EJ's Pizza owner defends restaurant's record

Restaurant Report

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In this week's Restaurant Report, a popular local pizza restaurant was cited with several violations. But the owner, who takes her pizza very seriously, is ready to defend her record. 

EJ's Pizza on Merrill Road is locally owned and the operator wants to clear its name. Owner Jennifer Feimi said, yes, there were flies in the kitchen, but there's a reason why and it shouldn't damage the reputation the pizzeria has worked to build. 

"We have a lot of love in here and my husband and I have worked really hard," Feimi said. 

She went on to say she takes customer loyalty seriously. So when an inspector came in and wrote EJ's Pizza up on things she thought weren't that serious, she said she was upset. 

"You can't prevent flies. They come in. As you can look, are there any flies? There's nothing," Feimi said. "Bad luck on a bad day."

The inspector wrote that there were three flies in the kitchen, a roach in the back of the kitchen and there were also several items in the fridge that were not at the proper temperature. The inspector noted he talked Feimi about how to rearrange those items so it wouldn't happen again. Still, there was some cheese that had to be thrown out that day.

"It was a couple degrees off. It was not major and, like I said, when you load, you have everything you're loading at that moment and he had just come in at the moment," Feimi said.

Feimi said the problems are not a pattern and they have the record to prove it.   

"We've had multiple inspections and we always get a good inspection. It may have been the lemon jar didn't have the lid on it,  but we have never had a bad inspection," she said.

EJ's owner also showed News4Jax months of pest control receipts, saying they get regular service. Feimi said she wants her customers to know the restaurant is clean, and they'll keep it that way to provide safe and delicious food. 

"We love our customers, and it's so important that they know about the cleanliness of the restaurant because we have a very clean restaurant and we do our best to have everything top notch," she said.

EJ's Pizza still needs a recheck, and the inspector has not been back yet. But News4Jax wants to give credit where it is due, and EJ's has a history of good inspections, having passed both in 2015 and 2016.


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Anchor on The Morning Show team and reporter specializing on health issues.