Beyond Data Management Podcast
The definitive podcast for government data management and stories from the field - with a special focus on Environment Health professionals.
Beyond Data Management Podcast
An Inspector’s Camera Roll: Sewage in Neighbor’s Yard, Dentures in a Bowl, and a creepy Pizza Place
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Joseph Addison (Fayette County, Georgia) has placed in the NEHA photo contest three years running. Recorded live at GEHA 2026, he walks Cameron through 12 photos from the field — the funny ones, the filthy ones, and the one he did not put on the report.
In this episode:
-“Biscuitus” and other kitchen personality that isn’t in the code
-A septic repair that got dumped into the neighbor’s yard (2nd place, NEHA general category)
-The pizza-place back room that looked like a lab — and why he pocketed the phone and left
-Dentures in a mixing bowl
A septic tank that floated out of the ground after a pump-out and a downpour
-Bloodshot googly eyes over a prep sink
-A hibachi floor so greasy it looked black — and why that still wasn’t an automatic close
-The difference between “gross” and “will put someone in the ER”
-Joseph’s point the whole hour: this is not a gotcha job. Inspectors are guests in someone else’s house. Call your inspector before the floor turns into sludge.
Beyond Data Management — powered by HS GovTech. Recorded at GEHA 2026, Lake Lanier. Special thanks to Danielle, Austin and the entire GEHA team for their invitation and hospitality.
Be sure to subscribe for free to AFDO's Quick Take Friday's: https://AFDO.org/fresh-take-fridays
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:23 Live from GEHA + the NEHA photo contest
1:48 Why some departments won’t let inspectors take photos
2:34 Fayette County, Georgia
3:09 Photo 1: World Famous Biscuitus
4:07 Photo 2: Septic repair dumped into the neighbor’s yard
7:11 Photo 3: The pizza-place back room
10:25 Why he didn’t write it up — or call the cops
11:17 The roadside fish box with one prop fillet
12:03 The dentures
21:00 The septic tank that floated out of the ground
21:45 Googly eyes over the prep sink
23:42 Dishwasher grease + the same facility’s floors
26:00 Hibachi grease measured in inches
28:20 Gross vs. what actually shuts you down
30:10 They volunteered to close — then pressure-washed the building
31:15 Recurring segment: Life on the Road with Joseph Addison
32:10 Advice to operators: call your inspector
33:14 Close
This episode captures the unvarnished side of public health work. Cameron walks through an actual inspector actual camera roll, showing the bizarre and challenging scenarios that inspectors encounter daily. It is a raw look at what really happens when you walk into a site and find a pizza place that defies all logic.
Subscribe for weekly public health and safety breakdowns. Let us know in the comments: what is the strangest thing you have ever found on an inspection?
Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech.
Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas Beyond@hscloudsuite.com
I take pictures of pretty much every violation I find. I just dug a trench to the neighbor's yard. You don't need to worry about what that is, you need to do your job at least. He walked out and I went, click, put my phone back in my pocket. And the lady was like, no, we we washed it and cleaned it. Yeah, this but if we couldn't get the cement off, so what does it matter? It's not gonna get into the chicken wings.
SPEAKER_00This is the Beyond Data Management Podcast powered by HS GovTech. Now here's your host, Cameron Garrison.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back, Lake Flanier Gog. There in the custom open graphic there. Morris great work on that. Uh Ghaw 2026, and this is gonna be the a really fun one. So I don't know if any of y'all some of y'all who've been to DHA probably know, but they have a photo contest uh every year. And for I believe it's the last three years, HS Got Tech has sponsored it and uh you know helped help put it on. And there's great photos. Um the one thing that I don't like is that um they asked me to be a judge. And I'm like, oh come on, because uh so many of them are actually good in their own way, and I I just want to give them all a 10. It's just stressful. So but I bumped into here at Jihad, uh Joseph Addison, who is uh kind of a perennial powerhouse, uh turns out, in the photo contest. How many years have you been entering it? Um I've entered the last three years.
SPEAKER_02I have placed the last three years.
SPEAKER_03Placed for three years. Yep. In fact, I handed him a gift card yesterday. Just said there's a cash prize on these pictures. So by the way, we should say, if you haven't participated before, do there's a little bit of pocket money.
SPEAKER_02I mean, the way inflation's been, it's more than you can probably buy a tank of gas, but and most of us take photos anyway, so why not get paid for it?
