Plumberry’s, a popular and highly-regarded pizza and pasta restaurant on Stockdale Highway, reopened Thursday after dealing with what health inspectors described as a "severe vermin infestation."
Inspectors from the Kern County Department of Environmental Health said they found a "multi-generational infestation of cockroaches" at the restaurant in an unscheduled inspection Wednesday.
Inspectors immediately closed the facility, at 13001 Stockdale Highway.
Also reported was a "heavy build-up of food litter under equipment."
All that has been fixed, said general manager John Thomas.
"We had one of our refrigerators that had some cockroaches under it, and when we moved it for the inspector, they scattered," Thomas said.
He said the restaurant is regularly sprayed for bugs, and that a pest control company was called in again Wednesday for "real heavy spraying."
An inspection Thursday gave Plumberry’s an "A" rating and allowed it to re-open, he said.
Plumberry's, at Stockdale and Allen Road, is famous for its pizza and has been applauded for its pasta.
"The pizza, as I guessed, was great," The Californian's Pete Tittl said in a 2008 review. "Mostly for the mix of textures and flavors and that typical outstanding Plumberry's crust (dark and crunchy outside, soft and slightly yeasty inside). I've had a lot of really solid barbecue chicken pizzas in recent months, and this rates with the best."
