The Red Velvet Cafe is known for vegetarian and vegan fare. Their three Valley locations focus on healthy food.

But, as Darcy Spears of KTNV Las Vegas reports, the Health District found plenty of problems at its snack bar in, of all places, a medical center.

The Red Velvet Cafe has a snack bar inside the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health on West Bonneville.  

It’s not run by the clinic, but it caters to their clients.  

And it caught the Health District’s attention in ways the chef doesn’t want to discuss.

When we called the cafe for comment, we were directed to Chef Aneesha.

After leaving multiple messages for her, we got a one sentence e-mail saying “Red Velvet Cafe declines to comment.”

What they don’t want to talk about is the 31-demerit “C” grade from their June 11 inspection for things like improper hand-washing, employees using the dump sink to wash dishes, and no soap in the restroom.

Some blueberries in the fridge weren’t so blue anymore.  They were grey and fuzzy with mold, not to mention shriveled and dried out.  Red Velvet Cafe threw them away after health inspectors reminded them to “sell only wholesome food to the public.”

There were also multiple items including cooked beets and chipotle sauce that were past their shelf lives.

Dirty dishes and chemicals were stored next to food and on food contact surfaces.  

The ice scoop was stored on the dusty top of the ice machine.  

And inspectors found hand lotion on the hot plate where the coffee pot should have been.

Thermometers were missing and a bunch of stuff in the fridge was mis-labeled.  Chicken, vegan cheese and chipotle sauce had expiration dates that were too late.  You’re only allowed to keep prepared food for seven days, but Red Velvet Cafe’s labels showed they were keeping it for ten.

They only hung onto that “C” grade for three days.  

They were reinspected on June 14 and are currently operating under a 3-demerit “A” grade.