CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Days before the Signature Room abruptly closed after 30 years at the top of the former John Hancock Center, it failed a health department inspection.
The results of the inspection are public record, posted on the City of Chicago’s data portal.
Inspectors cited the restaurant for numerous violations, most of which dealt with inadequate or missing hand washing supplies for employees — soap and paper towels. There were also violations for food not being stored at the proper temperature.
The violations were brought to attention by Mike Paladines, who owns safefood.com. He trains restaurant managers and kitchen staff.
“First of all, there was a complaint,” Paladines said. “Somebody actually called 311, the City, and said something happened. One of the leading causes of foodborne outbreaks is two words that should never go together: Oral-fecal contamination. And there is a virus called the norovirus. We call it the stomach flu … but it’s actually contamination by feces by food handlers.”
Although none of the complaints at the Signature Room were for reports of oral-fecal contamination or stomach flu, Paladines said that is precisely what can happen when you don’t have adequate hand-washing supplies.
The owners cited “severe economic hardship” as the reason they closed the Signature Room, but Paladines said a failed inspection can be enough to shut down an establishment.
“In my many years of teaching this class, we’ve had several where actually it had been the kiss of death,” he said. “They were not able to come back from it.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday dozens of laid-off Signature Room employees protested outside of the former John Hancock Building. Their labor union filed a lawsuit Monday, claiming owners did not give employees adequate notice.
“I understand it’s a business, but I thought we were a family,” said Nina Hernandez, who worked at the Signature Room for nearly two decades.
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