SPEAKER_03You're already doing it. Uh and so some inspectors though, right? Joseph, they do some inspectors are heavier with the photos than others. You say it's a fair thing to say.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I take I take pictures of pretty much every violation I find. I think it's good just for reference or training materials, but some jurisdictions don't appreciate photos the same way. What why is that? I think there's just concerns of being able to handle the photos, putting them into records, open records requests.
SPEAKER_03Yes, or if they're part of the yeah, the media might put it on television. Which funny that that's the concern because that's what we're about to do. We're all just here to work together. That's right. And so you said so you've placed for the all three years you've been in it, but you've sent us some bonus pictures, right? We've got twelve pictures here. So by the way, I should ask, which which juris which uh department here do you work with?
SPEAKER_02Um I work in uh District 4, so Fayette County, Georgia.
SPEAKER_03Fayette County. So um are you commuting to the conference?
SPEAKER_02No, they let me stay in the hotel. Nice. How far is it? Um It's like 70 or 80 miles. It should only be an hour and a half drive, but it but it takes about two and a half hours to get here through Atlanta.
SPEAKER_03If you know, you know with Atlanta. So we're gonna get to it. We've got 12 pictures, and we've got the original creator or photographer of the picture.
SPEAKER_02I'm the original for 11 of them.
SPEAKER_03One of them I just wanted to share because it's a good photo. Because it's just that good. All right. Well, let's get right to it. So Morris has got them ready to pull up here and we will go. Okay, so I this is funny because I think you took this one, right? I did. Yep. I think this tells us a lot about you. You are you notice everything because there's no health code for this, right?
SPEAKER_02No. But it's funny. It's there's a lot of things that happen in kitchens, right? Kitchens are dynamic and people are working there. And whether you work for GovTech or the government or a restaurant, people just want to have fun, right? We want to come to work and be able to enjoy ourselves. And it's the same thing, right? We're not there. Inspectors aren't in the kitchen to to be getting people. We're there to just see your home, get to know you. And it's kind of like this. You you'll just see some funny things like biscutus, and uh that's just them trying to make it through the day.
SPEAKER_03World famous biscutus at that place. We it it it looks like a wood paneling that they have in the city. It was a wood cabinet, or is that yeah, it was at a it was in a hotel.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it had uh like wood cabinets, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I um D Scutis.
SPEAKER_02You know, I'm I'm not sure how they pronounce it. I should have asked them. Yeah, maybe it's French. It could ooh, it could be.
SPEAKER_03What do we got next? Okay, so we're going to the on-site septic program here, aren't we? Tell us what we're looking at.
SPEAKER_02We are. This is actually the photo I submitted to Niha this year. Um, it placed second in the general category. And this is actually was a repair that was being done, and the um contractor installing the system had actually so when you're repairing a system, it's failing. You're having to repair it because it's overfilling with the sewage, right? And so you're supposed to be able to come out, pump it out, get the tank empty, do whatever repairs you need to do.
SPEAKER_03So is that water not from rain only? It's not.
SPEAKER_02None of it is from rain. And so what ended up happening is the repair took longer than they expected, and the septic tank actually filled back up after they emptied it.
SPEAKER_03So they were using it while it was being repaired? Yep. That's a no-no isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Uh no, not necessarily. Usually repairs just are done pretty quickly, and so you're able to get it before it fills back up. But this ended up taking a little bit. I think they might have had a toilet leak or something, so a little more water was coming in.
SPEAKER_03That brown water is not mud, is what you're saying. Yep. That smelled horrible out there.
SPEAKER_02Wasn't too bad. Um but instead of pumping it back out, what they did was they just dug a trench to the neighbor's yard. No. And uh, yep, so that's where that's actually. You can actually see the house kind of in the background there.
SPEAKER_03Um, they had dug it. So that trench that's filled with waste, that's going to the neighbor's property's property. Probably even violates things beyond help codes, doesn't it? What why did they do that? Ah, I'm not a lawyer. Uh they uh I just take pictures of what I see.
SPEAKER_02You're like, that's a cop question. It's a cop question. Uh I just know that for our code, they shouldn't have been doing it. Should have been pumped out again. And uh when when I asked about it, they just said, well, what you want me to work in it? Well.
SPEAKER_03That is one of the job requirements, is it not?
SPEAKER_02Kind of, if you're repairing septic systems. And uh so the the solution instead of pumping it out was just to to dig it to the neighbor's yard.
SPEAKER_03And it's the hope it'd just run downhill to the neighbor's yard.
SPEAKER_02That was the hope. That was their plan.
