A slew of repeated sanitation and health issues forced the once-popular Burger Continental to permanently shut its doors this spring, marking a new era of food safety enforcement in Pasadena.

Before the Mediterranean-American fusion restaurant’s public health permit was revoked March 19, no other Pasadena restaurant had ever lost its permit, according to city officials.

“Inspection after inspection we didn’t see consistent compliance,” said Liza Frias, former manager of Pasadena’s Environmental Health Division. “We provided them with opportunities. Ultimately, they weren’t able to manage it.”

The revocation of Burger Continental’s permit came about eight months after the city implemented a more robust and transparent retail food-grading system developed in response to the temporary closure of the restaurant in August 2013 and the revelation that health officials were behind on inspections.

•Documents: Burger Continental inspection reports

On July 1, 2014, environmental health officials began posting public placards with the words “Pass,” “Conditional Pass” or “Closed” to describe the current standing of food facilities’ compliance with the California Retail Food Code. The city also launched an online database with the results of inspections, inspectors’ observation, inspection history and information about recent closures.

The placards are posted in the front window of establishments and include the score out of 100 that the restaurant received during the inspection, along with a QR code that connects to the city’s inspection database.

A “Pass” is issued if no major violations exist whereas a “Conditional Pass” is posted if inspectors determine a major violation or a combination of major and minor violations warrant a re-inspection to ensure compliance.

A “Closed” sign is posted when the facility’s permit is suspended for an imminent health hazard, non-compliance with standards or if the facility is operating without a permit.

“You want to be able to provide the public with as much information,” said Frias, who was hired to oversee food facility inspections in 2013 after spending 15 years with the county’s health department and 10 years in food safety for the private sector. “The enhancements really spoke to that.”

Frias said Pasadena considered modeling its program after Los Angeles County’s letter-grading system, which allows too many facilities to operate with major health threats and misleads the public about actual operating conditions in the kitchen, but restaurant operators wanted something different.

Prompted by a Los Angeles News Group review of 21 months of inspection data from the county’s Department of Public Health, county officials are considering changes to its 17-year-old system, and a report to the county Board of Supervisors on the system’s problems and potential fixes is due next week.

Prior to implementing the new system, Pasadena posted a “Pass” or “Fail” sign with no score in facilities’ windows. “We really want to encourage people to consistently improve if they’re not at a ‘Pass,’” she said, noting that while the county allows restaurants to operate with a B or a C — instead of an A, the top grade — Pasadena’s system is built to get all operators to a “Pass” placard.

In order to go from a “Conditional Pass” to a “Pass,” restaurants need to score at least 95 points out of 100 possible on the re-inspection. Additional re-inspections are conducted if the threshold is not met.

“They want to comply. They want to do what’s right, but we also have to give them incentive on how to accomplish that,” she said.

Still, not all operators make the necessary corrections to comply.

Inspection reports spanning Burger Continental’s final year and half in business paint a picture of a deteriorating restaurant on its last legs.

Owned by the Hindoyan family since 1969, the restaurant was a popular dining spot that catered everything from City Hall events to Democratic Party fundraisers, health department get-togethers and jury trial lunches.

The owners, who declined to be interviewed for this report, even fed lunch to O.J. Simpson jurors in both criminal and civil trials, according to published reports.

But in recent years, city officials and residents noticed a decline in the facility’s sanitation.

“Their business was down and there was substantial reinvestment required in infrastructure,” said Mayor Terry Tornek, who lives near the establishment.

The reports show health inspectors consistently observed refrigeration and plumbing problems, as well as dirty and crumbling floors, walls and ceilings. Dead and live cockroaches were discovered on numerous occasions.

“These restaurants after awhile they require very significant capital investments,” Tornek said. “Some of it related to refrigeration, and that’s expensive stuff.”

After the highly publicized 2013 closure, which lasted two weeks, Burger Continental’s permit was suspended again about a year later on Sept. 15 when an inspector investigated a customer complaint alleging “unsanitary conditions throughout the facility.”

On that day, the inspector discovered two major code violations: food being held at improper temperatures and numerous cockroaches at various life stages throughout the kitchen.

During a re-inspection three days later, live and dead cockroaches remained in the kitchen area, below food preparation tables and inside an out-of-service cooler.

A second follow-up inspection on Sept. 22 revealed more dead cockroaches, but once those were cleaned up the facility reopened.

During a routine inspection March 17, a city environmental health official found raw meat stored at unsafe temperatures, buffet items being served at the wrong temperature, ice intended for beverages being used to cool steel equipment, along with dead and live cockroaches, city documents show.

Two days later, the health department revoked Burger Continental’s permit.

“I miss it,” Tornek said. “It was an institution and they had a lot of long-term customers who I’m sure will miss it.”