DELRAY BEACH, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Big Al's Steaks on East Atlantic Avenue and found toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, a kitchen operating without anyone in charge, and not a single written policy requiring sick employees to stay home or report their symptoms.
The inspection, conducted on April 13, turned up six high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The chemical storage violation is the kind that can cause immediate, acute harm. Chemicals stored near or above food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, and mislabeled containers create the conditions for workers to accidentally use a cleaning agent where a food-safe product belongs.
The absence of any person in charge performing supervisory duties compounds every other finding on the list. A kitchen without active managerial oversight is a kitchen where no one is catching problems before they reach a customer's plate.
The employee health violations tell a specific story. Inspectors cited the restaurant for having no written employee health policy and for employees not reporting symptoms of illness. Those two violations together mean the system designed to keep sick workers out of the kitchen did not exist at Big Al's in April.
On top of that, inspectors documented improper handwashing technique. An employee can go through the motions of washing their hands and still leave pathogens behind if the technique is wrong. Combined with no illness reporting and no health policy, the handwashing citation rounds out a picture of a kitchen where basic disease-prevention controls had broken down.
The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. For a steakhouse, that omission is pointed. Customers who are pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised, or feeding young children rely on those disclosures to make informed choices about what they order.
What These Violations Mean
The employee illness violations documented at Big Al's in April carry a specific public health weight. Norovirus, which spreads easily through food handled by sick workers, accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year. A written health policy is the mechanism that gives workers a clear directive to stay home when they are sick and gives management a documented basis for enforcing it. Without one, the decision is informal, inconsistent, and effectively unenforceable.
The improper handwashing citation is not about skipping handwashing entirely. It means a handwashing attempt was made and still failed to remove pathogens. Studies consistently show that technique, including duration, soap use, and rinsing, determines whether handwashing actually works. A kitchen where the technique is wrong has no meaningful barrier between a contaminated surface and the next dish going out.
The inadequate cooling equipment violation adds a temperature dimension to the risk. Equipment that cannot maintain required cold-holding temperatures allows food to drift into the range where bacteria multiply rapidly, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit. For a steakhouse handling raw and cooked proteins throughout a service, a failing cooler is not a minor inconvenience.
The chemical storage violation is the one with the most immediate potential for acute harm. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food create a direct contamination pathway. Mislabeling alone has caused poisoning incidents in restaurant settings when workers reach for what they believe is a food-safe product.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an isolated bad day. State records show Big Al's Steaks has been inspected 24 times and has accumulated 107 total violations across its history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in recent years is consistent. Inspectors found four high-severity violations in December 2025, four high-severity violations in July 2025, four high-severity violations in January 2025, and four high-severity violations in July 2024. The April 2026 inspection, with six high-severity violations, was the worst single visit in at least two years.
The restaurant did pass two consecutive inspections cleanly, in February 2024 and October 2023. Before that, in February 2023, inspectors cited eight high-severity violations, the highest single-visit count in the available record. April 2026's six high-severity violations is the second-highest total on record.
The February 2024 clean inspection stands out as an anomaly in an otherwise persistent pattern of high-severity citations. In the six inspections conducted after that clean visit, the restaurant accumulated a combined 20 high-severity violations.
Still Open
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at Big Al's Steaks on April 13, 2026, including toxic chemicals stored improperly, no employee illness reporting system, and a kitchen operating without anyone in charge performing supervisory duties.
The restaurant remained open.