In recent months two popular Ann Arbor restaurants have abruptly closed down surrounded by questions concerning questionable health records.
Not Another Cafe, which was located on South University, and Salad Days, on State Street were both newcomers to the Ann Arbor business scene and were popular among students at the University. Their discreet disappearance came not long after the release of disturbing county health inspection reports.
Inspections were conducted by the Washtenaw County Environmental Health Division in June and August for NAC and Salad Days, respectively. According to the reports, NAC scored a 73 out of 100 and Salad Days did worse with a score of 70.
Although sources at the county Environmental Health Division would not comment on the specific cases, Dave Wilson, program coordinator, did explain the rating system.
"The state code sets a rating of 70 as passing," Wilson said.
"There's 44 different violations. Each of those is rated one to five points depending on how critical the violation is. We start out with 100 points and as we mark violations we subtract the weight of the violation off that score."
NAC was found to have 13 violations, of which three were of a four or five point magnitude. The report cited violations including the "kitchen ceiling with leak into bucket on floor," and the consumption of food and drink by staff while on duty, which created "the opportunity to contaminate hands with disease." Other serious breaches included food being kept at an improper temperature and a side service door held open with a brick.
Salad Days committed three, four or five point infractions, out of a total of 20. In addition to also being found guilty of food being stored at improper temperatures, Salad Days was charged with violations including "improper storage of hazardous products ..." and "no or ineffective concentration of chemical sanitizer found provided ... ."
At the time of the inspections, NAC was licensed to Scott Severance and Salad Days to Camile Severance. Scott Severance, who was a co-founder and owner of both businesses, was unavailable for comment.
Student reaction to the reports was one of shock, although some had suspected the poor health conditions for a while.
LSA sophomore Eric Lee said he had heard rumors of the poor sanitary conditions.
"It was scary," Lee said in response to the details. "They didn't look like dirty places."
Paula Habib, an LSA first-year student, visited NAC regularly and was unaware of the report's findings.
"I went there once every few weeks," Habib said. "I like it a lot - it was somewhere everyone could go."
"It doesn't make me feel good," Habib said. "I always have the fear that whenever I'm eating at a restaurant or cafeteria it's not clean, but to think that it barely passed the test is kind of scary."
But LSA junior An-Soo Chang, who liked eating at Salad Days, did not think the scores were so bad and was not very concerned.
"I never got sick. I didn't have any problems with (Salad Days)," Chang said. "I'm a very satisfied customer. Very satisfied." Chang added, "I've (eaten) at worse places. If I don't get sick and I like the food I'd probably go there."
Laura Harley, an LSA first-year student, appreciated that NAC tried to offer the community a different type of business with a unique atmosphere but was concerned with the results of the inspections.
"It definitely bothers me," Harley said.
Harley added that government agencies don't always do enough to maintain health regulations.
"I used to work in a fast-food place. They'd clean up the place the day before (the inspection)," Harley said. "(The government officials) try. Their guidelines are very good but unless you have frequent inspections they don't really work."
The health reports and closures came during proceedings by NAC's management to buy Mitch's Place, located directly above NAC on South University.
"The NAC approached Mitch to buy Mitch's Place," said Jody Thompson, general manager of Mitch's Place.
"We did not run (Mitch's Place) during June, July, August and September. It was being run by people from the NAC," Thompson said.
John Whitmore, a member of the staff at Mitch's Place, said that Mitch's philosophy is "if it's not going to be run properly, it's not going to be run at all."
"Whatever happened bad in that period of time, Mitch had nothing to do with it," Whitmore said.
Thompson noted that cleanliness is something Mitch's Place takes pride in, but added that the NAC inspection results were not important in the deal that eventually fell through.
"(The reports) didn't play a role in the decision," Thompson said.
NAC and Salad Days were originally co-founded by Scott Severance, who received an engineering degree in 1991 and a master's in business administration in 1993 from the University, and decided to stay in Ann Arbor to pursue his business ideas.
"This is probably where we know the most about the market and the people," Severance told The Michigan Daily in an unrelated interview conducted in November 1995. Severance said, "It's a good environment to test out a lot of ideas."
JONATHAN KRAFT/Daily
A man walks by the vacant site that used to house Salad Days restaurant. The establishment recently closed after barely passing a health inspection.