Eat & Drink
Mouse Spotted at Toronto Coffee Shop
Vermin sightings in Toronto restaurants and other dining establishments aren't that rare these days. But since it sometimes takes DineSafe a bit of time to react, I thought it was worth publishing this photo that Borys Machnikowski sent us of a mouse taking a liking to the mini cheese pastries at a Warden station coffee shop called Bakery on the Go.
Looking at its DineSafe record, it appears that Bakery on the Go has a less than spotless record having been hit with a conditional pass in August for "Inadequate Food Temperature Control" and "Failure to Protect Food From Contamination".
Here's an account of events as relayed to us by Borys himself:
Last night I was with two friends waiting for another friend at Warden Station. This being Toronto we decided to wait in the warmth of the coffee shop for him rather than staying out in the cold subway station. Between our conversation in the coffee shop I managed to spot a mouse chowing down on the mini-cheese rolls and pointed it out to my friends and the two other customers in there with us. I snapped a picture of the little offender without hesitation.
Here's where things get disgusting: the coffee shop continued to operate! Many people came in to buy baked goods and while the employee removed the mini-cheese rolls from the bottom rack he didn't remove everything around it and continued to sell people food even after we told him about the mouse and showed him my picture. Being thoroughly disgusted we decided to warn everyone who would listen that we just saw a mouse in plain sight and showed them the picture each time. They were grateful they hadn't eaten what they had bought yet.
That's when the employee, who had not said a word to us, called his manager to come in.
Between waiting for the manager coming in he was still selling people food! Finally, another man came in and we continued our mission to warn people. We told him about the mouse and he said "HUH? This is subway station. You see mice sometime. So WHAT?" in an irritated tone. Then we showed him the picture and his face froze. It turned out he was the manager and he promptly told us to get out, but we didn't until they turned off the lights and closed the store for fear they'd continue selling food to people while there was proof of the mouse eating it while customers were there (plus our friend still hadn't arrived).
I have sent an email to DineSafe to alert them of the problem and am currently awaiting a reply. Frankly, I am not only disgusted by the hygienic issues of the coffee shop but their business practices as well. The manager was very rude and hostile when talking to us and the employee seemed like he simply wanted to remain blissfully ignorant to the mouse encounter to cover his own ass. I will not be purchasing anything from that coffee shop again and am now skeptical of all those other 'convenient' coffee shops in the TTC system. Let me know if you would like to hear from me once I receive a reply from DineSafe.
Top photo by Borys Machnikowski. Additional photo by Toronto Slop.
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Great job Borys.
It's a subway grub joint guys. There are more mice and rats in that place than people. Yeah, it's gross but what did you expect?
i worked at the movie theater at yonge and eglinton and on top of the ant swarms we had a huge mouse problem.
baby mice with your popcorn anyone?
food and subways should not mix. period.
it's no secret that the TTC has a HUGE rodent infestation. it's too large to maintain the problem and the connection between the stations and, subsequently, the buildings housing the stations suffer.
the mice are in the subway, sense the food, then go to the food.
it's really simple, i can draw you a diagram if you'd like.
again, the best solution is to get you eats elsewhere, where the chance of the joint having mice is less than 100%.
Anyways, have any of you ever been to the toilets at Warden station? the same status is for the whole bus bay area. dirty/wet floor, I always feared the food in the bakery.
Have any of you tweeted/e-mailed this to the TTC?
BOTH the food places (third one is the standard gateway newsstand) are disgusting.
And for those of you who pass that place, I am surprised that anyone ever ate there in the first place.
someone should interview the employees and see what they say.
i never want to eat popcorn again.
I agree that the employees and manager dealt with the situation inappropriately and unprofessionally but poor guy trying to make a buck.
You would think they would be a bit more concerned.
Sometimes mice turn up without an owner knowing. Case-in-point a lot of restaurants along the lake...Mice suddenly coming in from the cold, I hope THIS is the case for this establishment....again, the Owner/Manager should have taken you a bit more seriously.....ICK!
Tons of us living in Toronto have mice in our, homes and apartments...
Their either into the ingredients before it gets created and cooked, or their on it afterwards.
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/9981370-post93/
Who cares about some mice.
Our forefathers would have lived and eaten amongst anything.
I have a hard time believing you would knowingly eat food a mouse or rat has nibbled.
Do you think the DineSafe program is excessive?
http://app.toronto.ca/food2/DineSafeMain?userRequest=view_history&;ESTABLISHMENT_ID=9001041
anyone else notice that this place hasn't been inspected since December of last year?
http://app.toronto.ca/food2/DineSafeMain?userRequest=view_history&;ESTABLISHMENT_ID=9001041
anyone else notice that this place hasn't been inspected since December of last year?
If it's impossible to keep mice out of cafes located in the subway system, then perhaps they shouldn't have cafes in the subway station.
I've got an update for everyone at Tim's request. Tonight you may have briefly seen me on City TV doing an interview with Farah Nasser. While the interview went fine I'm ultimately disappointed by the outcome of all this. Bakery On The Go has been allowed to remain open; they simply need to display their 'conditional pass' sign on the front of the store for all to see.
