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[itaewonguy]

Itaewon Restaurant Vows to Fight Closure





By Jeffrey Miller/ Feature Writer and Byun Duk-kun/ Staff Reporter





Skip Tuttle of the Nashville Steakhouse in Itaewon, Seoul, had a special collection of spices and other ingredients that he used just a couple of times a year. Kept in a storeroom in the basement of the restaurant, they were only used in his annual Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.



Little did he know how much trouble they would stir up for the restaurant.



Now, this landmark eatery which has been an Itaewon mainstay for over 20 years faces a five-week closure because some of those spices and ingredients were outdated and, according to inspectors, illegally imported.



��I keep certain spices in the storeroom that I brought over from the States that I use in my turkey dinners for our get-togethers at Thanksgiving and Christmas,���� Tuttle said. ��They had nothing to do with our regular menu.����



According to Tuttle and his wife, Lee Ok-hui, inspectors from the Yongsan District Office came to the restaurant in July and wanted to inspect the storeroom in the basement. Tuttle and Lee were on holiday in the United States when they heard the news and had to cut their vacation short.



��They walked back to the new cook and told him to take me to your storeroom,���� Tuttle said. ��Somebody knew that we had a storeroom down there.����



According to an official from the Yongsan District Office, the Nashville was in violation of Food Sanitation Regulations clauses 4 and 31. Clause 4 deals with using foodstuffs without a specific source, meaning the foods restaurants use must have cleared customs if they are imported, and if they are domestic they must have a government-recognized label specifying their source. Clause 31 deals with unsanitary food products, which means using outdated food materials.



The spices and other ingredients in question at the Nashville were some black pepper, ground cloves, thyme, gelatin and a powdered chicken stock that was used to make gravy.



��Our employees tried to tell them that this was Skip��s private stuff and not used in the restaurant,���� Lee said. ��Even when we showed them our menu and explained to them that we don��t use these spices they didn��t believe us.����



The penalty is a one-month forced closure for illegal food material, while outdated food gets 15 days. The Nashville received five weeks because when one restaurant violates two or more regulations, the shorter penalty is halved, said Son Young-jun of the district office��s food hygiene and sanitation department



��They said we had to close for five weeks because there was no expiration date on some of the spices,���� Lee said. ��That��s ridiculous. I could understand if we sold something bad to a customer and they got sick and complained.����



Son denied the Nashville was being singled out for the infractions.



��The Seoul City Government organizes and conducts restaurant sanitation inspections once a month and how many restaurants are inspected is decided by the Seoul city government,���� Son said. ��The inspectors consist of food hygiene and sanitation officials from district offices and are picked at random each month.����



During the inspections in July, one restaurant was found to have unregistered food material and was closed for one month, while five other restaurants were in violation of employee health records. According to Son, each restaurant is required to keep worker health records updated and on hand.



��Such restaurants in violation of employee health records are punishable by a fine, and some of these restaurants which were caught this time received as much as 1.7 million won in fines,���� Son said.



The Nashville was found to have two illegal foodstuffs—ground cloves and gelatin—and neither had labels, according to Son. Additionally, the Nashville was found with four outdated food items including the pepper and chicken stock. They were confiscated by the inspectors to prevent the restaurant from using them and drew a more severe penalty than the other restaurants.



As soon as Tuttle found out about the inspection and that his spices had been confiscated, he contacted the McCormick Spice Company.



��I wrote a letter to the McCormick which is the largest spice dealer in the world,���� Tuttle said, ��and they wrote back and said that pepper really doesn��t have an expiration date.����



According to the letter he received from McCormick, the shelf life of pepper is normally four years and after it is opened it is good for another three years. After that, the only thing that happens is that it loses its flavor, but poses no health risk whatsoever.



The Korean government sees differently in this respect, Son said.



��For food products, producers are required to set an expiration date. This is because when the food expiration date expires, it can pose threats to human health,���� he said. ��We didn��t intentionally pick out Nashville to inspect and give them a penalty. The regulation applies to all restaurants.����



However, Lee pointed out that if the government is going to crack down on products without expiration dates, then they should also crack down on the spice dealers in Korean markets.



