It is not uncommon for government inspectors to find insects and/or arachnids within restaurants. In fact, considering the massive amount of food that restaurants typically throw away into nearby dumpsters, and the copious amounts of food that cover the kitchen floor after a rush, it can be hard maintaining a bug-free eatery. But sometimes, inspectors find it necessary to close a restaurant if egregious and multiple health violations were committed. Usually, an inspector will order a restaurant to close if a lack of sanitary practices and the food pose a health threat to customers and staff. While an inspector can forgive a restaurant owner if a roach or two is spotted skittering along the ground, a restaurant that serves a live cockroach as an omelette ingredient must close.

You would think that restaurant cooks could manage to keep cockroaches out of the food that is served to patrons, no matter how extensive a roach infestation may be in a kitchen. Unfortunately, this was too tall of an order for cooks working at the popular Lone Wolf Cafe in Amherst, as at least one patron received a cockroach omelette that she did not order.

Back in late 2015 and early 2016, three serious health complaints were filed against the Lone Wolf Cafe. All three of these complaints involved cockroaches. Inspectors finally paid the restaurant a visit after a girl found a live cockroach within her omelette, and this is not a new and trendy edible insect cafe, mind you. When a mother and three girls ordered an omelette at the cafe, they received an omelette containing a roach, and another girl found a roach within her napkin. Two days later, a cockroach skittered across a table in the cafe as a man was ordering his meal, but the roaches’ presence did not phase the waitress taking his order. In response, an inspector forced the owner to have routine pest control inspections carried out within the restaurant, but after another customer found multiple dead cockroaches in the cafe, the owner’s license was suspended.

Have you, or anyone you had been eating with, ever found an insect or arachnid within a restaurant?