SPEAKER_03Oh gosh. Yeah, I mean, if there's a homeowners, it looks like it's in a rural area. But yeah, there's a homeowners association. I would think they'll get you for that. I yes. They've gotten me for like my daughter's car, came to visit for dinner and it's parked on the curb. I'm like, this is like next level.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if they're getting you for the the yard flamingos, they're getting you for the the the sewage train. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Hello and welcome to another season of AFTA's Fresh Take Friday webinar series.
SPEAKER_04HPAI viruses are, of course, of great animal welfare and economic concern, but the terms are not predictive of severity of human disease.
SPEAKER_01Either by the company's own scientist or through an outside expert panel.
SPEAKER_03So, okay, I remember that picture. I gave it the 10 stars on all the categories. I don't need like composition categories, like they get like artsy with their categories, and I'm like, it's just a funny picture. It's like graphic. Yeah, all tens.
SPEAKER_02I don't I don't want to see black and white making me think photos. I want to let's see the grime, the dirt. Let's let's see what it's like every day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like a picture of a mountain that says, you know, think about climate change.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It feels like one of those cat posters people hang up at the office. Yes, yes. Those motivational. You ever watched The Office, the G show? It's one of Michael Scott's motivational posters. It is. That's that's funny. All right, we got another one. Number three, I think. Oh, good lord, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_02This is chaotic. Yes. So I'll say this. I don't actually know what that is, but it's suspicious. There's a hot plate there of some sort.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So this was a restaurant. I'll say this. I think it's drugs in the restaurant that they're making. Make a methamphetamine or they're making something.
SPEAKER_03And so it does look a little bit like the first version of Waltz in Jesse's lab and breaking bad.
SPEAKER_02It does. And so, and there's some hookah stuff in there too. It could be hookah stuff, but why in the restaurant? So this uh so here's the story. So I walk in, and I the dude is just sitting there breathing down my neck the whole time, which isn't totally weird. It happens, right? People come, they'll uh they want to know what's going on, they want to follow you around, they want to learn. Yeah, he was just he was it was the vibes were weird. This was by the back door, and I get to the back door and I see this, and I I think almost exactly I went, uh, what's this? And he puts his hand on my shoulder and he turns me to look me in the eyes and he goes, You don't need to worry about what that is, you need to do your job and leave. Okay, yeah, I didn't spoke. And I went, Yes, sir. And a couple minutes later, the door chime went off and he went, I'll be right back. And he walked out and I went, click, I put my phone back in my pocket, and I there's a lot that doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_03So you said it's a restaurant.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that's the back of a restaurant.
SPEAKER_03If you're in a restaurant, you've got a kitchen ostensibly commercial cooking equipment, right? You don't need that, you don't need any of whatever that is. And is that foil wrapped around there? That's the the hookah boil foil have the tin four. Yeah, because you gotta put the the stuff, you put like a coal up there or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I it's got tinfoil wrapped around it, there were hot plates, there were weird chemicals in the kitchen. It so I don't I'm not saying it was suspicious. Unlabeled chemicals and just a lifetime supply of Sudafed. Yes. There were like purpley things and jugs, um, things that were like yellowish hue almost like bleach, but they weren't in bleach bottles.
SPEAKER_03So um you don't have to give them the name, but what type of uh like what kind of restaurant was it? It was a pizza place. None of that is required for pizza.
SPEAKER_02I don't think so. It's been a long time since I went to Domino's, but I don't think it's I don't think it should be there.
SPEAKER_03Maybe there's a secret menu.
SPEAKER_02No, that's true.
SPEAKER_03Like, you know, like you order animal style at In N Out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03This is like That's how they make it. That's the secret sauce. As we as we get sued by In N Out. That is that is actually kind of terrifying. I I dare I wonder what's in the filing cabinet that they have in the city. I don't know. Don't want to know.
SPEAKER_02And it and it really speaks to some of the the dangers and the reality that we face doing inspections. Because when after this inspection, full transparency, I did not write it up on the report. I'm not put I this job is not worth being harmed or anything happening. And afterwards, um my coworkers, people like that, they're like, Well, did you call the cops? I'm the only person that's been in there. It's a short list of who routed them out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, dad. If the health inspector has just been there, I mean you're gonna be their first guess.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And so I didn't tell uh it's not worth it. It's I get it.
SPEAKER_03You know, how did they do on the actual kitchen inspection?
