Junior's Speaks Up About Its Special Mousecake

Yesterday we broke the gag-inducing news that Junior's in Downtown Brooklyn was now adorning their famous cheesecakes with some real life mice, after photos of the vermin brushing up against their desserts appeared on the Brooklynian message board over the weekend.

The photos spread all the way to the tabloids, and the attention urged a statement out of the owner, Alan Rosen, who said: "As soon as this isolated incident was brought to our attention on Sunday, we took immediate action to determine the cause. It was addressed professionally, and I can assure you the problem is being fully remediated." Guess the company trained their customer service team to play dumb, because a call to their HQ yesterday resulted in this canned statement, on repeat: "this is the first time we're hearing about a rodent problem."

NY1 reports that a "spokesperson for the DOH says inspectors found evidence of mice in non-food areas and have issued violations. They're conducting a re-inspection tomorrow."

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By Jen Carlson in News on October 21, 2009 1:32 PM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

I like my slice with those little sprinkles...what do they call 'em?

Spirit of 76

Waitress! I asked for the chocolate mousse. MOUSSE! The extra S makes all the difference!

WorksInDUMBO

The thing is, it's not just about mouse poop. Mice follow trails and walk through grease and other garbage. So everywhere they go, they rub up against stuff to leave a scent trail for the other mice to follow. This not only leads to more mice, but it leaves a disgusting residue on every surface. They are truly disgusting. Imagine what kind of filth and bacteria are on those cheesecakes.

And by the way, what happened to those cheesecakes? were they sold that day?

ProcedureTurn

OMG!

I won't EVER be eating there again. Disgusting!!!!

famdoc

Years ago, the Sunday New York Times used to feature a list of restaurants cited by the Department of Health in the prior week. Along with the names of the restaurants were the nature of the violations (vermin, unclean prep surfaces, inadequate refrigeration, etc.). It was always interesting to see which restaurant I had eaten in the previous week made the list. I took it as a fact of life living in NYC.

The Times discontinued the list when it was revealed that most inspectors were on the take. Wanna keep your restaurant off the list? Just grease the palm of the inspector.

In recent years, the system has, presumably, been cleaned up (sure, sure). Now, restaurants are inspected, given a score and that score is published on the web site of the DOH:

http://167.153.150.32/RI/web/index.do;jsessionid=3D16B2434E13AFC783E1E451DB231664?method=goldenAppleList

jaycjay

Browsing through those reports will show that it's a rare restaurant that doesn't have some evidence of rodents "in non-food areas."

But these pics clearly show that's not the only type of area where they are.

Quenepa

The pics above are enough evidence for me regarding mice in food areas

LG

"evidence of mice in non-food areas" is better than evidence of mice in food areas...

valeriob

I will never understand why everyone thinks this place has the best cheesecake ever in the world foreverrrrrr...

Seriously, it's like a 4/10 for people with non-hyped taste buds.

longacre

Everyone says that, but then they don't share any better places. So please give me new cheesecake places to try.

whitecastlerock

the food there is terrible. It's greasy and the cheesecake will make you shit your brains out...

Wza

Agreed.

jibbly

How about "No, I think their cheesecake kind of blows."

Fallopia

Yeah, really! I know someone who never eats dairy except Junior's cheesecake. What's the big deal—and if it's such a big deal, where's the vegan version?