Best Mac Cheese Restaurant S’Mac Shut Down Over Vermin

One of the S’Mac locations, which is known as one of the best mac and cheese restaurants in New York, has been shut down. The restaurant known as the mac and cheese mecca had a issue with vermin and refrigerator problems which resulted in a temporary closing.

According to DNAinfo, this particular S’Mac location hasn’t been in the Department of Health’s good graces. Last year, they were temporarily shut down after a whopping 71 violation points on an inspection. It seems as though S’Mac has failed yet another inspection, and this time it was 64 violation points that they received on Monday.

DOH’s website reported that the violations include evidence of, “live mice in food and/or non-food areas” in addition to “evidence that the facility was not vermin proof.” Add to the fact that the restaurant failed to properly refrigerate their food and goodbye S’Mac — at least for the time being.

DNAinfo spoke to Sarita Ekya, the co-owner of S’Mac, and according to Ekya, the restaurant’s refrigerator problems are very recent. According to the co-owner, the refrigerator broke down right before the inspection. Ekya simple calls it “dumb luck and bad timing.” As for the vermin incident, which may be a huge contributor to driving customers away, that was due to a hole in the wall in an employee locker room. “Other than that, we don’t have any kind of rodent or vermin issue in the space.”

In addition to speaking with DNAinfo, Ekya spoke with The Gothamist about S’Mac’s closing. She explained the refrigerator was malfunctioning the night before the inspection, and it was impossible to get anyone to look at it. On Monday, the health inspector showed up. She insists that otherwise they wouldn’t have been in violation or worthy of a shutdown.

Ekya pointed out that due to their violations in 2013, they weren’t exactly lenient with S’Mac.

She explained:

“Because we have a history with being shut down last year, they are much more stringent and asked us to close and repair it.”

It should be noted that not all S’Macs have been closed. The only location this has effected is the location on 345 E. 12th St. between 1st and 2nd avenues in the East Village.

There’s an additional S’Mac located on 157 33rd St. between Lexington and 3rd avenue in the Murray Hill area. There was another S’Mac location in First Park, but that has been closed for reasons unrelated to the East Village inspection.

[Image via Bing]