SPEAKER_02Like we do we do a lettered number grade. I know not every state does, but we do. And that was like a like a B, like a eh. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And there's no pizza prep going on there. So like that's wow. I I love that the story. So that's the other thing about these pictures, right? Like at first glance, you're like, that's messy. When you hear the story, you're like, whoa, inspectors don't know what they're walking into.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_03And like an operator can threaten you even if they're not doing suspicious things, right? It's their business. They people are crouches now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But that, yeah, that I don't think I would have owned it in either. Because honestly, is that enough of a tip for the cops to even go? Uh like yeah, probably depends on the county.
SPEAKER_02But and it's and it's too, and that's not the first time that you'll find suspicious drug things. It happens every couple of years. Really? Yeah, I I've I've worked in other counties. This was actually in a different county than where I work now. There was a little roadside, you know, 10 by 10 box that sold sold fish. And uh, I don't know that I've ever seen food in that facility ever. Um, they had one fried fish fillet in a basket, and that was the only food I'm pretty a prop. Yes. And I had I had inspected them more than once, and I'm pretty sure it was the same fish fillet in the fryer every time I'd been there.
SPEAKER_03So I guess you go to the trouble of getting the permit and having the inspector come through just because like it creates a paper trail of a legitimate business?
SPEAKER_02That's that'd be my guess. I think it's it's how you make your cash flow look real.
SPEAKER_03Laundering the money. Did you watch Breaking Bad? Some of it. Yeah, like yeah, you need you need the launderer. Yeah. What's next, Morse? Dare I ask? Oh gosh, there's dentures. Yes. There's so much here to say. Gotta get the story. It looks like an upper and lower set. Not a denture owner, but the chopsticks, that's a that looks like a mixing bowl. And there's chopsticks on it, which kind of makes it art. Yeah, it's there's something poetic about it. Yeah. Really. Um and so abstract art entry or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I uh it's it looks like something that you would find in in a modern art museum. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So what what what type of restaurant was this in? And what's the story? I assume you did ask about this, like whose dentures I did.
SPEAKER_02So this is actually it was a restaurant that I had been in a lot. Um, it I had been there pretty, pretty regularly, um, just for inspections. They were fine. They'd always pass their inspections. They're, you know, it's a good place. And uh a complaint came in, actually. And the complainant said, Yeah, the cook is taking their dentures out and putting it on the counter.
SPEAKER_03So this was triggered by a complaint. This inspection was.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I'm on the counter. And I and again, I had been inspecting this place for years. And so we got the complaint, and it was from an employee, and I was like, they're not like, there's no way. Like I know these guys, you know? And I go out there and I walk in and I see. And I so I start asking the guy, and uh, he's like, Yeah, I I've been having dentures and they're just uncomfortable. And so I I only put them in uh when I'm eating, and then I take them out. And so he put them in a bowl, put his he ate his lunch, took out his chop, uh, took out his uh dentures, put his chopsticks in there, and then put it with the the dishes. Wow.
SPEAKER_03I mean they look relatively clean, so maybe he brushed. I so like so when he was talking to you, he was toothless. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Yes. As much as I hate to say it, I had teeth in hand and he was talking to me. You touched them? I picked up the bowl and moved to the phone. Okay, put it in the touch in it.
SPEAKER_03Oh man, that you don't know it. That was a bin. Uh kind of do, but I I moved it around just to see what was under it, kind of what was sitting. What was under it? Just dishes. Okay. But those are actually dishes that they use as part of the operation, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, they'll uh people people talk about, right? Like they wash their dishes, but you don't know what that fork was used before you you ain't there.
SPEAKER_03You don't know where that fork is. You don't. What is next words? That one is that one won too. That one got first place, yeah. Was that last year or two years ago? Last year. Last year, yes. I that one is that one's a keeper. Oh my gosh. So I remember this one's from this year, right? I submitted it. It didn't play.
SPEAKER_02So this was another, this was my other submission this year. What is gushing out there onto the floor? So this is a dishwasher, actually, and the dishwasher broke. And so every time the dishwasher would empty, it would just waterfall onto the floor like Niagara Falls.
SPEAKER_03And they're just going about their business like nothing to see here?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So if you actually look, you can kind of see the water is kind of flowing in a direction. So there's a floor drain there. And so it was just going onto the floor, going down the floor drain. So they were like, eh, whatever, it'll drain itself in a minute.
SPEAKER_03What what's what's the violation of that on that in the Georgia's code?
