MIAMI BEACH, FL. State inspectors who visited Call Me Gaby at 816 Commerce Street in April found food from unapproved or unknown sources in the kitchen, a violation that means some of what the restaurant was serving its customers had never been inspected by federal or state food safety authorities.
The inspection, conducted April 24, 2026, turned up six high-severity violations and zero intermediate ones. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is among the most serious a Florida inspector can cite. Food purchased outside licensed, inspected suppliers has no chain of custody, no federal or state safety review, and no way to trace it if a customer becomes ill.
The shellfish violation compounds that concern. Inspectors found inadequate shell stock identification records, meaning the restaurant could not document where its oysters, clams, or mussels came from. Shellfish are frequently consumed raw or lightly cooked, and without harvest tags and proper documentation, there is no way to connect a sick customer to a specific harvest lot.
A third violation noted that the restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. Florida law requires restaurants that serve raw or undercooked animal products to notify customers, so that vulnerable diners, including pregnant women, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems, can make an informed choice.
Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique, unsanitary food contact surfaces, and an improper use of time as a public health control. All six violations carried the state's highest severity classification.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-sources citation is not a paperwork problem. When a restaurant purchases food outside the licensed supply chain, there is no verification that the product was processed, stored, or transported safely. If a customer gets sick and health investigators need to trace the source, there is nothing to trace.
The shellfish traceability failure at Call Me Gaby makes that risk acute. Oysters and clams are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria and viruses from their surrounding water. The documentation requirement exists precisely because shellfish-linked illness outbreaks require rapid traceability to specific harvest beds. Without records, that investigation cannot happen.
The time-as-public-health-control violation means the restaurant was allowing food to sit in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, for periods it could not document or justify. When temperature monitoring is replaced by a time-based system, the restaurant takes on the responsibility of tracking exactly how long food has been exposed. The citation indicates that system was not working.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, the fifth high-severity violation, are among the most common vehicles for cross-contamination in commercial kitchens. Cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that are not properly sanitized between uses can transfer bacteria from raw proteins to ready-to-eat foods. Combined with the handwashing technique failure, which leaves pathogens on hands even when an employee makes a washing attempt, the inspection portrait at Call Me Gaby on April 24 is one of multiple simultaneous breakdowns.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Call Me Gaby has been inspected 30 times and has accumulated 261 violations in its history on file with the state.
The most recent prior inspection, in November 2025, produced nine high-severity violations and zero intermediate ones, the worst single-visit tally in the recent record. The April 2026 visit, with six high-severity violations, is consistent with what inspectors have found at this address across multiple years.
Looking back further, the pattern holds. The February 2024 inspection produced eight high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. A follow-up visit five days later, on February 13, 2024, still found four high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The August 2024 inspection turned up five high-severity violations. There has not been a single inspection in the eight most recent visits on record that came back clean.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed. In Florida, an emergency closure order requires an inspector to determine that conditions pose an immediate and serious threat to public health. Call Me Gaby has accumulated six high-severity violations in a single visit, nine in another, and 261 across its full inspection history, without triggering that threshold.
Still Open
After the April 24, 2026 inspection, with six high-severity violations documented including food from an unknown source, no shellfish traceability records, and no advisory warning customers about raw food risks, Call Me Gaby remained open for business.