Time in!
A Dumbo food hall named after British-based media group Time Out reopened its doors on July 20 after city health inspectors shuttered it earlier this month, according to officials.
Sleuths with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene cleared Water Street’s Time Out Market to resume serving food and drinks after confirming temperatures in the emporium’s massive walk-in fridge had been reduced to a frigid 41-degrees — a threshold required by the federal Food and Drug Administration to prevent dangerous bacteria from growing on meat and fish, according to spokesman Michael Lanza.
The market’s chief confirmed that they opened all their businesses and look forward to welcoming back locals and visitors to the food hall.
“All eateries are now open and running and we are excited to have welcomed all members of staff and our guests back in – both local regulars and visitors to this great neighborhood,” Time Out Market’s Chief Executive Didier Souillat said in an emailed statement.
The agency shut down the food hall following a July 10 inspection that determined the fridge was operating at a balmy 58 degrees — 17 degrees above the federal maximum — in addition to discovering staff had failed to maintain a refrigeration log recording the cooler’s daily minimum and maximum temperatures, indicating operators were unaware of the biohazards brewing in their own fridge, according to Lanza.
Inspectors ordered the fridge taken offline, a move which by itself necessitated the closure of 14 vendors that shared space in the cooler, and the entire food hall — which hosts 21 of Time Out magazine’s top-rated bars and eateries — subsequently closed as a result.
But issues with the food hall’s clement fridge were compounded by a laundry list of health-code violations aimed at individual vendors, including health-food purveyor BKLYN Wild, where inspectors found inadequate hand-washing facilities, lack of Food Protection Certificates, and the improper monitoring of food temperatures during cooking, among other infractions, which scored that eatery 102 points worth of demerits — 74 point more than the city requires to close a restaurant.
Following the July 20th followup inspection, however, BKLYN Wild was able to improve its score after agency auditors discovered only one infraction — failure to protect food from a potential source of contamination — a six point violation, which put the eatery well below the city’s 28 point threshold.
Souillat said the market will make sure that its cooler remains within the appropriate temperature in the future and that it will work with the department to comply with health codes.
“When the DOH reinspected, our main refrigeration unit was confirmed to be at the appropriate temperature, and all necessary adjustments have been approved to ensure it will remain so,” he said. “Our team onsite has been working closely with the DOH as it is key for us to be health code compliant.”
The British media company opened the market on May 31 inside an old industrial building between Dock and Main streets with a scenic rooftop terrace offering views of Brooklyn and the distant Isle of Manhattan.
A spokeswoman for the market did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
