Saskatoon diner reopened after cockroach complaint leads to temporary suspension

A Saskatoon restaurant has temporarily closed after a customer shared a photo showing a cockroach on her grilled cheese. Stacey Hein has that story.

A Saskatoon restaurant that was temporarily closed after a customer found a cockroach on a grilled cheese sandwich has reopened again.

Pink Cadillacs Diner on 8th Street East was closed last weekend after customer Tori Redman found a cockroach on her sandwich.

“I noticed there were a bunch of little black spots all over it, and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s just a dirty grill,’” Redman said in an interview.

She said she flipped her sandwich over and saw a cockroach on it.

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“I saw a big black blob, and then I saw the legs,” she said. “I showed my friend and he confirmed it for me. It was all downhill from there.”

Redman shared her experience on social media, where it quickly drew attention.

Owner Jon Tyson later apologized in a post online.

“I take my business seriously. We spray every two weeks and have no idea how this happened and truly sorry,” the statement read, in part.

Redman said she appreciated the response.

“I think they did a good job with the owner owning up to it and shutting down right away,” she said.

Reached by phone Saturday afternoon just as the restaurant reopened for the first time since the incident, Tyson said the whole experience has been “pretty emotional.”

In the midst of a crisis that garnered a lot of public attention, he wanted to make sure his response was swift, but measured.

“You just don’t want to say the wrong thing,” he said. “It was very stressful.”

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) said it temporarily suspended the restaurant’s licence pending an inspection and confirmation that required corrections have been made.

“The owner of the facility has been cooperative with the SHA,” the health authority said in a statement to CTV News Friday.

Inspection reports dated Monday and Friday note ongoing pest control issues, but Tyson said he and his staff have been working steadily to make sure everything is clean and up to code since the last inspection and he felt confident they were in good shape.

Health inspection reports for Saskatchewan restaurants are publicly available through Inspection InSite, a searchable provincial database. The site shows dozens of other Saskatoon restaurants have also faced pest control issues within the past year.

For Redman, the experience has left her more cautious about dining out.

“I’m going to check my food a lot more,” she said. “I don’t know if I could ever eat a grilled cheese again.”