SPEAKER_02Keeping so there's there's two that you would kind of get to is you want to make sure there's not excessive water on the floor. We don't want rats, roaches. You're just giving them something to drink, right? You're not you're not helping yourself out. And it's a kitchen too. Like the floors are gonna be greasy and like soupy mess. Um, and then we gotta make sure we're keeping our equipment in good repair, right? We can't just have a dishwasher that doesn't work and it's and we're just like, ah, it's fine. That's not a leak. That's a waterfall.
SPEAKER_03That's a little bit more than a leak. Like, wow. What what was the reaction when they uh obviously they were ambivalent, at least until you I think there's no way you don't notice that. You're like, oh, I hadn't noticed that it is leaking.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So like when I when I told them, I was like, you guys know you need to fix this, right? And they're like, well, I mean, it's it's okay. Like, I mean, the machine still works, the dishes are still clean. It's it's getting up to temp. Yeah, it's it's working. And yeah, I had to explain to them why it was important. They genuinely were like, well, it's still going down the drain. Why does it matter if it goes down the drain under the dishwasher or in the middle of the floor? What kind of facility was this again? It was a buffet.
SPEAKER_03A buffet. Well, there's they were probably it's a target-rich environment for an inspector at a buffet a lot of times. Yeah. You could if you you don't have to look hard a lot of times for a violation there.
SPEAKER_02At a buffet, if that's the only thing you've got, you're doing pretty good.
SPEAKER_03Actually, yes. Like it's I haven't been in, I I hear they still have them. I haven't been in Golden Crowley's years, like, so don't paint me there. Um that chocolate fountain, like the crumbs in it. Last time I was there years ago, and it just looked like a foodborne illness.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's buffets can just take a long time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and uh they have sort of are they coming back? Because COVID kind of like ended that right quick, didn't it? Like, are there many left?
SPEAKER_02No, not of true buffets, at least not in my jurisdiction. Um, usually what I see is when people like to set up buffet style things, but they don't like to have just open buffets for the public. But we are starting, at least again where I'm at, starting to see where restaurants are being fancy and saying, Yeah, you know, we'll have your party here, we'll set up buffet for you.
SPEAKER_03Okay, but you're not doing just like a come off the street. Yeah, $10, $20, eat all you want. Yeah, it's sort of yeah, it turns into a kind of a cattle drive sometimes in those old school places. All right, Morris, what's that? That's just fun, right?
SPEAKER_02This one, well, this one, this one is a poetry piece. It really is. This one needs the backstory. So this is actually in a facility that during this inspection they did not pass. Um, it was a really, really dirty grime and everything. And so it just almost was poetic to me that you can see how dirty the walls are behind it. And there's just this white hat, this dirty white hat with a smiley face sitting on the shelf. Saying everything's good, everything's good.
SPEAKER_03That it that no, you're you're an artist. Um, and the wall was filthy. Yeah, that was probably that was probably what wasn't mold, grease, like what so okay. So who even knows? What kind of restaurant type was it? And what else did you observe there?
SPEAKER_02That was a um that was a Chinese restaurant. Um, and they had a lot of stuff going on. They had broken refrigerators. Um, I think on that day specifically, their walk-in broke, which to be fair, I mean, a lot of walk-ins go out. It's Georgia, it's a hundred degrees outside. You know, we have feels like 110 on some days, the humidity stuff just breaks. Um, we have to have it all does.
SPEAKER_03And also, um, I'm hearing in some states that actually costs for restaurant equipment repair have really gone up and there's not as many people doing it. And so, like, it's more expensive and it's harder to get somebody out quickly. Are you experiencing that in Georgia?
SPEAKER_02Or we are, and I I would even A, people are just charging whatever they want, but I think one of the bigger issues, even getting parts really taken weeks. Um, if your refrigerator goes out, people out of business for that period of time, right?
SPEAKER_03Because you can't let them reopen if their main refrigeration's out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, and so they they'll do what they can. Though I've had places just go out and buy new refrigerators because it's cheaper to do it, just that just to be open instead of having to close. Um, but if they're trying to fix like a prep top or just a simple refrigerator, I mean some of them are waiting three or four weeks to get the part and then having to wait for the guy to come back out to get it fixed.
SPEAKER_03If you're not a big establishment, you don't have a second or third one, do you? You can't like reconsolidate now.
SPEAKER_02Nope.
SPEAKER_03Unbelievable. What's up next, Morris?
