The nascent shitstorm was the story PandoDaily wrote that cherry-picked the mold and rat incidents from the Vice piece to make the content more salacious than it otherwise was.
Dude, say what you will about PandoDaily, but it is not OK to have rats running around in a food prep facility.
The health department in SF will shut down restaurants for less.
Ever since watching the "Cities" episode of Human Planet I've assumed most restaurants have pest infestations to varying degrees. Is that not the case?
I hope you realize there are more rats in more restaurants and food factories than you think, and that health departments nationally, while quick to cite, fine, and demand changes to your pest control, really understand that rodent problems happen, and don't shut you down for a rat. Rat infestation... yes.
There is no such thing as ”a rat", trust me.
In San Francisco, vermin is considered a "major violation", and requires immediate shutdown: