Consultant takes Channel 2 behind the line to see how restaurants keep up kitchen health standards

ATLANTA — In a different kind of restaurant inspection, for the first time, Channel 2 Action News is taking you inside a metro Atlanta restaurant to see how inspectors search kitchens and storage to make sure your food is safe.

It’s a restaurant report unlike any other.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Sophia Choi went behind the scenes at Breakfast at Barney’s a super popular restaurant on Decatur Street with hired inspector Mitchalene Brown of Pineapple Express Hospitality Services to find out what they look for during a health inspection.

Brown and Choi met up outside Breakfast at Barney’s in Southeast Atlanta during a busy lunch shift.

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The first step was getting with the food and beverage manager of the restaurant, Emily Smith.

“Hi, is the manager here?” Brown asked when she and Choi went in.

Breakfast at Barney’s hired Brown to regularly inspect the restaurant for health violations and to train workers.

“Sometimes you just want to have a pop-up to keep us on our toes, because you never know when a health inspector is coming,” Smith explained.

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Choi and Brown started at the bar, where the found everything in order. Labels and expiration dates were on the bottles and clean, and the sinks worked.

“So, I’m looking for hot water, paper towels and soap,” Brown said.

Then, Brown and Choi donned hairnets and stepped into the kitchen.

Again, they checked for proper labeling, expiration dates and cleanliness. One of the biggest concerns there was keeping cold and hot foods at the right temperature.

When they were doing the inspection, the tomatoes were too warm.

“So what would be the corrective action?” Brown asked Smith.

“I need to add some ice at the bottom of it,” Smith answered.

Brown told Channel 2 Action News that she’s hired by restaurants like Breakfast at Barney’s to keep them up to standard, so they’re ready for any pop-up inspection by the Georgia Department of Public Health.

More and more, Brown says she helps restaurants that fail pass a reinspection.

“I’ve noticed that a lot of people are opening restaurants without the knowledge,” Brown explained. “So they just have that lack of knowledge. Not that they don’t care, they just don’t know.”

Any score below a 70 is a failing score from the health department. Brown says if she goes anywhere with a score under 90, she’s not eating there.

Breakfast at Barney’s got a 100 on its last health inspection, which happened in February.

On Tuesday, Brown docked the restaurant a point for mislabeling a bottle.

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