Falls Taproom / Disgusting.. Flies Mice Etc..

[mixiboi]

Oh, a Yelp war..Now I see why.

It is good information, but without details, it's like trying to guess how "bad" these violations are.

[Naveen]

So if I only go to Falls Taproom to drink I have nothing to worry about, right?

[Dandelions]

I love the Tap Room but I have to admit that I've seen roaches there on several occasions (back when they opened it was bad) and the last couple of times I was there I saw a couple mice in the dining area. It sucks because I really like it, and kind of figure it's probably got more to do with the neighbors than the restaurant, and that most restaurants in the city probably have similar issues.

[FarFromHome]

As a non-partisan outsider allow me to point out a few things.
First, as many of you already know, these reports from the health department are intentionally vague.
They only call out issues as they see them, and do not report whether they are being dealt with or not.
Since the Falls Taproom is still open for business it would seem that they are dealing with any issues.

Second, I can only imagine that with the roach hotel that is Major's right next door fighting any kind of roach/mouse/rat problem is an uphill battle, but again, if they are open, they must be dealing with it. Add to that a vacant property next door, a grass lot behind, and the river ( A breeding ground for pests both 2 legged and 4) and you have a perfect storm for bugs, mice and anything else that may occur.

I'm not biased, I'll admit, there have been a few times I've been in there and there was an over abundance of fruit flies. But since those times its all been 100% better and I attribute a lot of that to the river, Major's and the surrounding area, as I've seen their taps and bottles covered in the morning as I walk by. So if everything is clean and covered, no fruit flies.

I've also walked by and seen them cleaning in there. I'm talking mop and bucket, hands and knees cleaning.
I saw them cleaning out the basement this morning.

As for the comparison to Franklin's, my guess is that that is an unfair comparison considering Franklin's hasn't been open a year, and the only inspection they've had up to now is the one they needed to open, which means they probably hadn't even started using the kitchen at that point.

I've worked in a lot of restaurants and bars over the years, and some of them I would consider spotless, and still had health violations.
That doesn't mean their "Nasty" it just means that they could do better.
And in the case of the Taproom, I would say that they are trying to do better. Look how much nicer it looks than it did when it was Bucket's? That place was an eyesore.

So I say, keep it up FTR, we love having you in this neighborhood, and it's obvious to at least this user, that you love East Falls too.

[marvingraaf]

Hello everyone,
My name is Marvin Graaf, owner and operator of Falls Taproom. First let me say please excuse any grammatical errors in this post as I am definitely more of a cook than I am a writer. Someone brought this thread to my attention over the weekend and to be honest, reading it was like a punch to the gut. At first I didnt know whether I should respond to it or not but after a lot of hard thinking I decided that it would be in the better interest of my business to just go ahead and address some of the concerns brought up here.

Let me start with thanking all of our loyal customers for sticking up for us in this. You are the people we love having around the bar and we do our best to give you the best food, beer, and service we possibly can. And as some of you have already guessed, we know exactly who this is writing this.
I wont say his name but this guy was fired for royally (and knowingly) screwing all of us over on one of our busiest days of the year (this past bike race sunday). A couple of months ago this same person caused some pretty big problems in my personal life too so im not really all that surprised.

Now to address the issues...

First off, let me tell you. Just like my parents and my grandparents who I learned this business from a long time ago, my restaurant is my life. I spend every waking moment (some tell me too much time) thinking of, or implementing ideas to make the menu, beer list or the overall look and feel of this place better. I'd like to think that much is apparent judging by what this place was when I took over compared to what it is now. And honestly, although were not done, I feel like I, along with this great staff I have backing me up we have done a pretty damn good job at it.

As for the issues of cleanliness. Like I said earlier, ive been in this industry a long time and I know how important cleanliness is in a restaurant. I know that is something that will close a business faster than anything and thats why I do not take lightly, so let me just point out exactly what some of those things on the inspection report were.

