DETROIT (WXYZ) — The sign on Lafayette Coney Island's door is a rare site. It reads: "Sorry we're closed."
It's the disappointment being felt all across metro Detroit.
“I woke up dreaming about Coney Island, and I happen to pick up my phone and I was reading the local news," lifelong Detroiter Marsha Henderson told 7 Action News.
The Detroit Health Department reported it found rat droppings. The discovery came after a video online surfaced of rats in the basement.
”I’m going, ‘Oh man. What am I going to eat? I guess I have to go to American (Coney Island next door) now," she recalled.
Henderson is one of the countless loyal Lafayette customers that learned the iconic Detroit restaurant is closed for the time being.
This couldn't come at a worse time for Lafayette, with big events that draw big crowds to this restaurant downtown on the horizon.
The Detroit Lions season opener at Ford Field is this Sunday. The Detroit Auto Show charity preview is taking place in just about a week.
7 Action News had a lot of questions including when was the most recent health inspection and were there violations in the past? According to the health department, the records online aren't up to date but will be updated.
No one from the health department would go on camera Thursday. However, a spokesperson did say the most recent inspection prior to this was in May and there were several violations found including a "core violation."
The department would not give specifics on the violation without a Freedom of Information Act request being filled out, which could take several days to fulfill. 7 Action News is told it did not involve rodents.
We have submitted a FOIA request.
Meantime, the owner's son Samir Purovic told 7 Action News, “We just got to patch up. Patch up. The health department came again today."
“They said once we fix those holes, we can open," he explained.
Purovic said the establishment will take about a week to do a thorough job and that a contractor came out today, along with a new pest control company.
He also said environmental factors — not in their control — are at play.
“We have the garden next door. We have two vacant spots next to us, ya know, we share the wall. So, there’s nothing we can do. We don’t know what’s going on over there," Purovic explained.
He said the health department’s claim that the business reopened the other night after voluntarily shutting down is not true. The health department stands by that claim.