SPEAKER_02This is the one I did not take. But this one is worth a million words, and it's one of my favorite photos ever. Um, this was actually that a cement mixer. It is. It's a used cement mixer. A used one. This is actually uh her name was Emily. So, Emily, if you're listening, this shout out for you. This is a photo that she took. Um, it was a chicken wing place, and uh, this is how they were mixing their chicken wings and seasoning them. Was they they had a used concrete mixer um where she said that she like had concrete that she broke off with her finger. Um there was still concrete like inside of it. And the lady was like, No, we we washed it and clean it. Yeah, this but if we couldn't get the same cement off, so what does it matter? It's it's not gonna get into the chicken wings.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and cement is uh porous, I believe. Yeah, it's like who knows?
SPEAKER_02It's like charcoal, right? It's healthy. It's it's good for the gut.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. So that Emily, well done. Um, and there's a lot of wings in there. There are. Hey, a lot of people ate out of that cement, you know. Maybe it's like the uh cast iron frying pan that some people swear, like I it tastes too good because I've never washed it. It's it's the seasoning of life. Emily, well done. What's next? Oh, septic time again.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so this is actually um, this was the first photo I ever submitted to the Niha one. This one got um, I think third place. Three years ago for the general category. And I think this is just a really good educational one. When it rains, sometimes the soil gets saturated. Your septic tanks, if they're empty, can actually float up out of the ground. And so that's what's happened here. We had an empty septic tank. It rained really, really bad. So this is a nobody lived in the house, right? So they were trying to sell the house, if I remember correctly. It took it a few years ago. I don't see remember, but house was empty. They pumped out the tank, so it was completely empty. We got torrential downpours, and then we got a call the next day. The tank had floated up out of the ground.
SPEAKER_03That's unbelievable. Like the only thing even remotely similar to that I remember is like pretty macabre, but like during like Hurricane Katrina, they had like graves float, caskets floating up. But I didn't know it's because it's empty, it's sort of buoyant. Yeah. And it must have a lot of rain though to float it.
SPEAKER_02It wasn't horrible, but I mean you can even see in that little pit, the little pit from it coming up got filled up with water. Yeah. So that water is not human waste.
SPEAKER_03That's rainwater in that one. I don't know if I would drink it, but maybe the guys would have gotten in that from the first picture. Yeah. Like the way they just they draw the line wading around in brown water. Um, who knows? This is this is fun. Googly eyes over the um three compartment or it's two compartment.
SPEAKER_02I think it's a two-compart. It was a prep sink. And I think this goes back to the the biscuitus, right? Is people are just here to have fun, right? We're not here, even us, right? We're not here to to get onto people or be mean to people, or it doesn't have to run like the military. But we're still here, right? In the kitchen, they listen to music, they do fun stuff like this. And this was like in the middle of July when I took this photo. And so, like these weird bloodshot googly eyes over the prep saying, I look hard.
SPEAKER_03The bloodshot, it's hilarious. It's funny, people will can find humor in any environment.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And actually, how common is it that workspaces like that or kitchens get uh personalized or have character?
SPEAKER_02I mean, I I would say, I mean, I I see it every day. Um, I yeah, you don't see it too much in the corporate places, the the chain restaurants. They keep it a little more little stricter, yeah. Um, but I'm every non-corporate place, every non-chain place is just like this. Um I was trying to think of the trying to pick which photos to send you, but like some of them are pretty funny. One that I've been seeing a couple times now, which I think it's funny that I've seen it more than once, is uh people naming food funny things. And so like hot dogs, they've been naming glizzies. And so you'll be in your the walk-in cooler, it's glizzies, and you're like, when you open it up, it's hot dogs. Um or uh people just making up names like I I can't corn or something, and it's just a bucket of corn.
SPEAKER_03Um, just just doing things. So he's had a stressful day. I just can't corn. Yep. That's awesome. Documenting, like actually, what's really cool about this is you're not just actually snapping violations, you're sort of just documenting life, a record of life walking through restaurants and inspecting them, and that's really great. I'm just a guest in somebody else's house. Oh gosh.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_03So the yellow stuff. What's the story here?
SPEAKER_02This is a dishwasher. And this is a facility that did not do very well, obviously. And uh actually, I think the next, I think these are our last photos. This photo and the next two photos all came from the same place. And uh I had did their inspection before this too, just seven or eight months before, and it was not it just wasn't like this. And I think it really can show life happens, right? People have tragedies in life, things, you know, they have family deaths, they have to leave, and then they have to trust whoever's in their kitchen. Um is that what happened here? They they had something go on. I I think they left the country.
SPEAKER_03What is this? I mean, it looks like at a first glance, somebody graffiti spray painted the thing, but you can see there's texture and it looks it's splattered everywhere.
