TAMPA, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Charley's Cheesesteaks Wings on North Dale Mabry Highway and found food that had not been cooked to the required minimum temperature — a direct pathway for pathogens like Salmonella to survive and reach a customer's plate.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented during the April 20 inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The temperature violation was not the only finding with immediate health consequences. Inspectors also cited toxic substances that were improperly identified, stored, or used, a violation the state classifies as creating immediate risk of chemical contamination of food or food-contact surfaces.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. That citation covered the surfaces where food is prepared, sliced, and assembled throughout a shift.
Inspectors also found food in poor condition, described in state records as spoiled, contaminated, mislabeled, or adulterated. And there was no adequate employee health policy, meaning there was no documented system to keep sick workers away from food preparation.
The sixth high-severity violation involved inadequate shellfish traceability records. Shellfish sold without proper identification tags cannot be traced back to a harvest location if a customer becomes ill.
Three intermediate violations rounded out the inspection: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, and toilet facilities that were inadequate or improperly maintained.
What These Violations Mean
The cooking temperature violation is among the most direct risks documented in this inspection. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When food is not brought to the required internal temperature, that margin disappears entirely, and a customer eating undercooked chicken has no protection from a pathogen the cooking process was supposed to eliminate.
The toxic substances violation operates differently but carries its own immediate danger. Chemicals stored near or above food, or stored in unlabeled containers, can contaminate food without any visible sign. A customer would have no way of knowing.
The absence of an employee health policy at the North Dale Mabry location means there was no written requirement in place to send home a worker showing symptoms of Norovirus or any other communicable illness. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, and direct transmission from a sick food handler is one of its primary routes.
The cooling equipment violation compounds the temperature picture. A facility that cannot reliably hold cold food at safe temperatures creates conditions where bacterial growth accelerates in the hours between preparation and service. Paired with food already documented as in poor condition, that gap is not theoretical.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was the seventh on record for this Charley's location, and it was not an outlier. The facility has accumulated 63 total violations across those inspections, and it has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in the inspection history is consistent. In February 2025, inspectors found four high-severity and two intermediate violations. By June 2025, it was three high and one intermediate. In September 2025, the count climbed to six high and one intermediate, matching the severity level of the April 2026 inspection almost exactly. In December 2025, inspectors returned and found five high and one intermediate violations.
The one inspection that stood apart was in January 2024, when the facility recorded zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. Every inspection since then has included high-severity findings, and the counts have trended upward, not down.
A follow-up inspection in May 2026, three weeks after the April visit, found three high-severity and one intermediate violation still on record. The high-severity count dropped, but it did not reach zero.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at the North Dale Mabry Charley's on April 20, 2026. The violations covered undercooked food, improperly stored toxic substances, unsanitized food contact surfaces, food in poor condition, missing traceability records for shellfish, and no policy to keep sick employees away from food.
The restaurant was not closed.
Customers who visited the location that day, or in the days that followed before a follow-up inspection, had no way of knowing what inspectors had found inside.