Uptown Cafe Investigation

Christian Allen, News 20 at Five

The Midtown Uptown Cafe and Catering is a well-known Tallahassee restaurant, at the intersection of Magnolia Drive and Miccosukee Road.

"I come down often when I have a break to buy some ice tea or lunch. Their great business partners with us. Fred one of the owners treats us very, very well. They make great food, you know it's like you make it fresh at home and it always has a great taste. So that's why we keep coming back," said customer Pam Stephens.

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation inspects nearly a million businesses throughout the state of Florida. An inspect performed at the Midtown Uptown Cafe on February 28th of this year recorded 13 violations, 9 of which were critical.

None were an immediate threat to the public according to state officials.

One critical violation was the presence of 30 hard rodent droppings that were found in the cabinet underneath the prep table. This is a repeat violation. Rodent droppings were also noted in a report from November 15th of last year.

Other violations have to do with food temperatures and improper notifications of ready-to-eat food marked with no date. We wanted to speak with the restaurant management for their side of the story.

"I'm confused as to why you guys are here right now! I mean yeah, of course we're doing things to fix that. I mean it's a restaurant, we have the doors open because we like the outside. They're going to be attracted to food at any point and time," said manager Nic Tedio.

"If you go and look underneath every piece of furniture and equipment here chances are if you do that, in almost every restaurant you're going to get that," Tedio commented.

Manager Nic Tedio said they were doing everything in their power to correct the violations. Many of which were repeats from the November inspection.

"Again, you have food in the open that's where they're going to go you know. We are doing everything in our ability to fix that, so yes; we are doing everything in our capability to fix that, said Tedio.

To read the full inspection report visit: www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr