A barista at a buzzy West Village coffee spot has spilled the beans on his employer’s alleged revolting food-safety faux pas.
Food handlers at Fellini Cucina, Fellini Coffee’s new restaurant in the trendy Manhattan neighborhood, are preparing food on top of garbage containers and storing meat and dairy at temperatures upwards of 45 degrees Fahrenheit, disgruntled barista Corey Kiser claimed in a now-viral TikTok video posted Sunday afternoon.
“The management, all they care about is show and Instagram, but behind the scenes, s–t is sickening,” Kiser said in the footage, which he filmed while an employee at the adjoining Fellini Coffee on Seventh Avenue South till Monday morning, when he was fired.
Fellini Cucina Manager Rodrigo Paiva told The Post in response to the TikToker’s accusations, which racked up more than 300,000 views as of Monday, “We try, but for restaurants to follow all the rules, it’s complicated.”
Still, he said all of Kiser’s allegations are “completely false.
“We’ve never had a situation of food poisoning, ever,” Paiva added of the restaurant, which opened in September. “At the end of the day, what backs us up is the fact that we have a very good standing with the [city] Department of Health.”
The location does not have an official city health “grade” to date, nor does its coffee shop next door, according to DOH records.
Fellini’s Thompson Street location in SoHo was dinged by the Health Department earlier this year for insufficient dishwashing, unlabeled juice, lack of a properly calibrated food thermometer, potential contamination, a malfunctioning sewage system and more, city records show. Its grade is still pending.
At the same time, city officials found evidence of mice at Fellini Coffee’s Eighth Avenue location in Chelsea, according to city records. That establishment has no grade posted on the DOH’s website.
One of Kiser’s coworkers — who told The Post that the barista was fired Monday morning as a result of the scathing TikTok video — backed up at least some of Kiser’s claims about the food conditions.
The coffee shop shares a walk-in refrigerator with the restaurant, which Kiser said is how he learned of some of the issues, including alleged bad milk served at the drink spot.
“We thought about contacting you guys [the press] because it’s literally disgusting,” his coworker said. “Now they’re literally threatening legal on [Kiser], even though it’s wrongful termination.”
Kiser, who only started working at the coffee shop two months ago, told The Post in an interview that he had been dumping dozens of gallons of apparently sour milk down the drain before realizing last week that the shared refrigerator was well above the temperature it should be — meaning poultry, pork and other dairy products could have been turning dangerously bad.
“We’re frothing sour milk, and it’s disgusting,” he said.
He recalled one instance of an unsuspecting coworker steaming curdled milk, and “we both gagged.”
In another instance last week, a woman showed the barista photos of Fellini workers prepping food in a space outside the restaurant and stacking baked goods on top of garbage cans, Kiser said.
Kiser said he also witnessed handlers stacking produce on top of raw bacon.
The barista said he sounded alarms about the health concerns in the company’s WhatsApp channel last week but received no response back. It was on Friday when he noticed the refrigerator’s temperature had climbed to 52 degrees Fahrenheit and decided something had to be done, he said.
A safe refrigerator temperature is 40 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, according to the FDA.
“It was clear that nothing was really going to be done,” Kiser told The Post. “At this point, it’s warmer in the walk-in freezer than it is on the street. … It was weighing on me, it was really bothering me.”
But Paiva said the refrigerator has always been at the appropriate temperature. He also asserted there is no alley nearby that could be used to prep food outside on garbage cans.
“I don’t know where we could be prepping food,” he told The Post. “We only have a kitchen, and the kitchen has prep tables.”
But Kiser said he hopes his TikTok whistleblowing will serve as a warning for Manhattan coffee lovers.
“I brag to my family that I work in Manhattan at this fancy place, but I wouldn’t even want my mom to come and eat here,” Kiser told The Post.
