We will work with them to establish conditions under which they could reopen as soon as possible. The restaurant has been ordered previously to correct health code violations detected during inspections, including one conducted on Tuesday, said Loyce Robinson, the manager of the department's consumer protection division. The violations included produce found at temperatures that exceeded the standard 40 degrees and some hot foods that were below the standard 141 degrees, Robinson said. In addition, Robinson said the inspectors found a dishwasher that was not properly sanitizing. An inspection on March 3 turned up only minor violations requiring repairs to the restaurant's roof or ceiling, she said.
Most restaurants have some violations.
The Sizzler on Layton Ave. and the one on Mayfair Road in Wauwatosa are franchises owned by Lee Eschenbach. Eschenbach wouldn't comment when reached at home Wednesday night, but a statement from Sizzler USA, which operates company-owned restaurants and has franchises nationwide, said Eschenbach is working with health department officials to determine the cause of the outbreak as quickly as possible. This is not the first E. coli outbreak linked to the restaurant chain, however. Four outbreaks of the bacteria infected at least 30 people at four of its restaurants in the Pacific Northwest in 1993. Locally, a worker infected with Hepatitis A at the Sizzler restaurant at 1900 N. Mayfair Road exposed hundreds of people to the virus in October 1991.