Pusateri’s reopens after public health violations

The flagship location of the upscale grocery store chain Pusateri’s reopened its doors Monday after it was shut down by Toronto Public Health last week.

The gourmet grocery store on Avenue Road, near Lawrence, was forced to close its doors on Thursday after health inspectors spotted several violations and found cockroaches and mouse droppings.

Pusateri’s president Frank Luchetta said the infestation problem was isolated to a storage area in the basement.

“We’re definitely open for business again,” Luchetta said Monday. “I just want to assure our customers that we’ve done everything in our power to go above and beyond any expectations that they may have had before.”

Loyal customers were pleased about the store’s re-opening.

“As far as I’m concerned, nothing’s happened. I’m happy to be back here this morning and I’m getting a lot of product to take to the office and enjoy,” Simon Zucker said.

“Obviously when I heard they’d closed down it was disappointing and a loss of confidence for sure, but I’m really pleased that they’re re-opened and I’m sure now that they’ve discovered the problem … it’s probably one of the most sanitary places to be shopping now and they’ll make damn sure it doesn’t happen again,” Karen Markman said.

The shop received the all-clear from health officials after staff cleaned over the weekend, allowing it to reopen its doors at 8 a.m.

The grocery store has two other locations, in Yorkville and Bayview Village. The public health order only applied to the Avenue Road store.