Revisit to restaurant with roaches admittedly goes 'bad'

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — In this week’s Food 4 Thought, we are honoring a handshake deal to DK’s Stix and Stuff at 1655 Ruben Torres Blvd in Brownsville.

They let us see the kitchen after its December health inspection report found dozens of violations.

Its Dec. 2 inspection reports have a lot of problems and a low score of 67 for its kitchen inspection.

It passed a city reinspection but the manager and owner admitted doing “bad” when we found plenty of violations.

Manager Edith Lassiter was confident in its cleanup but did not take long for our cameras to catch critters.

Lassiter said she had no words when roaches were mentioned. However, our viewers on social media had a lot to say about the establishment.

Over 87,000 watched the ‘extra bite’ and commented things such as, "They need to shut that place down for a week."

Viewers also asked why the Food Patrol did not speak to the main boss, which is what we are doing in our two-week revisit.

Owner Dave Cavazos saw our report and was embarrassed, to say the least.

"We had to get better and we got better," he said. "Bottom line is it's my fault. I am the one who should have done something about it."

DK’s did correct the issues we spotted on our first visit. Employees were wearing hairnets and gloves instead of bare-handling beef, the foods had dates and labels.

However, the clutter was still around. We found dead bugs last time and this time we found live ones in new traps.

Cavazos showed us the pest control receipts, but every glue trap had bugs old and new.

We made our way over to the bar and made a deal that we would look for one minute and be out the door if nothing was found.

It took 51 seconds to find roaches. There were also more pests in the beer buckets and the glue traps.

Cavazos said his establishment needs to be better and invited the Food Patrol back in two weeks to try and earn back trust.

And that's Food 4 Thought.

You’re part of the Food Patrol! When you see dirty habits, please send us photos/videos and a copy of the complaint you filed to your local health department to News@KVEO.COM.