David McNair

Recently, The Tavern, the long-lived breakfast joint on Emmet Street where “students, tourists, and townpeople” meet, became the place where the salmonella bacterium met with a long history of health code violations.

Health inspection records show that over 60 food handling and preparation violations have been served to The Tavern since January 2003, including 13 during a single inspection last summer. Many of those were “critical repeat” violations, meaning the Health Department had already asked the managers to comply. To put that in perspective, Mel’s Café on West Main has had four critical violations since 2003, Orzo has none since opening in 2006, and Golden Corral has had 23 since 2003.

In early July, that track record came back to haunt The Tavern. MORE