Thuy Cafe In Florida Accused of Catching Rats From The Dumpster, Cooking And Serving Them To Clients
A complaint filed with the state alleges a St. Pete Vietnamese restaurant was cooking up rats in their kitchen.
The anonymous complaint was filed in late May against Thuy Cafe on 34th Street North in St. Petersburg. It states employees were capturing rats from the roof and garbage dumpster and cleaning the rodents before cooking them in a tin shack behind the business.
10 News stopped in trying to get answers about what was going on in the kitchen. An employee told us no one was available to answer our questions.
Cooking up rats is apparently common on Vietnamese street corners, but is less commonly accepted here in the U.S.
Customers we talked to found the complaint hard to believe and consider the restaurant very clean. But a June 4th state inspection paints a different picture with more than 10 critical violations. Among the problems were temperature violations; food and equipment stored on the floor; food stored in Home Depot paint buckets; and rodent droppings around the water heater and on top of the freezer.
On our visit, we found no evidence of rats being prepared, but during a glimpse inside that tin shack out back we spotted what appeared to be food on the floor uncovered, exposed to the elements.
Loyal customers say despite the problems they’ll continue going back.
The restaurant owner responded with this via the Restaurant’s Facebook Page:
Dear Thuy Café customers!
I was stunned, appalled and outraged this morning when one of my loyal customers called me and told me that there was a news segment broadcast on Channel 10 News alleging that Thuy’s was capturing and cooking RATS at our café!
This allegation, which apparently came from some “anonymous source” (which I believe was prompted by jealousy) was not supported by any evidence whatsoever, is totally untrue, utterly false, and blatantly defamatory.
THUY CAFÉ HAS NEVER DONE, AND WOULD NEVER DO, ANY SUCH THING!
Regarding the Channel 10 News segment itself, if any of you saw it, there was a scene in the video which showed rats being killed and cooked, from which one could infer that the scene was taken here at our restaurant. Only the voiceover briefly mentioned that it was referring to the streetcorners in Vietnam – - not even to this country, let alone our restaurant! This was misleading, outrageous and patently unjustified and unfair.
We always have run a clean, friendly restaurant to provide excellent service to all of our customers, and we intend to do so for a long time to come!
Thank you for your continued loyal patronage, and if I can answer any questions or concerns you may have, please contact me at (727) 521-6406 or email: thuy_c_le@yahoo.com
Sincerely and Respectfully,
Thuy
Source: Facebook.com , http://www.wtsp.com
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