MIAMI BEACH, FL. A state inspector visiting Cafe Americano/Mercato di Mare at 1144 Ocean Dr. on June 5 found that the kitchen was not following parasite destruction procedures for fish, meaning customers eating raw or undercooked seafood that day had no guarantee the food had been treated to kill parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm. The restaurant was not closed.
That single violation sat alongside six other high-severity citations and two intermediate ones, all documented in a single visit to one of Miami Beach's most prominent Ocean Drive addresses.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector documented that toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled near food areas. Mislabeled or unsecured chemicals near a working kitchen create a direct route to acute poisoning, whether through accidental contamination of food or a staff member reaching for the wrong container.
Shell stock records were also inadequate. The restaurant, which operates as both a cafe and a seafood market, could not demonstrate proper traceability for oysters, clams, or mussels. If a customer became sick from contaminated shellfish that day, there would be no paper trail to identify the harvest source.
The inspector also cited a failure to post a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. That notice is the only warning standing between a pregnant customer, an elderly diner, or someone immunocompromised and a plate of undercooked seafood carrying no disclosure of its risks. There was none.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and multi-use utensils had not been adequately cleaned, meaning bacterial transfer between ingredients was possible at multiple preparation points. Time as a public health control was not being properly applied, a citation that means food was sitting in the temperature danger zone without the documented time tracking required to ensure it was discarded before becoming unsafe.
No person in charge was present or performing duties.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction citation is among the most direct threats to a customer's health that an inspector can document at a seafood-focused restaurant. When fish is served raw or lightly cooked and has not been properly frozen to kill parasites, the risk of Anisakis infection is real. Anisakis larvae burrow into the stomach lining and can cause severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and allergic reactions serious enough to require hospitalization. The violation at Cafe Americano means that standard, which requires specific freezing temperatures held for specific durations, was not being met.
The shell stock traceability failure compounds that risk. Shellfish are filter feeders and concentrate whatever pathogens exist in the water they were harvested from, including Vibrio bacteria and norovirus. Harvest location records exist specifically so health authorities can trace an outbreak back to its source. Without those records, a cluster of illnesses tied to this restaurant's oysters or clams would be significantly harder to investigate and contain.
The toxic chemical citation is a different category of danger entirely. It does not require a pattern of failures to cause harm. One unlabeled bottle stored near a prep surface is enough.
The absence of a responsible manager on duty, the inspection record shows, correlates with nearly every other failure documented that day. CDC data cited in the violation record indicates that establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with engaged oversight. On June 5 at this address, there was no one performing that function.
The Longer Record
The June 5 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Cafe Americano/Mercato di Mare has been inspected 33 times and has accumulated 432 total violations across that history, with zero emergency closures.
The eight most recent inspections on record tell a consistent story. The January 2026 visit produced 10 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations. The October 2025 visit produced 9 high and 3 intermediate. The September 2024 visit produced 10 high and 1 intermediate. Every single inspection in that span, going back to December 2022, has resulted in at least 6 high-severity violations.
That is not a restaurant experiencing occasional lapses. That is a facility that has produced high-severity citations in every documented inspection across more than three years, without a single emergency closure to interrupt the pattern.
The shell stock and parasite destruction violations cited on June 5 are particularly significant given the restaurant's identity as a seafood market. These are not peripheral concerns for a business that sells and serves raw shellfish and fish on one of the most heavily trafficked tourist corridors in Florida.
Still Open
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations at Cafe Americano/Mercato di Mare on June 5, 2026. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
It was the eighth consecutive inspection to produce a high-severity violation count in that range. Customers dining on Ocean Drive that evening had no way of knowing any of it.