MIAMI, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Aprile Restaurant & Market at 7761 NW 107 Ave and found a restaurant operating without any written employee health policy, no mechanism for sick workers to report symptoms, and improper sewage or wastewater disposal, all on the same day.
Seven of the eight violations documented on April 8 were classified as high severity. The facility was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector documented that no person in charge was present or performing duties during the visit. That single finding is significant on its own. Research cited in state inspection data shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of supervised facilities.
The illness-related violations were clustered. Inspectors cited the restaurant for having no written employee health policy, and separately for employees not reporting symptoms of illness. Both violations existed at the same time, in the same kitchen.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Inspectors also found that handwashing facilities were inadequate and that employees were using improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning that even when workers attempted to wash their hands, the technique left pathogens behind.
The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, a required disclosure that informs customers, particularly those who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised, that certain menu items carry an elevated risk.
The intermediate violation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal rounded out the inspection record for that day.
A follow-up inspection was conducted on April 9, 2026. Inspectors returned and found three remaining high-severity violations still on record.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and no mechanism for workers to report illness symptoms is among the most direct routes to a multi-victim outbreak. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads efficiently when infected food workers handle food without restrictions. A written health policy is the structural tool that prevents a sick employee from showing up and working a full shift. At Aprile in April 2026, that tool did not exist.
The handwashing violations compounded that risk. Inadequate facilities means the physical infrastructure for proper hygiene was not in place. Improper technique means that even where facilities existed, the practice was flawed. Studies consistently show that improper handwashing technique leaves enough residual contamination on hands to transfer pathogens to food and surfaces. Both failures were documented at the same facility on the same day.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, the cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that touch food directly, are a primary vehicle for bacterial transfer. When those surfaces are not sanitized between uses, whatever was on the last item of food can end up on the next one.
The sewage violation is classified as intermediate rather than high severity, but it is not minor. Improper wastewater disposal creates the possibility of fecal contamination spreading through a facility. Raw sewage contains pathogens including E. coli and hepatitis A. Its presence in a food preparation environment is not a paperwork issue.
The Longer Record
The April 8 inspection did not represent a new low for Aprile Restaurant & Market. It represented a continuation of a documented pattern stretching back years.
State records show 25 inspections on file for this location, with 260 total violations accumulated across that history. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The inspection record shows high-severity violations in every documented visit. In October 2023, inspectors cited 10 high-severity violations in a single visit, the highest single-day count in the available record. In January 2025, inspectors found 7 high-severity violations, matching the April 2026 total exactly. In March 2025, just ten days before a separate April 2025 inspection, inspectors again found 5 high-severity violations.
The April 2025 inspection, conducted exactly one year before the inspection that generated this story, found 4 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate violations. By August 2025, the count was back up to 5 high and 3 intermediate. The violations did not resolve between visits and did not trend downward over time.
The specific categories cited in April 2026, management absence, illness policy failures, handwashing deficiencies, and unsanitary food contact surfaces, are not new to this location. They appear across multiple years of inspection records.
Open for Business
After an inspection that documented seven high-severity violations including no illness reporting system, improper sewage disposal, and food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, Aprile Restaurant & Market remained open to the public on April 8, 2026.
The follow-up inspection the next day found three high-severity violations still unresolved.
The restaurant has accumulated 260 violations across 25 inspections and has never been ordered closed.