��When you go to a Korean market, you see merchants grinding pepper right there in the open,���� she said. ��Do you think that pepper has an expiration date?����



Having to close for five weeks though is a bitter, not to mention costly, pill to swallow for the Nashville.



��Our losses would be very considerable if we had to close for five weeks,���� Tuttle said, ��not to mention that our 30 employees would have to go without pay for five weeks.����



Likewise, Lee and Tuttle do not understand why they have been given such a harsh punishment. Stopping short of pointing fingers at anyone for why the government decided to come down this heavy on the Nashville, Tuttle and Lee are angry at the way they have been treated especially when the establishment has been a prominent Itaewon establishment for over 20 years.



��The government is always talking about how they want to bring in foreign investment and then they treat the foreigner like this,���� Skip said. ��You want to bring in the investor, but then you treat the investor like garbage.����



And it doesn��t stop here. According to Tuttle, anybody that wants to import something has to go through hell. ��The expiration date that the Korean government sets on imported meat is so short that it��s often too hard to sell it in time,�� he added.



Although the Yongsan District Office has not come back with a letter stating when the Nashville has to close, Tuttle and Lee plan to fight it all the way.



��We��ve got a lawyer and we��re going to take them to court,���� Skip said. ��This is ridiculous.����



In the meantime, it��s still business as usual at the Nashville. However, how long it is before the Nashville will have to close its doors is still up to the district office.



��We have to keep on fighting,���� Tuttle said. ��As long as this is in litigation, they can��t close us.����



This article appeared in The Korea Times on September 14, 2003


were they closed down? I remember seeing the restaurant closed for a while this year.. a couple weeks I think...
what happend..

[SuperFly]

I know Skip Tuttle and his wife OkHee....at least I met them. They came to our house in Arizona in their RV crossing the country in 2000. He and she are really humble people, imo. My father in law knew her so she was checking up on us and reporting back I'm sure... anyhoo...sorry to interrupt as I have nothing relevant to add to this article.

[JackSarang]

Guess they didn't pay their kickback on time.

What a ridiculous incident. Expired pepper poses a health risk?

I'd be suprised if any of the ajumma restaurants in my area would pass even the most basic food inspection. But then, they don't have too, they're koreans.

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

I would say 90% of Korean restaraunts would fail a basic sanitation test and be shut down and fined heavily according to the laws of my country. This is insanity of the highest order.

[jaganath69]

[Universalis]

I'd guess that article is almost a year old.

I heard they took care of the problem in short time and that everything is OK now. I was in Itaewon just the other day and Nashville's seemed to be up and running just fine.

Brian

[Swiss James]

I remember reading that article when it first came out, it just screamed either "Corruption" or "Spiteful rival" right off the page. Glad to hear he's still up and running

[itaewonguy]

yes.. but he was closed for a couple weeks there..
anyone know why..?

[Romulus]

This is about $$$$.

[Korea Newfie]

Ths is the best part...

[little mixed girl]

[Derrek]

A Korean female friend of mine ate some bad bread yesterday and went to the hospital for food poisoning. She said she's getting compensation from the Bread company. I'll let you know when I hear what company it was.

[Mankind]

I got food poisoning (only sick once) on back to back trips to Nashville in 2002. Bad porkchops both times. One time was sick as a dog late that night. The other time I could smell that they were rotten when they served them. They insisted they were fine. I took one little bite and spit it out instantly. I actually had to argue with them about paying for it. Needless to say, Ihaven't eaten there since.

HAND

[Butterfly]

That bar is horrible. I like Calientes though, upstairs.

[TECO]

Corruption lies at the heart of this one - but if he's been around for 20 years you'd think he had to be paying off someone at some point, right?

Even the local Kebab guy here in Shinjuku tells me how he pays off Y400,00 per month to the local 'mob' so that he can run his kebab stand hassle free.

It's Interesting to hear him tell how it all works.