the soiled knives violation...
1. this knife that we use during service sits on the cutting board, if we run out of sliced tomatoes, we cut some with it. Chopping celery for any of our mussels. We use it for that too, most of the time after we use it when were busy we just set it right back down on the board. But let me assure you. When the shift is over those knives get ran through the commercial dishwasher just like everything else in that kitchen. And cutting meat, we do that before the shift, thats prep work. Those knives go straight into the dishwasher or into the “blue water” or sanitizer solution we have sitting next to the sink to throw the dirty silverware into.
2. Fruit Flies...
Fruit flies love beer. Seriously, liquor too. It is a constant struggle to keep these little bastards away. Some days we come in and there are none, some days (especially when we had the big windows in the front open the previous night) they are there buzzing around the taps. But we do everything we can to keep them at bay. One of the bartenders listed closing duties is to “bleach all taps and draft beer drains” this seems to keep them away pretty well and honestly, with all the bleach all over the place, (just look at any of the servers shirts) we thankfully havent seen really any lately.
3. Mice...
I wont say ive never seen a mouse in this restaurant, I wont, and im not going to go off and talk about every other restaurant in this, and every other city. But I will say this. We have a vacant lot behind us, we have a vacant building next to us. And we have a very old building with tons of holes in it. If mice really want to get in here they will, and we take this very seriously. We have Orkin pest control in here once a week. That is the most frequent service they will give me and wont do any more unless some place has some type of infestation, which we do not. We keep all of our food stored properly on shelves off the floor in plastic tupperware tubs with lids where if a mouse were to get into the building, and then somehow into the walk-in box it would not be able to get anywhere near any of the food. The violation for “uncovered food in the walk-in” was for plastic tub of green peppers and another plastic tub of the green apples we give with the gouda mac and cheese that happened to not have their lids on during a lunch service when the inspector stopped in. Thats a violation. In my opinion, a rediculous one, but a violation none the less. I assure you that ALL food that is served in my restaurant is TOTALLY safe and sanitary, my mother eats here, my grandparents eat here, my sister and nephew eat here, my friends eat here, the whole staff eats here every time they work, and me and my girlfriend eat here almost every single day. Come on now, if the staff knows how the place is inside and out and eats here all the time, I think thats saying something. I would NEVER serve my friends, family or customers food that I thought there was even the slightest question if it was safe to serve, and that I absolutely swear by. After all the work I put into this place, I would NEVER risk losing everything over something like that. Fresh foods stay in this restaurant for three days MAXIMUM before its sold. We dont have that much storage space so we just buy what we need for a day or two Im sure most of you have seen me in the mornings unloading food from my explorer at least 5 times a week.

And let me address the “knowingly putting feces into the food” comment. Really dude, that is so gross. you are an absolutely disgusting pig to even say something like that. Who would ever do something like that at their own business. This comment makes it obvious to anyone you are just trying to trash me.


Listen, all I can say is that if you dont believe me, or just want to see for yourself. Im telling all my servers to let whoever asks back into the kitchen, and the walk-in cooler. if im there, ill take you to look around myself. I want everyone to know that our kitchen and food storage is spotless. Under the equipment, behind the equipment, in the coolers, everywhere. We take pride in a clean kitchen and we scrub the hell out of it every night. And do a deep, deep clean once a week. So please. Dont hesitate to eat at our restaurant. Dining customers like you are what keep us going. We really do strive to keep the place and the menu cool and interesting for all you guys. And I personally really appreciate all the support and compliments ive gotten from you all since ive been here. It makes me really feel great to know that my efforts are appreciated. So please, we love this area and are doing our best to be a driving force in making it better. Please continue to show us the love back so we can be here for years to come. If anyone has any questions at all please feel free to contact me directly. My personal email address is... marvin_graaf@yahoo.com and I hope to see you all soon. Cheers!

[Pitt]

Nice of you to publicly address the situation, Marvin, but I don't think anyone took that complaint seriously.

[alex]

Nice of you to publicly address the situation, Marvin, but I don't think anyone took that complaint seriously.

It's a good idea to address it anyway. There are lots of people who read these threads and don't respond.

I like Falls Taproom a lot. I've eaten there many times, and I'll keep doing it. It's a great addition to the neighborhood, and I always mention it by name when I tell people that we now have good places in the neighborhood for food and drinks.

[Malloy]

It's a good idea to address it anyway. There are lots of people who read these threads and don't respond.

Yep the large majority just read.

Nice post Marvin, welcome to PS.

[mm230]

I wish we could move Marvins post to the first page. Hopefully people scanning PS will read through the entire thread so they can see that the original poster is a bit out of line. Anyway, I too am a fan of Falls Taproom & will continue to make that my go to spot. I also talk it up to everyone from outside of East Falls. Keep up the good work, I believe most people in East Falls appreciate having your business here.

[friendlynerd]

I would be heartbroken to lose the Taproom, so keep doing what you're doing and I'll keep bringing business. Taproom and Fiorino are where I bring any guests who come out to East Falls and I haven't been disappointed yet. It was fairly obvious there was an axe to grind in the original post and I'm glad to see the response. I think it was the right decision.

[.L.]

I was at the taproom last week and a baby roach crawled up my friends leg. We tried to just continue dinner as normal, but then my neighbor saw 3 mice run around with in the first 10 mins she was there.

[PhillyTex]

Maybe your friend or neighbor has more than 1 post and doesn't come off as a troll or shill? Otherwise, no one is buying your story, and 99% of people are sure you are actually just the original poster and you are getting quite desperate.

