Crab Park Chowdery shut down after it allegedly served soup with a rat inside. Photo via Instagram/pisun_ne_ne
A Vancouver restaurant notorious for allegedly serving a customer clam chowder containing a rat carcass prepared that chowder in a kitchen flush with rodent feces, according to a CBC News report.On December 27, a patron of Gastown’s posted a viral video to Instagram that showed the dead body of a rat being spooned out of a bread bowl filled with Manhattan clam chowder. She said the soup belonged to her friend, who had ordered it from the restaurant.Chowdery owner Ashton Phillips later told the Vancouver Sun he and his staff had spent hours trying to recreate soup with a dead rat in it, and that it was “impossible not to see it” while serving the dish. Crab Park Chowdery shut its doors for good in January.The Chowdery had been preparing its chowder in a commissary kitchen owned by Mamie Taylor’s restaurant—located in the restaurant’s basement. On December 28, a day after the rat video went viral, Vancouver Coastal Health inspectors visited the commissary kitchen, where they found cockroaches, vats of uncovered chowder, and a considerable amount of rodent poo.According to health inspection documents obtained by CBC, a cockroach was spotted running over Phillips’ head.“Mouse droppings were noted inside the walk-in cooler, as well as in the food preparation and food storage areas. A thick accumulation of rodent excrement and accumulated debris was noted on plumbing lines situated above the cooking equipment."
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Inspectors noted that 10-litre tubs of chowder were placed into the walk-in cooler and were not covered.There was also a prep table situated underneath a sewer line.The inspectors ordered Phillips to get rid of the nasty tubs of chowder, which they deemed “unfit for human consumption.” They also ordered Mamie Taylor to temporarily shut down and remedy its sanitation issues.The restaurant told CBC it has since stopped renting out its basement as is able to “keep a much tighter control on what's happening in the space.”Follow Manisha on Twitter.