JACKSONVILLE, FL. A food worker at Charley's Wings Cheesesteaks on Dunn Avenue was not reporting illness symptoms to management, according to state inspection records from April 22, 2026 — a violation inspectors flag as one of the most direct routes to a multi-victim outbreak. The restaurant logged 8 high-severity violations and 7 intermediate violations that day. It was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The illness-reporting violation and the absence of any written employee health policy appeared together in the same inspection. That combination means there was no formal structure requiring workers to disclose symptoms, and at least one worker was not disclosing them anyway.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for food not cooked to the required minimum temperature. For a menu built around chicken wings, that is a direct Salmonella risk. Poultry must reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill the pathogen; anything less and it survives on the plate.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled near food. A worker was observed using improper handwashing technique, meaning pathogens can remain on hands even after a wash attempt is made.
The allergen awareness violation rounds out the high-severity list. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and a restaurant with no demonstrated allergen awareness has no reliable way to warn a customer with a potentially fatal sensitivity.
On the intermediate side, inspectors found improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, improper sanitizing procedures, inadequate cooling or cold-holding equipment, single-use items being reused, improper use of wiping cloths, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities. That is seven intermediate violations layered beneath the eight high-severity ones.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting failure is the violation food safety officials point to most often when tracing the origin of large outbreaks. Norovirus spreads person-to-person and through contaminated food with extreme efficiency. A single sick worker who does not report symptoms and continues handling food can infect dozens of customers before anyone connects the illnesses. Without a written health policy, there is no mechanism to catch that worker before the damage is done.
Undercooking is a separate but equally direct hazard. Salmonella in poultry does not look, smell, or taste different from safe chicken. The only reliable kill step is heat. When a restaurant is cited for not reaching minimum cooking temperatures, it means customers received food that had not cleared that threshold.
The inadequate cold-holding equipment violation compounds the cooking temperature problem. If the equipment cannot maintain proper cold temperatures, food enters what regulators call the danger zone, the range between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, where bacterial growth accelerates rapidly. At Charley's on Dunn Avenue, inspectors found failures at both ends of the temperature spectrum on the same day.
Improperly stored toxic chemicals near food is a violation that carries a risk most customers would not associate with a restaurant visit: acute chemical poisoning. Mislabeled or misplaced cleaning agents can contaminate food directly, with no warning sign and no way for a customer to detect it.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was the third on record for this location. Across those three inspections, state records show 40 total violations. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern is one of escalation, not improvement. The earliest inspection on record, from April 7, 2025, produced 1 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations. Six months later, on October 8, 2025, that number had climbed to 6 high-severity and 5 intermediate violations. The April 2026 inspection pushed the high-severity count to 8.
Three inspections. Three increases in the number of high-severity findings. The October 2025 visit already included 6 high-severity violations, a number that would prompt emergency closure at many facilities. The April 2026 visit added two more to that total and introduced new categories of risk, including the illness-reporting failure and the allergen awareness gap, that were not cited six months earlier.
No prior emergency closures appear in the record.
Still Open
State inspectors documented 8 high-severity violations at Charley's Wings Cheesesteaks on Dunn Avenue on April 22, 2026. They documented a worker not reporting illness symptoms, food not cooked to safe temperatures, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and toxic chemicals stored near food.
The restaurant was not closed.