Update: Thuy Cafe owner Thuy Le called WTSP reporter Beau Zimmer to come for an all-access visit to her kitchen Thursday.
Thuy Cafe has attracted a big local following for its Vietnamese sandwiches and fresh fruit boba teas. Creative Loafing featured the Pinellas Park storefront restaurant (pronounced “Twee”) in the “World’s Fare” Food Issue in June. But a story on WTSP/Channel 10 last week brought Thuy Cafe a more unwelcome form of publicity.
Reporter Beau Zimmer, as part of the station’s Restaurant Red Alert series, visited Thuy after learning that the state health department had received an anonymous complaint in June accusing staffers of “catching, preparing and cooking rats on premises.”
Responding to the complaint, department inspectors had visited Thuy June 4 and followed up with a second inspection July 17. While inspectors found 24 violations in June, including “7-10 dry rat droppings around water heater” and food storage errors, they found no evidence that rats were being prepared for dinner. The restaurant never closed, and all problems had been rectified when the inspectors returned in July.
Zimmer said the focus of his story was meant to be on the violations, not the anonymous rat complaint. But the rat angle definitely got played up prominently on air and online, where the headline read “Complaint alleges Thuy Cafe cooked rats in kitchen.” The story also included footage of rats being skinned and cooked — footage, however, that was not shot at Thuy Cafe.
“As unbelievable as the complaint might sound,” Zimmer intones, “this video shows how rats are routinely sold and prepared on Vietnamese street corners, but here in the U.S.?”
Restaurant owner Thuy Le said that people watching the video may not have realized the footage was from elsewhere. “There is a misconception that the footage was taken at our restaurant,” Le said. “It wasn’t.”
Zimmer acknowledges that some viewers may have gotten the wrong impression. “I have gotten three or four comments saying they thought it was unfair to put the video in there.” But he explains the inclusion this way: “I was trying to show that even though it seems bizarre, this is something that goes on in markets in Vietnam.”
So is Thuy Cafe capturing and cooking locally sourced vermin for its delicious bahn mi sandwiches? Perhaps a rat puree-flavored boba tea? “No, of course not,” Le said. “It is so ridiculous. I was born in Vietnam but I was raised in America. I would never catch, cook, and serve rats at my restaurant.”
Le believes the anonymous complaint came from a rival Vietnamese eatery. “I think it came out of jealousy from another restaurant,” Le said. She said she dealt with a similar anonymous complaint a few years ago. “It turned out to be from another restaurant then,” Le said. A slew of Vietnamese restaurants are located in the vicinity of Thuy Cafe.
Following the WTSP broadcast, Thuy Café posted a long message on its Facebook page, reiterating that the rat complaint was not factual and that the video included misleading footage. The post calls the story “a misleading, outrageous and patently unjustified and unfair segment,” and includes a link to WTSP’s contact information. Thuy Café’s page also lists Le’s personal number for any customers with questions.
has owned Thuy Cafe for 10 years. She is opening a second restaurant in coming weeks called La Vie, next door to the Cupcake Spot on Central Avenue in Downtown St. Pete.
“I work really hard and I hope people know that,” Le said.
She and Zimmer differ on whether he contacted her before running the story. Le said she was out of town when Zimmer came to visit, but that an employee did give the reporter her phone number. “They never called,” Le said Thursday. “They never called me before it was on the news.”
But Zimmer said he was never given a number for getting in touch with Le. “That’s absolutely incorrect and we made several requests to speak with her,” Zimmer said Monday. “I left my cell and office line and she never contacted me.” (His report also shows an employee telling him he has to leave the restaurant.) “If the owners of Thuy Café want to invite us back and show us the kitchen, we are always willing to come back,” Zimmer said.
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2012.