MIAMI BEACH, FL. Back in April, a state inspector walked into Bacon Bitch at 1001 Collins Ave and found food coming from sources that had never been approved or identified, toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, and no advisory warning customers that raw or undercooked items were on the menu. Seven of the eight violations documented on April 17, 2026 were classified as high-severity. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food-sourcing violation is among the most serious an inspector can cite. When food arrives from an unapproved or unidentified supplier, it has bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspections entirely, meaning there is no way to trace it if a customer gets sick.
Alongside that, inspectors found shellfish on the premises without adequate identification records. Oysters, clams, and mussels are high-risk foods, often consumed raw or lightly cooked, and the tag system that tracks where shellfish originated exists specifically so a contamination outbreak can be traced back to a harvest site before more people are harmed.
Toxic chemicals were stored or labeled improperly, creating a direct contamination risk for food nearby. Food contact surfaces, the cutting boards, prep counters, and equipment that touches food directly, were not properly cleaned or sanitized, a condition inspectors classify as a primary route for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat items.
The restaurant also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items. That posting is not a formality. It is the only mechanism by which a pregnant customer, an elderly diner, or someone with a compromised immune system learns they are about to eat something that carries elevated risk.
Rounding out the high-severity list: improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning employees were going through the motions of washing their hands without actually removing pathogens, and a failure to properly use time as a public health control, which means food was allowed to sit in the bacterial growth zone of 41 to 135 degrees without the tracking required to make that practice safe.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of an unapproved food source and inadequate shellfish records at Bacon Bitch is particularly significant because both violations eliminate traceability. If a customer ate there in April and became ill with Listeria or Salmonella, investigators would have no reliable chain of custody to follow. The food came from somewhere, but the records do not say where.
The improper handwashing technique violation is distinct from simply not washing hands at all, and in some ways more insidious. An employee who believes they have washed their hands may handle ready-to-eat food without any awareness that pathogens remain. The technique failure means the behavior looks compliant but the outcome is not.
The missing consumer advisory compounds the raw shellfish traceability problem. A customer who orders something undercooked or raw at Bacon Bitch in April had no posted notice telling them so. That gap falls hardest on the people who most need the information: the immunocompromised, the elderly, pregnant women, and young children.
Improperly stored chemicals near food represent a different category of risk entirely, one that does not require a pathogen or a slow incubation period. Mislabeled or misplaced chemicals can cause acute poisoning through direct contamination, and the consequences can be immediate.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Bacon Bitch has been inspected 25 times and has accumulated 224 violations across that history. The pattern of high-severity citations runs deep.
In June 2024, inspectors cited the restaurant for 7 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate ones, a count identical to April's. In February 2023, the tally was also 7 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. In September 2022, it was 8 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations, the highest single-inspection count in the available record.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once before, in July 2021, after inspectors found no warewashing facilities on the premises. It was allowed to reopen the following day.
Every inspection in the available prior history, going back through 2022, documented at least 2 high-severity violations. In five of the eight prior inspections listed, the high-severity count was 3 or above. The April 2026 inspection, with 7 high-severity violations, sits at the top of that range.
Open for Business
Despite the seven high-severity findings on April 17, the state did not issue an emergency closure order. Bacon Bitch remained open.
A restaurant on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, one of the most heavily trafficked tourist corridors in Florida, with 224 violations across 25 inspections, a prior emergency closure, and a documented pattern of high-severity citations stretching back years, was still serving customers after inspectors left.
The record is there. The doors stayed open.