Belchertown Board of Health tightens oversight after repeated violations at Tables on the Green

BELCHERTOWN — The Board of Health will require restaurant Tables on the Green to provide a plan demonstrating food safety before renewing the establishment’s food license after two health inspections last fall found moldy food, uncovered meats and surfaces coated in dirt and grease.

“I think the concern is the type of violations, the extent of the violations and the risk that it poses,” Board of Health member Gail Gramarossa said during a Dec. 22 meeting.

Over the past three months, John Prenosil, a health inspector for Belchertown, Ware and Pelham’s shared health department, the Quabbin Health District, reported repeated violations of the food safety code from the restaurant and bar located at Cold Spring Country Club. While the restaurant closed for the winter season last October, the Board of Health raised concern over owner Tara Weagle using the space for catered events during the winter after Prenosil reported the kitchen remained unclean.

Just before Tables on the Green catered Thanksgiving brunch buffet on Nov. 27, Prenosil reported that the kitchen went through a complete deep cleaning. However, he said restaurants often get into a cyclical pattern where violations are fixed in the short term but continue to become problems. The Board of Health members expressed the same concern on Dec. 22.

“As long as it’s maintained, that’s perfect,” Prenosil said. “But what we end up seeing with most establishments is we do an inspection, conditions are not that great, we point out the violations, things are better, and then we come back three months later and it’s back to where it started. We are looking for compliance all the time. You should always expect the inspector.”

Weagle could not be reached for comment for this story. During a Board of Health hearing on Nov. 24, Weagle admitted the situation at the Belchertown restaurant had “got out of hand” while bouncing between Tables on the Green and her other restaurant, Tables on the Farm in Palmer. Weagle told the board that she has since fired kitchen manager and cleaned up the kitchen, but did not clarify if the manager was employed at both locations. Weagle and all her managers at Tables on the Farm are ServSafe certified.

““I would never serve anybody any food that I felt that I wouldn’t eat and serve my children, and I never will,” she said.

Kitchen in violation

Health concerns around Tables on the Green began in early October when the Quabbin Health District received an anonymous complaint about the condition of the kitchen. When Prenosil arrived at the restaurant on Oct. 2, he reportedly found enough health code violations to order an emergency shutdown, which he said he has never done in three years as an inspector for the health district.

“It’s one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen,” Andrea Crete, director of health for Belchertown, told the Select Board on Dec. 15. “It was just a complete negligence and lack of food safety.”

Prenosil said Weagle addressed several of his concerns and reopened the following day for a local golf tournament. He told her that she’d need to address the remaining violations in a timely manner, but the kitchen remained unclean and old food remained in the walk-in fridge when Prenosil returned on Oct. 23.

“A lot of times with our inspections, even ones that are not very good, when we go back a couple days later, a week later, it’s all brought up to compliance,” Crete told the Select Board. “That’s the norm, this is not the norm. We should be seeing full compliance at this point.”

Step in right direction

Prenosil did not issue a second shutdown because the end of October marked Tables on the Green seasonal closure, Crete said. Since then, Crete said Weagle ordered the deep clean and the space is “night and day” from its previous inspections.

“Overall, we felt the place was safe to prepare food, safe if a catering event was going to happen to use the oven or reheat something in a microwave or use the refrigerator to keep things cold in the event,” Crete said.

The Tables on the Green location hosted a few events, such as the Thanksgiving brunch, catered with food from Tables on the Farm. Health inspections from Palmer do not show the same conditions as the Belchertown location, Crete said.

Select Board member Nicole Miner requested Crete continue to check on the conditions of Tables on the Farm.

“If she comes in late winter, early spring to reapply, I want to know what’s going on somewhere else,” she said. “Otherwise, I will be very vocal about them not reopening. I was disgusted with what I saw.”

Weagle had not applied to renew Tables on the Green’s food permit as of the Dec. 22 Board of Health meeting. This is most likely due to Cold Spring Country Club’s closure for the season. When Weagle decides to renew, the board expects her and her team to come before them with plans.

“I would just want to hear much more detail so that it doesn’t get to the point where we saw in some of those horrific photos,” Gramarossa said, referring to photos taken from the restaurant during the inspections. “And that the public in Belchertown and anywhere else can feel confident that they could ultimately eat in that restaurant safely without health risks.”

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