Well, that was after they were sued – see 2014 Outbreak of Salmonella Montevideo, Brent’s Deli Westlake Village.

Dear Customers:

As a family-run business that serves hundreds of customers daily at our Westlake Village location, the news of even one customer becoming sick as a result of dining at our restaurant is of deep concern. We are committed to delivering our customers high quality meals and service, and this service includes our focus on food safety.

This past summer, we were notified by Ventura County officials that a few customers who reported dining at our Westlake Village restaurant were confirmed to have Salmonella.

Our Response

Once notified, we immediately worked with Ventura County health officials to evaluate our food safety practices, and immediately addressed and corrected all of its directives. At no time were we required by County health officials to close our store.

To ensure the safety of our customers and employees, we initiated the following steps:

We voluntarily closed our Westlake Village location to have the entire restaurant thoroughly cleaned and sanitized by a third-party cleaning company.

We took the additional step of hiring the services of UL Everclean, consultants who specialize in food safety audits, assessments and trainings for the restaurant industry.

In addition to the regular audits by Ventura County health officials, UL Everclean regularly conducts unexpected audits of our food safety practices – from testing how food is handled and prepared, to reviewing serving practices, and evaluating food prep and storage areas – and works with us to implement any necessary changes and additional employee training.

Our Commitment

Our focus has always been on customer satisfaction and providing a high-quality experience to the thousands of loyal customers who visit our locations in Westlake Village and Northridge. We are focused on continuous improvement – and will continue to take a hands-on approach in order to prevent similar situations from happening in the future and put our customers’ safety first, always.

Avoiding the months long Salmonella outbreak in 2014 would have been the best and being open about it at the time would have avoided much of the fallout.