Eateries cry foul on bad beef list

Several Newport-Mesa restaurants named on a state list of possible buyers of tainted beef said they were included on the list incorrectly.

Representatives at the Ayres Hotel, Hooters and the 21 Oceanfront Restaurant denied their kitchens had received beef from a Chino slaughterhouse that recalled 143 million pounds of the meat earlier this month.

The state Department of Public Health included 16 Newport-Mesa businesses on the list of retailers and distributors who may have received some of the tainted beef.

A number of restaurant officials said they were incensed to see the names of their companies on the list, which the Department of Public Health posted on its website this week.

“Our meat supplier, Premier Meat Co., is exclusive, and they don’t buy any of the meats from that packaging company,” said Pete Levonian, the general manager of 21 Oceanfront. “It’s just false information.”

Representatives for the Premier Meat Co., who refused to give their names, also said their company did not do business with the Chino plant.

Tom Ryder, the president of Fresca’s Mexican Grill in Costa Mesa, and Tim Fussell, the manager of Hooters, said they were surprised to see their companies’ names on the state list.

“As soon as we found out about the outbreak, our director of purchasing put out a list to all the Hooters [locations] saying, ‘Hey, guys, this doesn’t affect us,’” Fussell said. “We didn’t get any of the tainted beef.”

Douglas Ayres, the founder of the Ayres Hotel, also said his restaurant had not used any of the suspect beef. He added that the state list even got his business’ name wrong, calling it the Country Inn & Suite; the hotel, formerly known as the Ayres Country Inn & Suites, changed its name recently.

“It’s a state list,” Ayres said. “How accurate is the state in anything? How well does the government run anything?”

Lea Brooks, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, acknowledged Thursday morning that the list is probably not definitive.

Her office, she said, compiled the information by identifying meat distributors believed to have received the Chino beef and asking for their customer lists from the last two years.

The information, Brooks said, would likely change more than once.

“This list can go seven, eight layers deep,” she said. “So going through this process could take days or even weeks.”

Earlier this month, the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company recalled a large amount of its beef after a videotape emerged showing slaughterhouse workers using electric prods and forklifts on sick cattle and sending the animals to be processed as food. Brooks said the retraction of the beef counted as a “Class 2” recall, meaning that no illness had been linked directly to the meat and that the risk among consumers was considered low.

Other restaurants cited on the state list include Taco Mesa in Costa Mesa and Taco Rosa in Newport Beach.

Ivan Calderon, the manager of both restaurants, said his staff was investigating its beef and didn’t believe it had received any from Chino.

“We don’t use ground beef at all,” he said. “We don’t have ground beef on our menus. We only used ground beef as a test a few months ago for meatball soup, and we never put it on the menu.”

BUSINESS ON STATE LIST OF POSSIBLE BUYERS OF RECALLED BEEF

Ayres Hotel / Costa Mesa

Fresca’s Mexican Grill / Costa Mesa

Hooters / Costa Mesa

Inka Grill / Costa Mesa

Reliance Maintenance / Food Nutrition Center / Costa Mesa

Snack Bar Jasmine / Costa Mesa

Taco Mesa / Costa Mesa

Albertsons / Newport Beach

Charlie’s Chili / Newport Beach

Chicken Coop / Newport Beach

Landmark Steakhouse / Newport Beach

Le Bistro Mediterranean Restaurant / Newport Beach

Pueblo Trading Co. / Newport Beach

Shore House Cafe / Newport Beach

Taco Rosa / Newport Beach

21 Oceanfront Restaurant / Newport Beach

Note:Some businesses on the list may be defunct or identified inaccurately by the state.

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].