[Cya]

I've never been to the Falls Taproom and I don't know where it is. The owner, from reading his post, seems like a hardworking guy trying to keep and grow his business. If what he is saying is true about the cleaning/sanitizing routine at his bar, I have a sure fire way to confirm this.

What do the bathrooms look like?

What does the women's bathroom look like? Is it clean? Are the toilets clean? How about the floors? Are the corners and wall edges gunked up with filth? Is there toilet paper and handsoap? Paper towels?

This, to me, is a sign of how well maintained and sanitary any establishment is. If an owner/manager doesn't care to keep the bathrooms clean, what is their standard for their kitchen? The bathrooms are a part of the guest/customer experience.

Can anyone give an honest description of their bathrooms?

[friendlynerd]

Can anyone give an honest description of their bathrooms?

The women's bathroom and the one on the 2nd floor are OK. The men's room is heinous. While I agree that those areas are important, go to a few bars around Philadelphia. Even ones that serve good food tend to have pretty awful bathrooms so I don't necessarily agree that the bathroom cleanliness is tied to anything else. If they can get the men's room looking more like the women's I will be happy. (I've only been in the women's because the men's room was out of order once, in case this matters to anyone.)

[Dayman]

I was at the taproom last week and a baby roach crawled up my friends leg. We tried to just continue dinner as normal, but then my neighbor saw 3 mice run around with in the first 10 mins she was there.

Sure you did.

[PhillyTex]

The women's bathroom and the one on the 2nd floor are OK. The men's room is heinous. While I agree that those areas are important, go to a few bars around Philadelphia. Even ones that serve good food tend to have pretty awful bathrooms so I don't necessarily agree that the bathroom cleanliness is tied to anything else. If they can get the men's room looking more like the women's I will be happy. (I've only been in the women's because the men's room was out of order once, in case this matters to anyone.)

Your comments are too kind. I don't find it acceptable for the bathroom to be smelly, with no towels and a wet floor, at 2:00 PM on a Saturday afternoon. 20 minutes before closing on a Friday or Saturday night? Yeah, that's gonna happen. But when it's broad daylight, and there are only 6 patrons in the place and none of them are drunk, I don't understand why the place deserves a pass. And I don't think one of the bathrooms being closed is a valid excuse. If anything, it's another strike against them.

Again, I'm not saying the place is utterly disgusting, but it's not particularly clean. OK for a bar, not OK for a restaurant.

[Dalvah219]

We weren't aware of the toilet leaking until later that day. We had it fixed... It
Worked for about 3 days.. Then it broke again. We had it fixed, again. It was fine for awhile but then the sink started clogging up. We had numerous plumbers in there and they ant figure it out yet. However, having two other working bathrooms, a third one a slightly lower on our priority list when other things such as refrigeration units breaking down, and patios being built take priority over a clogged sink. We're doing the best we can.

As far as checking the bathrooms to gauge our cleanliness, no need. The owner has declared an open invite for anyone that would like to see the actual kitchen and coolers so
You can see our cleanliness of our kitchen based upon our kitchen, not our bathrooms. So please, before you judge, at least take a look for yourself so you're making a fair a proper judgement. You're not just bashing a business, you're a bashing a person that has put their heart and soul into this place.

Oh and L-

We never received any complaints Saturday night. And cockroaches don't crawl on people unless your fried has some major hygienic issues...

[Cya]

The women's bathroom and the one on the 2nd floor are OK. The men's room is heinous. While I agree that those areas are important, go to a few bars around Philadelphia. Even ones that serve good food tend to have pretty awful bathrooms so I don't necessarily agree that the bathroom cleanliness is tied to anything else. If they can get the men's room looking more like the women's I will be happy. (I've only been in the women's because the men's room was out of order once, in case this matters to anyone.)

I've been to many bars/restaurants around the city. Some bathrooms are spotless, some are just OK, some are downright disgusting.
I find it hard to believe that a correlation isn't made between the cleanliness and attention to the bathroom and that of the kitchen.
At some bars/restaurants, the bathrooms seem to be a case of "out of sight, out of mind". Those are the bars I personally would never order food from.

As far as good food being tied to cleanliness? You can make anything taste good on a clean oven/grill- or a filthy one.

[Neb]

Maybe people could go there and judge for themselves? I've only been there a few times and the place was awesome. Even the mens room, if you are fixated on eating in there like Cya.

[alex]

While I agree that those areas are important, go to a few bars around Philadelphia. Even ones that serve good food tend to have pretty awful bathrooms so I don't necessarily agree that the bathroom cleanliness is tied to anything else.

I once read an interview with a well-known chef who said that when he goes to a new restaurant, he visits the bathroom first, and if it's dirty he leaves. He said a dirty bathroom means a dirty kitchen; if they can't be bothered to clean an area that the customers see, they aren't going to clean an area that they don't.