CASSELBERRY, FL. Inspectors visiting Ave Maria Restaurant and Lounge on FL-436 on April 24 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers being served to customers, a violation that means the restaurant cannot account for where its food came from or whether it passed any federal safety inspection.
That was one of nine high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The April 24 inspection produced a list that touched nearly every layer of food safety. Food was documented as being in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. Food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Toxic substances were improperly identified, stored, or used, meaning chemicals capable of contaminating food were not secured or labeled as required.
Handwashing failures appeared twice in a single inspection: inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper hand and arm washing technique. That combination means the infrastructure for clean hands was lacking and, where it existed, it was not being used correctly.
The restaurant also had no written employee health policy, no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items, and was not properly using time as a public health control for food held outside refrigeration. Inspectors additionally documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal, improperly cleaned multi-use utensils, improper sanitizing procedures, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
Calls to Ave Maria Restaurant and Lounge were not returned.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved or unknown sources is among the most serious categories inspectors can cite, because it severs the chain of accountability entirely. When food cannot be traced to a licensed, inspected supplier, there is no way to know whether it was handled safely before it arrived at the restaurant, and no way to identify a source if customers become ill. Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli are the pathogens most commonly associated with uninspected food supply chains.
The cooking temperature violation compounds that risk directly. Undercooking is among the leading causes of foodborne illness in the United States. Salmonella in poultry, for instance, survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When food arrives from an unverified source and is then not cooked to a temperature that would kill pathogens, the two violations operate together.
The handwashing citations are not administrative. Improper technique leaves pathogens on hands even when an employee makes an attempt to wash. Inadequate facilities mean the attempt may not be possible at all. Both citations at the same inspection, at the same facility, point to a systemic breakdown in the most basic line of defense against person-to-person transmission of Norovirus and other pathogens.
Improper sewage disposal adds a separate and acute risk. Raw sewage carries fecal bacteria capable of contaminating surfaces, equipment, and food throughout a kitchen. The presence of that violation alongside improperly cleaned utensils and a failed sanitizing procedure means multiple surfaces in the facility may not have been decontaminated between uses.
The Longer Record
April 24 was not an outlier for Ave Maria. State records show 29 inspections on file for the Casselberry location, with 229 total violations accumulated across that history.
The two most recent inspections before April 24 each produced six high-severity violations, one in October 2025 and one in May 2025. The inspection immediately before those, in December 2024, found eight high-severity violations. The facility has now logged nine, eight, six, and six high-severity violations across its four most recent substantive inspections.
The restaurant has been emergency-closed twice. Inspectors ordered it shut in January 2021 after documenting rodent activity; it reopened the following day. A prior closure in September 2020 came after inspectors found no running water; that closure also lasted one day.
Neither of those closures appears to have interrupted the pattern of high-severity citations that has continued in every subsequent year on record. The violations documented in April 2026, including food from unapproved sources, undercooking, and toxic substance mishandling, are not new categories for this location. They are recurring ones.
Still Open
State inspectors documented nine high-severity violations at Ave Maria Restaurant and Lounge on April 24, 2026. They left the restaurant open.
Among the customers who walked in after that inspection, none would have seen a posted notice. No orange closure sticker was placed on the door. The consumer advisory for raw and undercooked foods that inspectors cited as missing was still missing. The food from the unverified supplier was still on the menu.
The restaurant remained open.