SPEAKER_02I think it's just grease, grease and dirt. So that's that's the bottom of the dishwasher. I think it's just grease from them like dumping stuff out and cleaning the dishes.
SPEAKER_03Not like doing a good pre-rinse before you put it in there. What is like I guess they're putting things in there they shouldn't have, right? Because what should a dishwasher that's getting used heavily in a commercial kitchen look like under there?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I think it's important to remember, though, that everything nobody can be perfect, right? And so if all they're doing is pre-you got our spray hoses, they're just kind of pre-rinsing it off, they're getting off the best they can, and then it's going into the dishwasher. Tons of facilities do that. I don't think there's any right or wrong answer for what should or shouldn't go into it. I'm sure the plumbers who listen to this would disagree about what you should put down your drains. But from our perspective, it doesn't really matter. It's all still gonna get cleaned up anyway. Um, but it's going back and making sure that you're cleaning up the result.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because stuff grow in that, right? Like that's a hazard. All kinds of uh pathogens can grow there.
SPEAKER_02Pests and things like that.
SPEAKER_03That's the really like roach reset gross. Roaches are probably like this place is sweet.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and this this facility specifically actually did have roaches. Um, pretty bad. Bad enough that when I was washing my hands, they were actually crawling in front of my face.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's flagrant because roaches don't want to be seen.
SPEAKER_02It was like four o'clock in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_03It wasn't it's not even dark. It's not like you flip the lights on them and they come in there. Um, I'm just surprised there wasn't a filter there. So, did you say the next two more are from this or from the same inspection? Same inspection. Oh, I can't wait.
SPEAKER_02So this is the floor next to the grill. That that that's the floor. That's the floor. And uh, we can go ahead and go to the next photo because the next photo is also of the floor.
SPEAKER_03Oh my oh.
SPEAKER_02So that black stuff is the floor. That is grease on top of the red quarry tile. So the floor's supposed to be red. It should be red, like a clay color.
SPEAKER_03I mean, it looks like you would measure that like you'd do snowfall by like the inch or part of it. It looks thick.
SPEAKER_02It it looks like a monster's about to come out of it in the black wind.
SPEAKER_03It really does. What is that? Just a buildup of grease? Just grease.
SPEAKER_02That's just next to the that's just next to the grill.
SPEAKER_03And so I guess like they just because it restaurants are uh it's a brutal back there, right? And it gets dirty. So I guess that just means they hadn't been cleaning regularly, right? Because you would keep that cleaned up normally when you when you close down and and turn it for the for the night.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and especially some place like this. Um they had a lot of fryers, grills, and things like that.
SPEAKER_03What kind of a place was it? Um like uh hibachi kind of place. Oh so yeah, I've always wondered about those. Like the ones where they cook on your table? So that was next to the hibachi grill.
SPEAKER_02That is where was under the hibachi grill.
SPEAKER_03Customers were sitting like a couple feet from that around the table.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that so that makes it worse. That detail makes it worse because that's also like a hazard. What must the cook shoes look like after they go cook for that table?
SPEAKER_02Yep. And uh so they took it out, they pressure washed it. A lot of restaurants pressure wash, and I think this really though Is that an eggshell? It's an eggshell, yeah.
SPEAKER_03It looks like there's some yolk in there still.
SPEAKER_02Who knows how old it is.
SPEAKER_03Oh and that'll actually spoil, right? Any remnants of the egg.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I surprisingly didn't smell too bad in there. So I hopefully it wasn't too old.
SPEAKER_03So is this the grease part of the problem? So you you ever been to one of thebachi restaurants and you come out and you smell like it's like the launder your clothes because the grease just seeps in. Would it be less so if they cleaned it more? Because the hood sometimes, I'm not an inspector, but I can sit at a table in one of those and look up and see the hood is gross.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, usually that that smell is is from a heavy grease-producing place, and it usually means they could clean it up a little bit better. Um, because there's a ton of places that don't have that that smell that you associate with it. Um and I think in the grand scheme of things too, if if somebody's listening to this and they're not an inspector, we're not out again, we're not out to get people. And if we're shutting places down or we're talking about cleanliness, it's not because we're going around in a white glove and stuff, right?
SPEAKER_03No, it's it takes I think a lot of people, I'm glad you mentioned that, because a lot of people don't understand that you gotta work hard to get shut down. Like there's you'll see inspections that'll, if you're in a scoring letter grade system, uh a B that could have a dozen violations in some states. So like to get into the 60s or a a fail is just like it's next level, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02It is. And so really to get down there, you're having to do something that really would make people sick, right? So like your food's not cold, you're not cooking your food, you're not washing your hands. There's things like that that you have to have those really to fail. And as long as you're doing those few things right.
