Cockroach found in ‘wild mushroom’ sauce at popular Brisbane pub

THE mushroom sauce was wild in more way than one at this inner-city pub. A diner was shocked to find a cockroach in their meal, but it was only the beginning of the story for this ‘infested’ kitchen.

Cockroach thinkstock

A SHOCKED diner at a trendy inner Brisbane pub found a cockroach in his gourmet “wild mushroom” sauce, a court has heard.

The historic Normanby Hotel in Red Hill has been slapped with 17 counts of breaching food safety laws after it allegedly sold the meal with mushroom sauce on September 14 last year.

According to a complaint lodged in the Brisbane Magistrate’s Court, in the days following the sauce incident Brisbane City Council inspectors found 17 breaches of the Food Standards Code during five raids of the “infested” hotel kitchen.

In the first raid on September 17, inspectors allegedly found live cockroaches in various areas including crawling over the splashback of the food preparation bench, dead cockroaches and cockroach faeces, as well as a build up of grime and grease.

“There was evidence of an active infestation of cockroaches on the premises,” the complaint states.

“There was a live cockroach in direct contact with the paper towels under the plate-up bench.”

Restaurants must protect plates, cutlery and other items from “contamination” by pests or face prosecution.

Further raids on September 18, 19, 22 24 and 30 allegedly found the hotel owners had “failed to take steps to eradicate” the cockroaches.

On September 22 they found “a cockroach on a clean plate” on a shelf, on the ceiling and in the door jamb.

The Normanby Hotel at Brisbane’s Red Hill is popular for pub meals..

On September 30, after the hotel owners had been warned to clean up, inspectors found live roaches crawling on the lids of food storage containers, on shelving in the dry storage pantry, on exhaust fans and on walls.

They also found a dead cockroach “in the door seal of the underbench fridge”.

The council complaint filed in the Magistrates Court states the hotel owners should have known that “handling food in (a kitchen). with a cockroach infestation increased the likelihood of a cockroach entering the food”.

The complaint states there were “live cockroaches on the underside of shelving near the food preparation bench”.

The case is in its early stages. No defence has been filed by the hotel owner Revestar Pty Ltd.

The case returns to court on August 28.

The Normanby hotel is owned by millionaire Brisbane businessman Michael Dempsey, 51, from Kelvin Grove and Otto Willhelm, 52. Dempsey made his fortune selling his electronic payments business to a US company for more than $300 million last year.

The pub is a popular spot particularly on Sundays. It has a restaurant and a beer-garden and is known for its steaks.

Originally published as Cockroach found in ‘wild mushroom’ sauce at popular Brisbane pub