What We Learned from Mar-a-Lago's Food Safety Inspection

In words we thought we wouldn't write for at least four years: Donald Trump has actually had a pretty good week. Before he managed to lower the bar of what it means to be presidential by not yelling racial slurs during his first speech to Congress, there was the news that the restaurants in his sprawling Florida estate and members-only club Mar-a-Lago—which Trump has called the "Winter White House"—passed their annual food and safety inspections by Florida's Division of Hotels and Restaurants.

The exclusive resort's passage denied Trump's opponents what would have been some sweet, sweet schadenfreude. Still, tomorrow when Trump inevitably claims that his club passed with the best marks of all time or a perfect score, there will be evidence to the contrary. In total, inspectors recorded a full 13 violations, though to be fair, none were serious and most were corrected over the course of the inspection.

In the report from the inspection, which took place in January, the main 700-seat area of the Mar-a-Lago Club got dinged for ten violations, while the smaller dining area earned only three: plates stacked incorrectly, an employee failing to wear a hairnet, and an insufficient supply of paper towels.

In details that will make you glad you don't run a restaurant, the larger dining room got written up for—among other things—letting an employee drink a beverage without a lid and a straw, and some rust found on a shelf full of coolers. There were also three more major "high priority" violations, each relating to walk-in and reach-in coolers which were kept too warm and were considered "potentially hazardous". Eventually, inspectors decided they would pose no health issue, since Mar-a-Lago's diner number-one, President Trump himself, prefers his proteins scorched to a state so well-done that all potential pathogens would be certainly be killed. (Joking. Sort of.) Anyways, employees just had to turn the temperature back down to appropriate levels during the inspection.

Successful inspections are par for the course—Trump-approved golf reference!—at Mar-a-Lago, which has passed muster every year since records became available. Still, if you find a flourescent yellow hair in your charred Salisbury steak, don't act too surprised.