Among the 28 NOLAbucks restaurants available to students in their dining plans, 11 have received critical violations on their heath inspections while another 13 have been noted for varying minor health code violations, all within the last year.

Tulane has expanded its meal plans to include Wavebucks and Nolabucks in recent years. NOLAbucks are built into 14 of the 17 on-campus meal plans and allow students to use their plans to dine around New Orleans at specified eateries.

“I admire that Tulane tries to reach out to some of the smaller restaurants; otherwise, kids would kind of overlook them,” junior Angelica Jarvenpaa said.

Only two restaurants, Pure Yogurt Culture and D’Juice Fresh Juices and Whole Fruit Smoothies, had no health code violations in the last year. Slice Pizzeria on St. Charles had two minor violations in its last three inspections. Taco Truck and Frostbite Frozen Yogurt had no inspection information available.

Slice Pizzeria manager Dutch Malcolms said following the guidelines can be hard for restaurant owners.

“A lot of people don’t realize how difficult it is to keep [the restaurant] clean,” Malcolms said. “Most of the violations are people not paying attention, when people don’t have an idea of what they should be doing.”

In the last year, 12 out of 28 of the NOLAbucks restaurants have been in violation of clean floor standards on their inspections. Cafe Freret Crépes la Cart, Fat Hen Grocery and Kakkoii Japanese Bistreaux have all violated this heath code on multiple inspections within the given time frame.

Critical issues listed in inspections of the 28 establishments include a variety of violations, such as improper temperature of cold food, presence of rodents and employees not washing hands.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals inspection records indicate that on June 12, The Dough Bowl received a critical violation for food that met the definition of adulteration (failed to meet federal or state standards). The inspection of Cafe Freret on Jan. 4 showed that employees did not contain rodent bait in a covered, tamper-resistant environment.

According to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals records, during the last year more than 90 percent of the restaurants with critical issues managed to fix them, many during the course of the inspection.

Juan’s Flying Burrito manager Edward Riley said, “It was pretty easy [to fix the issues in the inspections]. We can fix these things while people are here. It was mostly fixing all the little things.”    

Fat Hen Grocery manager Meredith Cadow said that miscommunications in management are one cause of health code violations present in the inspections.

“Actually, when I came on as the manager, I didn’t know how bad it was, and I fixed it,” Cadow said.

While Cadow declined to comment on the cost of fixing the inspections, La Madeline manager Johnnie Feforio said the cost of these corrections was negligible.

“These are literally things like the heat of the stove,” Feforio said.”You are talking about things like something being out of place or in the wrong spot,” Guidroz said. “That is what 98 percent of the problems are.”

Representatives from the remaining restaurants declined to comment.

Lisa Norris, director of dining and auxiliary services, said she believes precaution should always be shown when going off campus around New Orleans.

“As with all off-campus activities, students should exercise taking common sense when taking advantage of this service.”