Cheesecake Factory continues streak of low Kitchen Cops scores at Bridge Street

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - There’s been a lot of excitement in north Alabama, with the arrival of the long-desired Cheesecake Factory at Bridge Street. On November 10th, Madison County Health Inspectors made their first regular visit to the restaurant. Unfortunately, the results were not good.

Cheesecake Factory scored a 70 with several serious violations noted. The inspector’s notes begin “I observed an employee drop tomatoes on the floor in the kitchen, grab tomatoes off floor, then place tomatoes back in metal pan for storage.” Things didn’t get much better from there. There was chicken being cooked using an unapproved method known as “par cooking” or “partial cooking”. It’s a relatively common method where food is partially cooked, set aside, then finished later. Cheesecake Factory didn’t have approval to use this method. During a follow up inspection, the chef said they would no longer do this. There were also dirty dishes blocking a sink set aside for handwashing, and problems with the dishwasher’s temperature gauge. These problems were also addressed and fixed by the time inspectors came back on November 15th.

As we’ve been reporting, multiple restaurants at Bridge Street have seen low scores recently. We went back through four months worth of Madison County inspections and scores. The highest scores we found for a Bridge Street establishment was a 99 at Le Macaron French Pastries, followed by a 97 at Cinemark / Monaco Pictures movie theater both in late September and a 91 at Cafe 153 in late October. Here are some of the other problems (click each to read more):

• BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse- 82 (September 28)
• Cheesecake Factory - 70 (November 10)
• Connor’s - 76 (October 25) (Also scored a 65 on September 1)
• Moe’s Southwest Grill - 82 (October 22)
• PF Chang’s - 56 (November 3)
• Red Robin - 81 (October 14)
• Texas de Brazil - 76 (October 27)

We reached out to Bridge Street management for a comment, they referred us to the individual restaurants. We’ve reached out to the managers of several restaurants as well and are waiting to hear back.

Cheesecake Factory wasn’t actually the lowest score in Madison County this week, or even the second lowest. That dubious honor belongs to Dreamland Bar-B-Que on University Drive in Huntsville. It was hit with a 68 after an employee was seen vaping while prepping foods, then wiping their hands on their pants before putting on gloves. There were also multiple food temperature problems, a dirty ice machine, grease on the ground by the outdoor grease barrel and flies and gnats in the kitchen. These problems were all fixed before a follow-up inspection a few days later but the low score will remain until the next regularly scheduled visit.

Elsewhere, the Waffle House on Madison Boulevard is hit with a 69. It also had food temperature problems and a dirty ice machine, plus dirty dishes in the hand sink.

The Madison Inn & Suites just down the road from the Waffle House scores a 71. Inspectors found ants in at least two rooms and all ice machines were dirty.

The last score of note in Madison County was an 85 at the Taco Bell on University Drive near UAH. It had dirty soda nozzles and missing soap and paper towels at a hand sink.

There were no problematic inspections in Limestone, Morgan or Colbert Counties this week.

Click below to see the full list of scores and inspection notes from around the Valley this week!

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