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SPECIAL REPORT: The Grouper Catch

Restaurateurs say story on grouper was unfair to them

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 5, 2007

Two Pinellas County restaurant owners figure they were unnecessarily tarnished last week in a St. Petersburg Times story about fake grouper.

The story listed Tampa Bay restaurants cited by Florida health inspectors for switching menu items, primarily cheap Asian catfish for grouper.

Regulators announced that minimum fines for first-time offenders would double from $250 to $500. Second-offense fines are now $1, 000 and any additional offenses can result in license suspension or revocation.

Mike Cronk of Cronk's Boulevard Diner in Pinellas Park says none of this should apply to him.

The diner was under previous ownership in July when the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation found it serving pollock and basa as grouper. Then, the restaurant was called the Boulevard Diner.

Cronk, whose family markets and restaurants go back three generations in Pinellas County, bought the diner in January. He doesn't even carry grouper on the menu, he said, because of uncertainty of its identity.

The Sunset Grill in Clearwater was cited by inspectors in May of 2006 because the restaurant was serving a catfish called ponga in place of grouper.

But owner Nazire Leass contested the citation and the case was dropped without a fine, authorities confirmed Monday.

The frozen fillets had arrived in a box labeled "Paradise Grouper" in large letters. But that was the name of import company, not the contents. "Ponga" was listed in smaller print.

"I though ponga was some kind of farm-raised grouper." Leass said last week. "That's what the supplier said. I had no clue."

A state spokesman confirmed that Leass was counseled about the mistake but no fine was levied.

[Last modified October 19, 2007, 23:42:40]