SPEAKER_03The place can be a disaster otherwise, and you can just run it and let the market judge how well you do. Because like even roaches, right? Like those are not a as high of a violation as temperatures. And like you people love watching on the news. You know, the roaches make great headlines. They're funny. Like I get it. I've been guilty of of laughing at them before too. But uh the temperatures, uh the the consumer gets trained to think, oh, boring. Not really, that's what can kill you.
SPEAKER_02It is, and I I think that's what's important for everybody to know is it's our job is just to make sure the food is safe, right? And so something like that picture where the floor is black, it's it's nasty, it's grody, roaches, they're groaty, but it's still safe.
SPEAKER_03That didn't get closed down, right? No, you just picture and wrote it down.
SPEAKER_02Right. It's it's just about making sure that people's families can eat there and not have to worry about going to the ER.
SPEAKER_03That's well put. So um bonus exit question, did was there a reinspection you did after that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they did just as bad the second time.
SPEAKER_03So it didn't get cleaned up.
SPEAKER_02No. Um so they they had to have a reinspection. So we went back the next week and it was just as bad. Um, and I think actually at that point we did um we did talk to them about it and they actually volunteered to close. Um and they actually took out every piece of equipment from the facility. Um took it out back, pressure washed the whole, the whole building.
SPEAKER_03It looks like that was months overdue.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and that's what Sue and whether you're at your own house or you're in a restaurant, once you have it clean, it's easier to just mop it every day than to let it get to a point like that.
SPEAKER_03You've got like three inches of potentially meta-human creating slush lurking under the table.
SPEAKER_02That's where the next COVID's gonna come from.
SPEAKER_03Not not a lab, not a bat. It's gonna come from uh from a grease under the body grill. And it'll be nastier than COVID. It'll smell worse too. Yeah. So I tell you what, you take a lot of pictures, right? Yes. How about every so often we just have you on and it's life on the road as seen by Joseph Addison. Hey, good? Yeah, I'm fine with that. You this is like I it's really important you do it. And also the other way people know that like you're an inspector, an operator would kind of I would think hope to get because you're not actually sewing little nickel and dime sensational things, and you also are taking pictures of the googly eyes, the BS kits. Um, like you're just there to observe and report.
SPEAKER_02Yep. That's what I tell people all the time, right? Like, this isn't it's not a gotcha game, right? Um, and and for restaurant owners, right? If you own a restaurant and you're listening to this, call your inspector, ask him a question. If you call and say, Hey, this is what my floor looks like, do I need to clean it up? I might call you stupid, but like I'm not gonna show up the next day and shut you down, right? We're it's a partnership, right? And so that's that's really what I think these photos can do, is it's just showing that like we're not here to get you, we're just here to enjoy life together and make sure that people are safe.
SPEAKER_03Better business. Yeah, because a restaurant that keeps their customers safe is a better business. You'll make more money. Yeah, like you can't like cut the corners on these things. No, it's I if you are uh if you got if there's other inspectors out here and we hear from you, so we know you're out there. Uh, if you've got pictures, do what did share them because this is um it's actually just fun to swap the stories for inspectors, but the general public also really loves these two because they learn. If you do it on the news with a sensational headline, then sometimes the educational value is diminished. But we've got you explaining, here's what's going on, not as bad as it looks, or you should have seen the whole place worse than it looks. So yeah, keep taking them and like just when you get a batch, shoot them over to me and we'll just have you on on one of our next recording dates, and we can just do like photos with Joseph uh on a semi-recurring basis as you have them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'll I'll get a stage name that way it's a little more catchier.
SPEAKER_03There you go. Yeah, come up with a neighbor to say we'll do a little graphic and everything, like a music jingle and Joseph Addison here from Georgia, and uh they thank you, thank him very much and a perennial powerhouse. You're gonna enter next year at Niha, right? Of course, every year. So you're a lot of pressure now after three years placed on the podium and running. I'm happy to participate. If somebody else takes a better photo, I'm glad they did. Happy to be there. This is one of the reasons we do the show. This is the fun stuff. Joseph Addison, thank you so much. I think we have one or two more conversations left, and then we tear all of this down from Jihad. And uh, we will be back with another episode on the channel very soon from Jihad Lake Lanier. Until then, for all of us at HSgovTech, I'm Cameron Garrison. Thanks for watching.