411: Back, with more Heart

The Heartland Café is back in business after being temporarily shut down by the Public Health Department on March 12. The inspection resulted from a 311 call made by a customer who felt ill after eating a tofu and vegetable dish at the restaurant. Café owners Katie Hogan and Michael James consider the circumstance to be a hard lesson learned and completely overhauled their restaurant’s kitchen as a result. The staff spent five days renovating floors, scrubbing equipment and patching up “endless nooks and crannies.” When inspectors returned on March 18, the café passed the follow-up inspection with flying colors. “Inspectors were literally oohing and ahhing,” Hogan says. As a result of the situation, Hogan says that they have taken additional safety measures, such as changing certain purveyors and promoting an employee to the position of sanitation manager. “We’ve taken lemons and turned them into lemonade,” Hogan says. “We will never be caught in that situation again.”