SANFORD, FL. State inspectors walked into Colonial Room Restaurant at 105 E 1st Street on September 24 and found food sourced from suppliers that have never been verified by any federal safety authority, a violation that means there is no way to trace that food back to its origin if a customer gets sick.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
Beyond the sourcing violation, inspectors cited the restaurant for toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly near food, a condition that can cause acute poisoning without any obvious warning to kitchen staff or customers. Food contact surfaces were found not properly cleaned or sanitized, creating a direct route for bacterial transfer from one meal to the next.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for misusing time as a public health control. When a kitchen tracks time instead of temperature to keep food safe, the protocol requires strict adherence to holding windows. The record here shows those windows were not being followed, leaving food in the temperature range where bacteria multiply fastest.
The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items. That notice exists specifically for elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system. Without it, those customers have no way to make an informed choice.
Employees were also observed using improper hand and arm washing technique. Going through the motion of washing hands without executing it correctly leaves pathogens on skin even after the sink visit.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is not a paperwork problem. When a restaurant sources ingredients outside the USDA and FDA inspection system, there is no chain of custody if someone falls ill. Inspectors cannot trace a Listeria or Salmonella outbreak back to a specific farm, processor, or distributor. The traceability that protects the public during a foodborne illness investigation simply does not exist.
The chemical storage violation compounds that risk. Cleaning agents and sanitizers stored near or improperly labeled in food preparation areas can contaminate ingredients without any visible sign. A mislabeled container in a busy kitchen is a quiet, consistent hazard.
The combination of improperly sanitized food contact surfaces and improperly used wiping cloths at Colonial Room means that contamination from one surface can travel to the next. Wiping cloths used across multiple surfaces without proper sanitizing between uses are among the most common vectors for bacterial spread in a commercial kitchen.
Inadequate toilet facilities may seem like a secondary concern, but inspectors treat it as a hygiene infrastructure failure. When restroom access is limited or facilities are poorly maintained, employees are less likely to wash hands properly before returning to food preparation, compounding the handwashing technique violation already cited.
The Longer Record
The September inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 39 inspections on file for this location, with 281 total violations accumulated across that history.
Six high-severity violations in a single inspection is a threshold Colonial Room has hit before. Inspectors documented six high-severity violations on March 19, 2025, and again on August 26, 2024. The August 2025 inspection produced four high-severity violations. The February 2026 visit found two high-severity violations and three intermediate ones.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once, on June 4, 2024, for roach activity. It was allowed to reopen the same day. Three months after that closure, inspectors returned and found six high-severity violations again.
The pattern across eight documented inspections in roughly two and a half years shows a facility that has never fully cleared its high-severity violation history between visits. The March 2025 inspection found the same six-high-severity threshold as September 2026. Food sourcing, surface sanitation, and handwashing failures have appeared across multiple cycles.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority requires inspectors to find an imminent threat to public health. The September 24 inspection at Colonial Room documented six conditions that state records classify as high severity, including unverifiable food sources and toxic chemicals stored near food.
The restaurant was not closed.
Customers who ate at Colonial Room Restaurant on or after September 24 had no way of knowing that the food on their plate may have come from a supplier that has never passed a federal safety inspection.
