This was a letter that came across as even more sincern that it was hand written. IHOP GM did good here.

Good response by the General Manager.

I have to wonder, that if something like cleaning around food prep can occur in front of customers, what might be going on in restaurant kitchens that cannot be seen from the dining area?

#1: Lesson in punctuation.
"After ordering my wife..." sounds pretty funny
"After ordering, my wife..." 0 funny, but makes sense

ANYWAY
It's kind of ridiculous how lazy some restaurants get when it comes to cleaning. It seems like they either never or barely clean, or they try to jam pack it in with cooking food so they can get out of work earlier. Mmmm, ammonia!

I tip my hat to you, IHOP General Manager. I tip my hat to you.

I was at a Panera Bread Co. restaurant recently and witnessed some kid mopping the floor and when he got near a table he would plop the mop up on the table and clean the table with the mop. To me, that is disgusting.

Good response but that was very unsanitary.

A few months ago my son and I stopped in at Church's Chicken in Tucson. Some problem (wiring?) was in the ceiling above the ordering counter. Man was standing on it trying to work in the dark space where some ceiling tiles had been removed.

The store was a mess. Customers line was lengthening.
The man gets off the counter, applied a bandage to a finger.

Then he started handling food.

We walked out. Employees clearly didn't know and did not care what food handling safety means.

Cheers to this couple for bringing the problem to the attention of those who can make changes. Not sure if I'd be going back there, though.

Gotta get me one of those videotaping cell phones;-)

They put pubes where?

@joeblevins: Sincere or not, I would never walk through those doors again. That's disgusting even beyond the "cook just sneezed and kept going" level.

What are those acoustic tiles made out of anyway? There's no way you could "scrub" them without getting tile bits all over the place.

@ninabi:
"Not sure if I'd be going back there, though."

I agree, the restaurant manager probably got reamed and she might hold a grudge.

@Dibbler: I hope you reported this. That kind of makes me want to throw up.

Sounds like a satisfactory resolution - I mean, he even offers to "pop in" more often!

At least he didn't expect you to come back.

I am constantly dumbfounded by the apparent lack of safe food handling skills exhibited by most lower-wage restaurant employees, especially concerning gloves.

They seem to think the gloves are to protect their hands from getting messy, not to keep the food safe.

I've witnessed gloved employees
- smoking (outside) (MAYBE they would change them once inside, but who knows) (Dunkin Donuts)
- shake hands with a bare-handed friend, then go back immediately to food prep (dessert station at Vegas casino)
- washing up counters and other areas with a dirty cleanser-soaked rag, then go to food handling (burrito assembly line)

It's funny, but a call to the various inspection bodies usually results in a VERY quick change in behavior. Nothing like being shut down for a few days (or the threat of it) to make management take employee training seriously. CityofBoston.gov has an online, anonymous restaurant reporting page, and it WORKS.

But _WE_ have to speak up when we see these things. I spoke to managers or inspectors in each of those situations (in the case of the burrito, I asked the employee to change her gloves before making my food).

I'm glad the OP both left AND told the manager. I think he should have ordered his wife to speak with the local Board of Health or Inspectional Services Department too, but one step at a time.

yea, a handwritten letter seems so much impactful...

On the plus side, it was the healthiest thing in the food...

@Diet-Orange-Soda: Compressed fiber-board.

You people are unreasonable. How else are they going to get the syrup off the ceiling?

@Dibbler: Thats actually extremely common with a lot of places.

@Antediluvian: Back home, there's a Quizno's right next to a Gamestop. I would always see the same guy from Quizno's playing the demo Xbox with gloves on. I always questioned if he *ever* took them off.

@brent_w: Yeah.....like your house maybe?

And now I'll never wonder where all the iHops went

Nice that they got a personal, handwritten letter and not some canned response.

@Moosehawk: "Yeah, i'll have the twin black-haired sisters special please."

On a more serious note, that is a gross violation off food handing laws, Ill wager. A quick call to the city or county's health department would easily get bucket loads of citations and fines delivered to IHOP's front doorstep, with the press in tow.

Ben, I'm so sorry the Consumerist doesn't receive more food handling horror stories. May I add my two contributions?

A few year back, at a suburban Chicago Duncan Donuts, the woman behind the counter reached inside her uniform pants to scratch her privates. Nauseating on all levels, including the lack of shame to at least go into the back, out of view of the public.

