Pizza restaurant closed a day due to cockroach infestation

Round Table Pizza at 2010 Highway 50 East reopened Friday afternoon, a day after the Carson City Health Department shut down the restaurant because of a cockroach infestation.

Environmental Health Director Daren Winkelman said Friday that an anonymous tip Thursday morning alerted the health department to the cockroach infestation at the restaurant. A written complaint was not filed.

Environmental health specialist Teresa Hayes said she arrived at the restaurant within an hour and found roaches crawling around the food-preparation and dish-washing areas. Hayes said they immediately closed the restaurant at about 11 a.m. and had all the food, dough and flour in the restaurant thrown away. She said there is no evidence that customers' food was contaminated.

"The employees spent all night cleaning," Hayes said. "They were very cooperative and really wanted to work on the process. They scrubbed their little elbows off. I inspected the whole area and there wasn't a roach left."

Hayes reinspected Round Table Pizza Friday and it was allowed to reopen at 1 p.m. The restaurant did not receive any penalties.

Winkelman said cockroaches aren't found in the dry Northern Nevada climate so "they had to come from somewhere else.

"A lot of times they come in shipments, like produce shipments or a lot of different products in boxes," he said. "They'll hide in crevices or corrugated cardboard. They breed very quickly when you get them."

Winkelman said it's unknown which shipment the cockroaches came from.

The Round Table corporate office did not return calls seeking comment. Carson City Manager Bill Tagay said early Friday afternoon that both Carson City restaurants were open and he didn't know of one that was shut down. Later that day he said his restaurant was closed down but he would not comment on the situation until he knows where the roaches came from.

"My main concern is just to take care of the situation," he said.

The restaurant will be reinspected in 30 days to ensure that all health issues were addressed.

n Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.