What's the Deal with Fly Poison Out in the Open at a Local Restaurant?

After we received a complaint about fly poison in plain view and in reach of diners at a local restaurant, Northern Nevada Public Health wrote back to Our Town Reno indicating “the food establishment regulations require pest control devices and practices to be approved for use in food establishments and to be placed in areas that do not contaminate food or equipment.

If this is referring to an establishment using a homemade fruit fly trap where apple cider vinegar and dish soap are placed in a ramekin or other container to catch flies, the use of those ingredients wouldn’t necessarily be a violation depending on placement of the device. We would need some additional information to determine if this is a violation," the response stated.

“After we had been seated for a while and had ordered our food and drinks, our waitress came over and asked whether our kids had touched a “ramekin.” We had no idea what she was talking about,” the alert from an angry diner indicated who then posted about this on google reviews for the Mama Celeste restaurant in Sparks. “She pointed to a clear plastic lid sitting on the windowsill behind our bench seating and told us it contained fly poison,” the mother of children fearing for their safety recounts.

In a screenshot of the owner’s response, Jim Flanagan wrote “It is perfectly safe when dry. Which it was….” He added “thank you for coming in and allowing us to serve you for free as one of the Hawk Fire evacuees,” which the diner clarified with her own account that “I did not come there looking for a free meal, and I certainly did not expect one. When the issue with the pesticide exposure occurred, we had not even eaten our food. Our children had eaten their pizza, but we adults had not eaten ours. When we were refused a replacement/refund for the food we had not eaten, I said that I was a Hawk Fire evacuee and had already been extremely stressed and displaced from my home. I said, essentially, that if the business wasn’t going to make things right regarding the food, then the meal could at least be considered a gesture for everything we had already been going through.

That was not the reason we came in, and it was not something I demanded beforehand.”

Flanagan has his own fire history having lost the building where had relocated to Paradise, California from Chico during the devastating 2018 Camp Fire, before starting again in the Rail City.