After her itch was aparently satisfied, she resumed working. No, she did not wash her hands, or put on gloves before continue to make beverage, handle donuts and hand change to customers.

And when I was in college, I was hired by a deli to make 'party trays'. The brunch trays included lox, which was to be rolled into tubes (to look larger). When I dropped a piece of lox on the floor and couldn't locate garbage can, I asked where to throw out the dropped piece. My boss looked at me like I was insane and explained 'we don't throw out lox'.

That's really seriously gross.

Good letter, tho.

At a local Waffle House, when it was time to scrub the ceiling tiles, the guy there was very careful to close/cover all the food bins, and then scrubbed the counter down with a clean rag after he was done.

If you've ever eaten in a Waffle House, you can see why they would need to scrub grease off the ceiling... But they do make some mighty-fine Hash Browns.

SIrWIred

@Diet-Orange-Soda: Ewww.
I think restaurant management in general (primarily, but not exclusively, of the lower-quality joints) doesn't get it. So they don't / can't pass along the idea of safe food handling to the staff. But it's also hard to explain some of these concepts to teens and students working these places, and to get them to care about the customers.

If you can, ask the inspectors where _they_ eat -- it'll be a shorter list than where to avoid.

Please please please tell us WHICH IHOP.

ClayS, the kinds of things that happen in closed kitchens are the reason that I try *hard* to only work in open kitchens. I was once instructed to not bother with the evening cleanup because service had dragged on too long and the owner was paying us to cook, not to clean. This was in the same place that clean rags (essential to both cleanup and hot pan handling) were in such short supply that the dishwasher felt he had to come in on delivery day to steal and hide a dozen (about half of the delivery) every week. He had them hidden everywhere, but he was the only one who didn't either bring in their own or (@#$%ing gross, this) use dirty ones for hot-cloths. Closed kitchens, especially ones with an average bill per customer under $10 terrify me.

Antidiluvian: we call that "Magic Glove" syndrome. For some reason people automatically assume that since the glove keeps their hands clean, they also keep the food clean. Anyone who doesn't teach their employees about cross contamination and proper food handling deserves a lawsuit.

Seriously though, I'd kill for some magic gloves. It'd be nice to go home without a rash from the antibacterial soap (or the eventual bloody eczema).

@Dibbler: Yeah, that would be something you should let a GM know about. They'd have a fit.

Damn I've never got a hand written response before. I've gotten a phone call or two from a district manager though. Once at IHOP had a waitress bring my drinks and it tasted like soap. She went "well no one else's taste like soap" and walked off. Then my girlfriend and I heard laughing and chatter with the word "asshole". She came back and I said check please for just the drinks. She was really pissed then since we had all ready ordered. She brought my receipt out with the food still on it. I whipped out 4 in cash and threw it on the table and just left. This happened at 2 am or so I woke up and went in at 10ish and asked to speak to the manager. Told him her name and what happened and his response was just "okay".
So I called the only other IHOP in town and asked to speak to their manager and got info on how to contact the district manager. He was really helpful, I got three contact numbers and an email. Went home told the story in email and then called and left a voice mail with my name and the fact I left a email complaint. Not even an hour later I got a call from him that he was going to handle it. Offered me a gift card and I declined saying that I didn't want to go back since the manager was a jerk. He told me that I would be able to use it at any IHOP. The card arrived in two days FEDex and it ended up having 50 on it instead of the 25 he told me on the phone.

A few years ago my mom & brother went to IHOP for a quick bite to eat...my brother cut into his eggs with a fork and found a wad of black hair. From then on, we've called it IHOPH: International House of Pancakes and Hair.

Icky time....Dunkin' Donuts, (ever notice that coffee is never mentioned in their name?), in Eastern Massachusetts. Woman working counter sneezes into her bare hand, looks at what she sneezed up into her hand, wipes her hand on the lovely polyester pant suit they wear, and proceeds to put the lid on my coffee cup. Needless to say I refused coffee. Note that I said I refused coffee, never said I would not pay, was just that I didn't want that cup of coffee or anything until counter person washed hands. She freaks out, calls manager over, I try to explain, manager couldn't care about hygiene issue-wants the $1.89. Big line forming behind me, not wanting to hold line up any longer I pay for the cup of tainted coffee and leave it on counter. Have no idea what happened to coffee or if the counter person ever washed hands. Don't really care. Have never set foot in a DD since-over two years now.
Sent an e-mail to the regional office explaining what happened. Received from DD the usual blah-blah letter and some free coupons for coffee and other crap. I sent the coupons back with the explanation that I will never set foot in their stores again and I will be sure to tell my story whenever the opportunity comes up.

