FT. LAUDERDALE, FL. State inspectors visited Bradley at 6200 N. Federal Highway on September 29, 2026, and found that the restaurant was serving food from an unapproved or unknown source, a violation that means there is no way to trace where the ingredients came from if a customer gets sick.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented during the visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source violation stood alongside a second citation that is especially serious for a seafood restaurant: inadequate shell stock identification and records. Inspectors found that shellfish on the premises, whether oysters, clams, or mussels, could not be traced back to a certified harvester or distributor.
Employees were also cited for not reporting symptoms of illness, and for using improper hand and arm washing technique. Those two violations were documented on the same inspection day.
The sixth violation was a finding that food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned or sanitized. That means the cutting boards, prep tables, or utensils that touched raw seafood were not adequately treated before being used again.
No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties at the time of the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved source is not a paperwork problem. When a restaurant cannot document where its ingredients originated, there is no chain of custody if a customer becomes ill. Health investigators cannot pull a supplier's records, cannot issue a recall, and cannot determine whether other restaurants received the same contaminated product. At a seafood restaurant, that gap is especially consequential.
The shell stock records violation compounds that risk directly. Shellfish are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria and viruses from the water around them. They are frequently eaten raw or barely cooked. State and federal rules require that every batch of oysters, clams, and mussels arrive with a tag identifying the harvest location, the harvest date, and the certified dealer. Without those tags, there is no way to know whether the shellfish served at Bradley came from water that had been tested for contamination.
The illness-reporting violation is a separate and acute danger. Food workers who do not report symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, or jaundice continue handling food while potentially infectious. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks, spreads most efficiently through food that has been handled by a sick worker who did not wash their hands. The improper handwashing citation at Bradley means that even employees who did attempt to wash their hands may have left pathogens behind.
Unsanitized food contact surfaces close the loop. Bacteria transferred from raw shellfish to a cutting board can move directly onto the next item prepared on that surface.
The Longer Record
The September 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. Bradley has 37 inspections on record and 238 total violations across that history, a figure that averages out to more than six violations per visit over the life of the file.
The most direct comparison is September 25, 2023, when inspectors documented six high-severity violations in a single visit, the same count as this inspection. That visit and a same-day follow-up inspection are both in the record. The pattern of high-severity findings has continued since then: three high violations in November 2024, two high in March 2024, three high in December 2025.
The December 2025 inspection, less than ten months before this one, also produced three high-severity citations. The facility passed cleanly in September 2025, three months after that. The record shows a recurring cycle: a clean visit, then a return of serious violations.
Bradley has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. Not after the six-violation inspection in September 2023. Not after the repeated high-severity findings in 2024 and 2025. Not after September 29, 2026.
The Longer Stay Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when an inspector determines that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations, including food from an unapproved source and shellfish with no traceability records, did not meet that threshold at Bradley on September 29.
The restaurant was serving customers that day. The shellfish on the menu had no documented origin. The employees handling food were not confirmed to be free of illness symptoms. The surfaces they worked on had not been properly sanitized.
The inspection record will reflect this visit. The restaurant remained open.
