China King cleared to reopen
Patrons will once again be free to eat at China King in Hamburg, the South Park Avenue restaurant shut down last month after a witness reported seeing a worker butchering a deer on the premises.
The Erie County Health Department on Monday gave the owners of the restaurant the go-ahead to reopen, said Kevin Montgomery, a Health Department spokesman.
“Our inspectors went out again [Monday] to recheck and found the place to be satisfactory,” Montgomery said.
The restaurant at 5999 South Park Ave. has been closed since Oct. 24, after a health inspector was dispatched to China King on a tip, saw the deer and shut down the restaurant.
It is illegal in New York State to have a dead animal in a food service place. It is also illegal to serve meat that hasn’t been butchered in a licensed facility. In addition to paying a $1,000 fine, the owners had to sanitize the kitchen and refamiliarize themselves with sanitation codes. The owners also had to fix their refrigeration unit, which was found not to be working properly. And a worker at the restaurant will have to take a food safety course in the next six months.
“They took care of all the concerns brought up in the commissioner’s hearing, and the inspectors ruled they can operate,” Montgomery said. “They now have the ability to reopen.”
A message on the answering machine said China King would reopen Wednesday.
