Students should think twice before eating at two popular University District eateries.

Flowers Bar & Restaurant on 42nd and the Ave and Johnny Rockets in University Village made a Seattle Post-Intelligencer list of 10 restaurants with the most health code violations in Seattle in 2007.

Many of their violations were on the “red critical” list, according to the King County Public Health Department, including improperly storing and labeling hazardous chemicals, incorrect cooling procedures and inadequate hand washing facilities, all of which are likely to cause food-borne illnesses.

According to the Seattle P.I., Flowers Restaurant had 14 critical violations through early December, while Johnny Rockets had 11.

Fadi Hamade, the owner of Flowers, has been running the restaurant and bar for 17 years. He said the inspector caught the restaurant at “the wrong time.”

“I’m not trying to defend us,” he said, adding that he was on vacation at the time of the inspection.

“We clean the place up very well. … It’s back to normal,” he said.

The University District is average in terms of the number of health code violations it has, said Todd Yerkes, a health and environmental investigator for King County.

“There are really good places and not so good places,” he said.

Theresa Lord Hugel, executive director of the Greater University Chamber of Commerce, said there have been issues with overflowing trash in alleyways within the University District, but serious health code violations by businesses have been rare.

“If it’s serious enough it could affect those businesses, but I don’t think it’s a widespread problem,” she said.

The Chamber of Commerce exists “to assist the businesses and the larger community,” Hugel said. Therefore, according to Hugel, instead of punishing a business for health violations, the function would be “to help the violating business connect with services to help them remove the violations if they would like our help.”

Depending on the violation, the Chamber can help businesses connect with Seattle’s Business Advocate to obtain permits, grants and loans if construction is required, among other things. In addition, Hugel said, “We can help with press releases once they comply to let the public know.”

Out of more than 4,000 restaurants in Seattle, Yerkes guessed that fewer than two dozen restaurants were closed by King County Department of Public Health last year.

A number of factors can close down a restaurant, he said, including improper heating and cooling of food and a lack of updated food worker permits.

Violations are awarded “points” during inspection, and a restaurant is closed when it accrues 90 or more red points or more than 120 total points, with a combination of critical and non-critical violations. Non-critical violations include maintenance and sanitation matters that are unlikely to cause illness.

Restaurants are also closed if it is operating without a permit, there’s an imminent health hazard or the same critical violations are found during three consecutive inspections.

Establishments are inspected up to, three times a year, depending on their “risk category.”

The first category includes such places as cafés that serve espresso but do not heat food and are at low risk of spreading food borne illness. These get one inspection each year.

Establishments that heat food and then serve it right away, like cafés that serve hot sandwiches, are in the second category and receive two inspections a year.

The third category establishments have the highest risk for illnesses associated with improperly prepared food and are inspected three times a year. These are restaurants that often cook food, cool it and then reheat it, like sit-down restaurants and fast-food places.

The University District contains a mixture of all three of these categories.

Yerkes offered some tips for those who are concerned with food safety. One thing patrons can do is make sure employees preparing raw meat are washing their hands before making ready-to-eat foods like salads, he said.

Also, students can utilize a search engine found on the King County Public Health department’s Web site. It allows customers to look up establishments all over Seattle and view their inspection records.

After they do that, Yerkes said, “They can risk going there.”

[Reach reporter Erinn Unger at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]