Dirty Dining: Coal Fired Pizza

Perfect pizza takes passion and patience. You enjoy it, but so do those ruthless rodents, hence the rat traps outside one local restaurant.

The I-Team is investigating Red Rock Coal Fired Pizza in Boca Raton this week. The pizza here apparently so good, the rats just wouldn't leave it alone. The state shut down the pizza joint on April 11th for a "rodent infestation."  

The CBS 12 I-Team went in to try and get some answers. The man behind the counter was making pizza at the time of our visit. We asked, "Can you tell us what happened or what you've done to fix things?" He responded, "It was an electrical fire that we had." But we noted the health inspection report says the restaurant had a rat problem. The cook told us, "That's what he came to look for, but that wasn't the issue." Rats - not an issue? Electrical fire? We checked the reports again and nope, that's not what it says. It says "rodent infestation." The only fire we saw, was burning in the oven.  

The state health inspection report lists more than 50 fresh rodent droppings inside the kitchen and dish areas and also extensive rub marks on the pipes and walls in the kitchen. The cook told us, "They asked us to close down because of the outlet fire and because somebody called... within 24 hours, everything was rectified." We asked if the restaurant had any holes to patch up. The cook nodded and told us everything had been fixed. The health inspection report reads: "hole in the kitchen wall... with gnaw marks" and "2 holes in dish room... with gnaw marks."  

Dr. Bill Kern shows us how wild roof rats behave outside his South Florida office. Dr. Kern, Entomologist with the University of Florida, studies rats and says these scavengers will do just about anything for a free meal. Dr. Kern says, "Rodents in a restaurant or home are a concern because they defecate and urinate every place they go." No doubt! This restaurant's state inspection lists rodent droppings in places like -- "the kitchen floor" and the "top of counter behind the bar in the dining room." It sounds like the critters were making themselves at home. Dr. Kern says, "Virtually anything a human will eat, rats will gladly eat."  

We checked the restaurant's history before this bad inspection and it was fine. So, what happened? The owner, at first, agreed to explain everything, but now he's not returning our calls. Tara Cardoso, CBS 12 I-Team.