On Friday, Delices de Paris finally re-opened after being closed down by the Health Department and what has been quite an difficult time for owner, Rosana Rosa. She is quite a tropper. Customers were pleased to see the store re-open. The Daily News has the story.

For many restaurant owners, dealing with the city Health Department lately has been a decidedly unsavory experience.

Take the example of Rosana Rosa, whose two-week ordeal to reopen her
French bakery, Delices de Paris in Park Slope, came at a time when the
city agency was shutting down an unprecedented number of eateries after
it was embarrassed by the romping rat fiasco at the KFC/Taco Bell in
Greenwich Village.

In the first 10 days of March, inspectors shut down 67 restaurants
citywide. That means the agency is on pace to shut down about 200
eateries this month – more than five times the 36 ordered closed in the
entire month of March last year. But Health Department officials denied
there is a crackdown.

Rosa’s bakery was shut down on Feb. 22 after inspectors found mouse
droppings there. But that was just the beginning of her ordeal.

"I understood the first violation. So I got it fixed and went to the
[Health Department] office to fill out a correction," Rosa said.

"But then the next person who helped me told me [the forms] had to
be typed. So I had to go all the way back to Brooklyn to type it. When
I came back with the whole thing typed, the guy started screaming that
he wanted it handwritten."

On followup visits, inspectors cited Rosa’s bakery for a range of
minor infractions, such as faulty plumbing and having more than the
permitted maximum of three fruit flies in the store.

Rosa was hardly alone. The Vegas Diner in Bensonhurst, John’s Pizza
in lower Manhattan and the hip Coffee Shop on Union Square were among
the more notable eateries shuttered in the wake of the rat debacle.

While explaining her predicament to the Daily News last week by cell
phone from Health Department offices, she was repeatedly berated by an
agency official, and broke down into sobs.

Rosa said that after waiting two hours in a cramped office, she was
told that she could reopen – then minutes later told she was denied,
and then an hour later that she passed inspection.

"Why can’t they get themselves together and figure out what they are
doing? Rosa asked. "This is not a game; this is my business."

A Health Department spokeswoman said inspectors are following the
rules and trying to get restaurants up and running as soon as possible.

"It’s kind of a team effort," Sara Markt said. "We want the restaurants to open as much as they do."

Another agency official said the number of closures has risen as a result of better inspections, not because of a crackdown.

On Friday, Rosa’s pastry shop finally reopened, much to the delight of Rosa and her customers.

"They were lining up outside the door," Rosa said. "Thank God this is all over."