That's all.

My local chicago Dunkin Donuts had similar issues the other day.

They had workers in dismantiling their menu board and installing a new one. The menu board is located directly above the open bins that contain all of their donuts, bagels, etc. They covered the bins with lose fitting plastic tarps with large slits in them so that they could reach in to grab the items.

The workers were using power tools, kicking up dust in the air, it was gross. And the tarps were so open that in reality they could not protect the food items from being contaminated. I turned around a left, but was amazed to still see people ordering.

@Antediluvian: "I am constantly dumbfounded by the apparent lack of safe food handling skills exhibited by most lower-wage restaurant employees..."

I'm not.

Ahh, but did they leave a tip?

OK here's my gross story. At a fast food restaurant I once had an employee hold the plastic lid in her mouth while filling my drink cup.

The worst I've seen was at a now-closed KFC. While we watched, a young employee opened the big silver chicken oven and sneezed into it. We left.

Pretty Professional letter they sent, not only are they in violation of health codes but they have never heard of using a computer or at least a typewriter(if those are still around) to create a clearly ledgible letter.
THis all adds up to a big fat LOOSSEERRR {aka IHOP}!!
The OP should have taken video then sent it in to the health dept, this story is sick...

The General Manager is taking this very "seriously"

@Dibbler said: I was at a Panera Bread Co. restaurant recently and witnessed some kid mopping the floor and when he got near a table he would plop the mop up on the table and clean the table with the mop. To me, that is disgusting.

This is NOT acceptable food safety practice. You are supposed to use completely separate sets of cleaning tools for the floor and the table tops. You cannot even bend down to wipe up a spill off the floor with a towel or sponge used to wipe food-prep surfaces.

Here's one of my many gross restaurant stories:

We were in a Wendy's in Allentown, PA when a customer changed her baby's poopy diaper on one of the tables. Slack-jawed employees stood by silently, and after the customer left, no one made any move to even go clean off the table.

I can almost understand the (low-level, teenage) employees not necessarily wanting to confront the customer -- although I sure as hell would have -- but it would have made the rest of us feel a whole lot more comfortable to see them falling all over themselves to erect the hazmat barriers -- or at least deploy the spray bottle and rag.

Needless to say, last trip to that Wendy's, and that was in about 1991.

I have had personal experience in dealing with IHOP cust. service after using Ihop's website complaint form with a complaint about a bad experience at one Ihop I had frequented (where I was given grief at using a coupon by some lower management shift worker). Recieved a personal phone call from said cust.serv. rep & was assured that I was correct & that it would NEVER happen again. Was very impressed with the response. And never had a problem thereafter.

As for the maint guy cleaning the ceiling tiles in the article.... I wonder if this was one of those Ihops that was open 24 hours? Still they should have done this when there was a definate lull in business & with dropclothes & other precautions in place. Sounds nasty!

@FangDoc:
Why didn't you say anything to her while you were there?
When I'm not at my crappy retail job, I feel way more empowered as a citizen to complain about other people.
Ugh, retail is awful. You're supposed to grin and bear every stinking thing that's said and/or thrown at you. That's why I'm moving out of it.

Handwritten?!?! I'm dumbfounded!

But I fear the GM will be fired for admitting wrongdoing and not using some corporate-approved double-speak official response.

@arch05: Hey, why criticize iHop for trying the to increase everyones daily intake of fiber!? They're just looking out for our health.

The GM of the restaurant should be angry - if the reader had taken pictures and taken the story to the right authorities in their city/state, that IHOP would have been shut down faster than you think.

Having worked in food, I'd be bending over backwards to make sure that the customer was happy.

And the reason the letter is handwritten is because there's probably no computer or printer for the manager to use at that restaurant...

Am I the only one bothered by the fact that the OP chose IHOP for his BIRTHDAY????

I doubt you would really want to know...sometimes ignorance is bliss@ClayS: