department was not making restaurant inspections easily available to the public at the time. This led to The News Journal asking the Division of Public Health for this information on a regular basis, in order to inform readers about the conditions of the restaurants in their community. How we're doing this story

At the start of every week, News Journal reporters request food establishment cease and desists reports and inspections from the Division of Public Health. In October 2019, The News Journal created an online database for readers to view those inspection reports and cease and desists from the state health department. Readers can search the database by the food establishment's name or address, city, date, descriptive words or type of business — such as a restaurant, convenience store or grocery store. This is updated regularly. Our approach to covering this topic

We will continue to request restaurant inspections every week in the coming year. If you have ideas on how we can improve upon our coverage, please contact reporters Meredith Newman mnewman@delawareonline.com or Patricia Talorico at ptalorico@delawareonline.com.

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The business was ordered to have its pest service company perform a treatment. The cafe also needed to clean and sanitize all the contact surfaces and all the areas where droppings were present, the inspector wrote in the report.

Sixty-nine Delaware food establishments have been ordered closed by the state since the start of 2019.

Did your local food establishments receive cease and desists from the state health department? Search restaurant and food establishment inspection reports »

The News Journal has created an online database for readers to view those inspection reports because the state has again delayed its own. More than 120 food establishments have been ordered to close by the state's health department since 2017.

Customers who want to anonymously report unsanitary conditions at Delaware food establishments and restaurants can call a hotline at 302-744-4736. Inspectors follow up on complaints.

Contact Meredith Newman at (302) 324-2386 or mnewman@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @MereNewman.

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