Ultimately this is a hollow victory. While awareness of the unsanitary conditions at the bakery has been brought up they are still operating. The health inspector noted FIVE violations during today's inspection (according to their updated DineSafe profile) and mentioned that the shop is allowed to remain open due to the fact that mouse droppings were simply spotted around the store and not in the food storage area. Apparently indisputable evidence of a mouse actually consuming their baked goods in the presence of customers isn't a good enough reason to shut them down, at least temporarily.
A reporter from the Toronto Star interviewed me earlier today as well so I'm hoping this isn't over yet. Since this hits close to home as I pass through Warden station daily during the school year and get the occasional snack at the shops there I'm not letting this go. I've never done any sort of activism in the past but if I have to protest along with some of my other friends who took their part in relaying this story then I will do so. The outcome thus far is unacceptable.
Bakery On The Go needs to go.
Sure, they can't be trusted to not feed people mouse shit, but they're trying, and that's what's important.
I don't trust dine safe either now. Who are these people.
I passed by the store this morning, and was shocked to see it remain opening ... I mean, your story got through everywhere. I warned some people who got baked goods from that store while I was waiting for the bus, told them to read pg8 of Metro. They seem surprised and disgusted. People here commented mice infestation in the Subway system is a common sense, but many people also trust the health authority and the moral. If the government can not close that store, they should at least post what happened ... we have at least the right to know and the right to choose.
Is this asshat on the take? Maybe we can look into the cosy relationship these guys have with restaurants and cafes and I bet we'll find alot of shady backroom deals.
Looks like some of these commenters have no problem eating pastries after a mouse or rat has been crawling all over it. Same kind of people never wash their hands after taking a shit.
Filthy sickening people.
Read their dinesafe report and you can see these people didn't care at all about how safe their food is.
This inspector did a disservice to the citizens of Toronto by allowing them to operate. Force them to take immediate necessary steps instead of this BS "Notice to Comply". They'll check back on them in a year like their last inspection.
Thats a really ignorant comment.
You obviously just follow the masses and have never bothered to explore the city. Scarborough has some dodgy areas as well as some of the most beautiful scenery, fine restaurants as well as clean safe take-out joints and more.
Get out of your bubble.
Restaurants on:
College st? Mice.
King West? Mice.
Annex? Mice.
Its the nature of the business.
By the way, a responsible owner/operator will clean daily and keep things clean everywhere. Something went wrong at Warden station.
There is no excuse for mice to be around........you do know just like humans and most animals, after they eat...it has to come out...how would you feel if you eat a beef patty which had mice feces on it and was just wiped away instead of thrown out?
People like you just give excuses after excuses for lousy owners/operators.
Agree - no excuse for lack of cleanliness on owner/management part. But despite best efforts to keep mice away and restaurant clean, there will be mice.
Aside - what's with BlogTO these days - a site for mouse reporting?
If you keep your building up to the by-laws and clean daily and do a full clean once a month or even 2 weeks then you won't have a problem. There might be an exception here or there but still.
If there are mice then the efforts are not enough. If there is mice/rat/whatever else animal poop (you do know that humans and animals eat then eventually poop). If you find a mouse/rat/cockaroach as a waiter/owner/whatever position... grab it and take it out.
That mouse seems to have been there for a long time.
Let's not forget that Warden station is one of the dirtiest stations in the system.
I worked in an office for 7 yrs that had mice. A stand-alone, single-storey building with basement. About a dozen employees. There was a little kitchen: fridge, coffee machine, microwave. Sure, people had lunch breaks but it wasn't a restaurant. I enforced clean-up and food storage rules with an iron fist. We had professional cleaners weekly. We paid a pest control company for years (who just placed poison and traps). THEY NEVER WENT AWAY. They entered through tiny cracks that were smaller than their bodies (they seem to shapeshift - I saw one pour himself through an impossibly small hole once). There wouldn't be a speck of food in the kitchen and we close for 2 weeks during the holidays, and they still didn't leave or die of starvation. They ate the poison bait in the traps, but could never be totally killed off. They LIVED there; if we didn't provide food, they got it elsewhere but stayed around anyway. Old building, too many entry points including tunnelling into that basement... nothing you can do.
Mice exist in food storage areas? Absolutely unacceptable.
People, don't stray from the point of the article, mice were in food containment areas (I.E. crawling on your food) AND they were still sold!
If even 30% of posters insist this is no big deal and an overreaction I call shenanigans.
I have worked in a cafe and we had mice which snuck below the pastry case to steal the crumbs. Once we noticed them we made efforts to eliminate the situation with glue traps, however it is nearly impossible to remedy unless you can find out how they are entering the building. You get rid of one or two and a few more move in. It's a cycle which is nearly impossible to break.
What's important here is whether or not the owners are taking any action to improve the situation! They will likely never fully rid themselves of the pests, but taking steps to upgrade their pastry cases and keep the doors closed when not in use and using sealed bins to house the dry goods will all help to keep the food relatively safe!