Gary
and Rita Krivos stand in their restaurant, Key
Westconsin, on Wednesday.
Charles
Auer/Freeman Staff |
 |
WAUKESHA - A downtown restaurant that features
gluten-free food has attained the rare accomplishment of
capturing perfect cleanliness scores from the Waukesha
County Division of Environmental Health for two
consecutive years.
Key Westconsin, 331 Riverfront Parkway, received the
highest scores of 100 from Environmental Health for
each of the two years the restaurant’s been open -
2011 and 2012 - said Sarah K. Ward, the county’s
environmental health manager.
Sweetening the experience, Key Westconsin also was
given a Blue Ribbon Award last week for clean dining
from Today’s TMJ 4.
Few Waukesha County restaurants ever receive scores
of 100 during surprise annual inspections. To win
two years in a row is unheard of, Ward said. This
year, the only other Waukesha County restaurant
within the same business category as Key Westconsin
to receive a perfect score was Maid-Rite, a Waukesha
eatery at 801 W, Moreland Blvd., owned by Waukesha
Common Council Alderman Vance Skinner.
Key Westconsin owner Gary Krivos credits his
success to working long hours at several chain
restaurants that trained employees about the
importance of cleanliness.
“Even as I was working for other restaurants, I
dreamed of someday owning my own place,” Krivos
said.
Those lessons never left Krivos, who said his
nightmare is a customer becoming sick from eating
the restaurant’s food. Krivos said he puts his mind
at ease by being a stickler for cleanliness in his
kitchen and throughout the restaurant that
specializes in fish and seafood.
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Freeman Staff A metal palm tree marks the location of
Key Westconsin.
Charles
Auer/Freeman Staff
|
Ward said Krivos’s key to success is keeping his
“risk factors” low by minimizing the amount of food
handling that happens among staff.
“He has a good, proactive management style and his
staff follows his example,” Ward said.
“The more food is handled, the more opportunities
there are for something to go wrong.”
The county does 2,000 inspections a year and only a
handful of restaurants the size of Key Westconsin
and Maid-Rite receive perfect scores, Ward said.
Krivos said one of his first tasks before opening
Key Westconsin was to visit the Division of
Environmental Health and learn its expectations of
restaurant cleanliness on everything from floor to
ceiling.
Krivos operates the restaurant with his wife, Rita.
They live in Waukesha and will celebrate their 38th
wedding anniversary in June.