Mobile restaurant Spot of Tea closing after clash with health inspectors

The owner of downtown Mobile restaurant Spot of Tea, a fixture on Cathedral Square for 30 years, has announced he has closed the business and selling the property after a clash with health inspectors.

“It’s with a heavy heart and tearful face I must announce we can’t reopen,” owner Tony Moore said in a Facebook post, following that with a litany of complaints about alleged unfair treatment and criminal conduct by the Mobile County Health Department. The message concludes with a postscript that the building, equipment and business “are now officially for sale.”

Online real estate listings said the 16,808-square-foot property was for sale with an asking price of $2.3 million. Two sites, remax.com and realty.com, said their listings had been up for more than 40 days.

Spot of Tea, at 310 Dauphin St., was opened in December 1994 by Moore and his mother, Ruby Moore. Offering a hearty breakfast-and-brunch menu in a prominent spot on the north site of Cathedral Square, it enjoyed consistently heavy traffic and at one time expanded to include a comedy club, L’Estrade, on the back side of the building.

The recent troubles apparently began, according to information provided by Moore, with issues that snowballed into a recent shutdown order. Moore shared a message that he said he had sent to MCHD Executive Director of Prevention & Wellness Stephanie Woods-Crawford and District Manager of Inspection Services Brad Philips on Jan. 7. Its tone was conciliatory:

“I want to start by saying thank you for allowing Mrs. Sonja Evans to work with us on the Vector issues over the past several months, she’s definitely a gem. Be good to her or she’ll be on my team, she seems to care about the Spot of Tea more than most of my employees. I can’t keep doing what we’re doing and something tells me y’all aren’t happy with our relationship either, the past 10 days has had a bad effect on my son, it’s bothered him immensely. He’s really disturbed watching the torture I go through with the threats of closing, the closings, the not closings, our financial situation, losing business. It’s all taken its toll o me physically, mentally, and emotionally, to the point that I’m ready to hang it up. I plan on retiring Dec. 31, this year, I’ll be 62 years old and will be in my 31st year of business, I think the longest running restaurant downtown ever.”

In that message, Moore detailed steps he had taken, or was taking, to correct deficiencies identified by inspectors. This lengthy list included repairing holes, replacing stained ceiling tiles, sanitizing equipment, repairing sinks and making sure all employees had valid food handler cards.

More recent statements from Moore, both on social media and in messages he says he sent to public health officials, have been marked by rage. In a Jan. 10 letter that Moore said he sent to MCHD officials, Moore opened by saying “I’m letting this town know you run a corrupt operation, whether y’all let me stay open or not … I’m going scorched earth on you … I’m not insinuating you extorted & blackmailed me, I’m stating it as a fact.” That letter laid out a timeline of alleged persecution going back to July 2023.

It’s not the first time Moore has shown his temper. In March 2021 he created a social-media stir with a furious memo he posted to chastise employees for alleged dishonesty, laziness and thievery. “This staff needs an enema,” read one section title.

Asked for comment, a spokesman for the Mobile County Health Department provided the following statement:

Mobile County Health Department (MCHD) does not report on active investigations or inspections. The Health Department is responsible to review and issue health permits to business in any municipality or city located or operating in Mobile County that require a health permit based on state/county laws.

MCHD will inspect health permitted businesses to ensure that the businesses are meeting sanitary conditions to prevent the spread of any bacterial or viral diseases. Our inspectors use this opportunity to educate and document that owners and operators are meeting sanitary practices.

In many cases, immediate corrections are possible by owners and operators. If corrections are not possible in the short term, a business may elect to close to fix the findings or be closed by Dr. Kevin Philip Michaels, Mobile County Health Officer, based on the nature of the deficiency and previous inspection results.

The Alabama Department of Public Health website lists Spot of Tea as closed due to ‘Failure to make corrections for a score of 75 within 48 hours.” It’s not clear whether the ADPH played any role in the inspections; a request for information was pending as this story was published.

In announcing the closure, Moore said he’d tried repeatedly to get a follow-up inspection, to no avail. He also repeated his accusations of bullying and extortion, and said the shutdown was breaking up a kitchen staff he praised for its longevity and referred to as “Team Tea” and “the Bad Boys of Dauphin Street.”

The post reiterated that Moore was having to cancel a number of large group bookings including some related to the Mardi Gras season. It concluded, “Mobile, thank you for over 29 years, The Moore Family & Team Tea — January 16, 2024.”