JACKSONVILLE BEACH, FL. Inspectors who visited Another Broken Egg Cafe at 2230 3rd Street South on July 17 documented a violation that puts every customer at the table at direct risk: employees were not reporting symptoms of illness, a failure that state records identify as the leading cause of multi-victim foodborne outbreaks.
The cafe drew seven high-severity violations and three intermediate violations that day. It was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The illness-reporting violation is the kind that regulators flag as acutely dangerous because it has no visible warning sign. A sick employee who doesn't report symptoms can transmit norovirus or other pathogens directly to food before anyone knows there is a problem.
Parasite destruction procedures were also not followed. That violation applies to fish and pork served raw or undercooked, where proper freezing or cooking is the only barrier between a customer and live parasites including Anisakis and Trichinella. Another Broken Egg is a breakfast and brunch concept where dishes involving lox, smoked fish, and eggs Benedict are common menu items.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils that carry bacteria from one food to the next are among the most documented vehicles for cross-contamination in restaurant kitchens.
The cafe also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised had no warning that certain dishes carried elevated risk. Shellfish records were inadequate, removing the traceability chain that investigators rely on when a customer reports getting sick. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled near food. And no person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties during the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting failure and the parasite destruction failure are not paperwork problems. They are conditions under which a customer can sit down for brunch and leave with a foodborne illness that has no visible cause and no easy remedy.
Norovirus, which spreads through food handled by symptomatic workers, can incapacitate a healthy adult for days and poses serious risk to the elderly and immunocompromised. Anisakis, a parasite found in undercooked fish, causes severe abdominal pain and in some cases requires surgical removal. Both risks were present at this facility on July 17.
The improper sewage disposal citation adds a separate concern. Sewage that is not properly contained or removed introduces fecal contamination pathways into a food preparation environment, a condition that can affect surfaces, equipment, and food directly. That violation appeared alongside the equipment-in-poor-repair citation, which matters because cracked or corroded equipment cannot be effectively sanitized, giving bacteria places to persist between cleaning cycles.
Taken together, the seven high-severity violations documented on July 17 represent failures across almost every layer of food safety: management oversight, employee health, food sourcing controls, surface sanitation, chemical storage, and customer disclosure. The absence of a person in charge during the inspection is consistent with the breadth of what inspectors found. CDC data cited in state inspection records indicates that facilities without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those that do.
The Longer Record
July 17 was not an anomaly for this location. State records show 33 inspections on file and 187 total violations accumulated over the life of the facility.
The most recent inspections before July 17 show a consistent pattern of high-severity citations. The December 2025 inspection produced four high-severity and three intermediate violations. The July 2025 inspection produced the same count. The October 2024 inspection produced five high-severity and three intermediate violations. The one clean inspection in the recent record, October 15, 2024, came one week after a five-high-severity visit on October 8.
The facility was emergency-closed once, on August 6, 2024, for fly activity. Inspectors returned the following day and allowed it to reopen. Two inspections on August 7, 2024 each documented additional high-severity violations, meaning the reopening day itself generated new citations.
The pattern across 2024, 2025, and now 2026 is of a facility that cycles through high-severity violations across multiple inspection cycles without a sustained period of compliance. The July 17 inspection, with seven high-severity violations, is the highest single-visit count in the recent record provided.
Open for Business
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Seven high-severity violations, including employees not reporting illness and parasite destruction failures, did not meet that threshold on July 17.
Another Broken Egg Cafe at Jacksonville Beach remained open after the inspection.
