COCONUT CREEK, FL. Food at Cafe on the Green on Wynmoor Circle was not cooked to required minimum temperatures when a state inspector arrived on September 21, a violation that puts customers at direct risk of Salmonella and other pathogens that survive in undercooked protein. The cafe logged eight high-severity violations that day. It was never closed.
The facility at 1001 Wynmoor Cir remained open and serving customers despite a violation count that state records show is among its worst single-day totals in years.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector documented that no person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties during the visit. That absence is significant on its own. CDC research shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with engaged supervision.
The handwashing violation compounds the illness reporting failures. Inspectors cited employees for improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning that even when workers attempted to wash their hands, the technique left pathogens behind. Combined with a finding that employees were not reporting illness symptoms, the conditions for a multi-victim outbreak were documented and in place.
Inspectors also flagged inadequate shell stock identification records. The cafe was serving shellfish, which are high-risk foods consumed raw or lightly cooked, without the paperwork needed to trace where those oysters, clams, or mussels came from. If a customer got sick, investigators would have no supply chain to follow.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Multi-use utensils had not been properly cleaned. The cafe also lacked a consumer advisory notifying customers that raw or undercooked items were on the menu, a disclosure that allows elderly diners, pregnant women, and immunocompromised customers to make an informed choice before ordering.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooked food violation is the one that most directly endangered anyone who ate at Cafe on the Green that day. Salmonella survives in poultry below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Other pathogens persist in beef, pork, and seafood that does not reach required internal temperatures. A customer has no way to detect undercooked food by sight or taste, and no way to know the kitchen had been cited for it.
The employee illness violations work together in a way that multiplies the risk. No written health policy means workers have no formal guidance about when to stay home. The separate finding that employees were not reporting symptoms means the gap between policy and practice was already visible. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads through exactly this mechanism: a sick worker who keeps coming in.
The shellfish traceability failure is quieter but just as serious. Shellfish harvested from contaminated waters cause Hepatitis A and Vibrio infections. The tagging and record-keeping system exists specifically so that when an outbreak is traced to a restaurant, investigators can identify the harvest location and pull product from other facilities. Without those records at Cafe on the Green, that chain breaks entirely.
Improperly cleaned surfaces and utensils allow bacterial biofilms to form within 24 hours. Those biofilms protect bacteria from standard cleaning agents, meaning the problem compounds with each passing service.
The Longer Record
The September 21 inspection did not come out of nowhere. State records show Cafe on the Green has been inspected 27 times and has accumulated 233 total violations across its history, with no emergency closures ever issued.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent across recent years. On December 2, 2024, inspectors cited the facility for six high-severity and two intermediate violations. That same week, a follow-up on December 3 still found one high-severity violation. On August 23, 2024, the cafe logged another six high-severity and two intermediate violations. On June 17, 2025, it was four high-severity and two intermediate.
The September 21 visit, with eight high-severity violations, is the worst single inspection in the recent record. A follow-up the very next day, September 22, found one remaining high-severity violation, suggesting some corrections were made quickly. But the underlying pattern, repeated high-severity findings across two years of inspections, has not changed.
The cafe has never been emergency-closed, despite accumulating violations in the same categories, food safety, employee health, and sanitation, across inspection after inspection.
Still Open
State inspectors returned on September 22 and found one high-severity violation still on the books. The cafe was not ordered to close after the September 21 inspection, and it was not closed after the follow-up.
Cafe on the Green remains open.
