Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in La Quinta was closed following an inspection by the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health.
The fast casual bbq joint, which opened in La Quinta in January of 2015, was closed due to a “lack of proper ventilation” and not having a person in charge present, according to KESQ.
Inspectors noted that the building had temps of 90 degrees in the customer area and over 100 degrees in the back of the building. The inspector claims to have seen one employee working in the back sweating while cutting meat. That employee said the air conditioning had not been working for at least a month.
Valley fave BBQ chain @Dickeys in #LaQuinta shut down today. Find out why tonight live at 11 on @LocalTwo pic.twitter.com/VvyO8GUuiY
— Brooke Beare (@BrookeCBSL2) August 23, 2018
In addition to the air conditioning issues, a walk in fridge was seen open and a box of raw beef was measured at 53 degrees and tub of coleslaw at 60 degrees – far above the recommended storage temperatures.
The owner of the La Quinta Dickey’s Barbecue Pit said the air conditioning unit would be repaired sometime in mid-September – at which point there will be a follow up inspection.
The facility received a “B” grade from the Health Department during an inspection in August of 2017 – with infractions ranging from improperly storing food at the wrong holding temperatures and inadequate hand washing facilities. A follow up inspection two weeks later saw the restaurant receive an “A” grade after resolving the issues.
This is not the first Dickey’s location in the Coachella Valley to experience issues. In 2015, the Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in Palm Springs shut down just five months after opening after seeing seething reviews from customers with one Yelper calling it ““a cluster f*** of a place.” A new owner was operator was found a few months later and the location reopened.
