MIAMI, FL. A food worker at 107 Steak & Bar on NW 107th Avenue was found not reporting symptoms of illness to management during a September 3 inspection, one of six high-severity violations state inspectors documented at the Miami restaurant that day. The facility was not closed.
The inspection also found that the restaurant had no written employee health policy at all, meaning there was no formal system in place requiring sick workers to stay home or report symptoms before handling food.
Those two violations appeared alongside four others at the same severity level: improper handwashing technique by employees, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled near food, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items. Two intermediate violations, covering multi-use utensils not properly cleaned and single-use items being reused, rounded out the inspection report.
What Inspectors Found
The combination of no health policy and an employee actively not reporting illness is the most direct route to a multi-victim outbreak documented in this inspection. Without a written policy, workers have no formal obligation to disclose that they are sick. Without reporting, a contagious employee handles food, and customers eat it.
The improperly stored toxic chemicals add a separate and immediate hazard. Chemicals stored near or improperly labeled around food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, and mislabeled containers have caused acute poisoning incidents when workers reach for the wrong bottle.
The food contact surfaces violation compounds the handwashing problem. If surfaces where raw meat, produce, and prepared dishes are handled are not being sanitized between uses, pathogens transfer from one food item to the next regardless of what workers do at the sink.
The missing consumer advisory is a narrower but still serious gap. A steakhouse that serves raw or undercooked beef, fish, or eggs is required to post a visible advisory so that pregnant customers, elderly diners, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system can make an informed choice. Without it, those customers have no warning.
What These Violations Mean
The pairing of no health policy and an employee not reporting illness is not a paperwork problem. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads directly from an infected food handler to customers through contaminated food. A single sick worker on a busy dinner shift can expose dozens of people. The absence of a written policy at 107 Steak & Bar means the restaurant had no documented mechanism to prevent that from happening.
Improper handwashing technique is a violation that surprises some readers because it implies a worker did go to the sink. But technique matters. Studies have shown that a rushed or incomplete handwash leaves enough pathogen load on hands to contaminate food. At a steakhouse where workers handle raw proteins and then move to plating or garnishing, that gap is significant.
The multi-use utensil and single-use item violations, while classified as intermediate, are not minor in a facility that already has surface sanitation problems. Bacterial biofilms form on improperly cleaned utensils within 24 hours and resist standard wiping. Reusing single-use items, such as gloves or foil, transfers whatever contamination the item picked up on its first use directly to the next food it touches.
The Longer Record
The September 3 inspection is not an anomaly at 107 Steak & Bar. State records show 26 inspections on file and 153 total violations accumulated across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern across the eight most recent inspections is consistent. The March 2026 inspection logged five high-severity violations and one intermediate. The July 2025 inspection was the worst recent visit on record, with seven high-severity violations and one intermediate. March 2025 produced five high and one intermediate. November 2024 brought three high and two intermediate violations.
The single worst inspection in the available record was May 30, 2024, when inspectors cited 10 high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. A follow-up visit the next day, May 31, still found three high-severity violations remaining.
Across every inspection in the past two years, high-severity violations appeared every single time. The count has never reached zero.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at 107 Steak & Bar on September 3, 2026. The restaurant was not closed.
Customers who dined there that evening had no way of knowing an employee had been found not reporting illness symptoms, that food contact surfaces had not been properly sanitized, or that toxic chemicals were improperly stored near food. No consumer advisory on the menu told vulnerable diners what they were ordering.
The inspection report is public record. The restaurant's door was open.
