Dominique Ansel Bakery, home of the Cronut, shut down by health officials for mice

Cronut fans won’t be getting any of Dominique Ansel’s croissant-doughnuts this weekend. The New York bakery was shut down by the city’s Department of Health after a customer posted a YouTube video of a mouse scurrying across the kitchen floor.

The video was posted on various online media, and the bakery said that four public health inspectors showed up as a result.

“It was the video that someone posted on YouTube of a small mouse running across the floor of the bakery for five seconds that led us to become a target of the DOH,� said Dominique Ansel spokeswoman Amy Ma in an email. “They’ve asked us to get exterminated, which takes two days. So we hope to be opened mid-day on Monday.�

Ma said that the health department also has required the bakery to re-cement its floor, which will be done over the weekend. “We of course believe that we run a clean and good operation, but see that we were targeted and will rise to the occasion to be even better.

“Chef says we will be doing everything that was asked of us. ... And he’s saddened for our customers who had plans this weekend that we weren’t able to welcome them. Our team will be here in person to speak to customers live.�

In an October inspection, the health department also cited evidence of vermin, but Dominique Ansel Bakery received an A rating.

At least one Cronut fan was nonchalant about mouse-gate. “This is New York. Anyone who operates under the pretense that their food is ‘clean’ is delusional,� said Christina Chaey, a staff editor at HowAboutWe Media in Brooklyn. “Also, let’s just say if I ate a Cronut, then found out the next day it had been ravaged by mouse paws, I wouldn’t regret having eaten it. They are delicious.�

“I don’t really understand the [Cronut] hype,� said her co-worker Molly Fitzpatrick. “I’m a philistine Dunkin’ Donuts fan, so rat-gate was much more horrifying to me than mouse-gate.�

New York restaurant Per Se also was in the news recently for health code violations after the New York City Department of Health gave it 42 demerit points, enough for a C grade. Violations included food stored above/below proper temperatures, lack of hand-washing facilities in the food-prep area and tobacco use. Chef Thomas Keller said in a statement at the time that all of his restaurants maintain the highest standards of cleanliness.

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