Cattle Baron shut down for code violations

Employees at Cattle Baron in Portales were working to reopen the restaurant Friday after an anonymous tipster led the New Mexico Environment Department to find a laundry list of violations.

The restaurant was closed Thursday and will reopen once employees satisfy the inspector on site, according to NMED Communications Director Jim Winchester. The inspector initially found 23 violations.

“We went out there today,” Winchester said on Friday, “and they still have some issues to address.”

A few of the violations, according to NMED documents, included improper cooling in certain areas of the restaurant, ready-to-eat food not having a label and cross contamination.