MIRAMAR BEACH, FL. A state inspector walked into Craft Bar at 655 Grand Blvd on July 29 and found food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, a violation that puts every customer who ordered a hot dish that day at direct risk of consuming live pathogens.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The bar was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooked food violation sat alongside a citation for food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and any equipment that touches food directly can transfer bacteria from one dish to the next when sanitization fails.
Inspectors also cited the bar for food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. That category covers anything from spoiled product still in service to items without proper labeling.
Employees were cited for not reporting symptoms of illness, and separately for improper hand and arm washing technique. Both violations were documented in the same visit.
No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties during the inspection. The bar was also cited for having no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers had no written notice that certain menu items carried elevated risk. Two intermediate violations rounded out the report: single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
The cooking temperature violation is the most direct threat on this list. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Ground beef must reach 155 degrees to kill E. coli. When food leaves a kitchen below those thresholds, the bacteria that cause severe gastrointestinal illness, and in some cases hospitalization, go with it. There is no way for a customer to know a dish was undercooked by looking at it or tasting it.
The illness reporting violation compounds that risk. Food workers who do not disclose symptoms like vomiting or diarrhea continue handling food while potentially shedding norovirus or other pathogens. Norovirus is the leading cause of multi-victim foodborne outbreaks in the United States, and it spreads efficiently through food prepared by an infected worker. Improper handwashing technique, cited separately at Craft Bar, means that even when an employee does wash their hands, pathogens can remain on skin that was not scrubbed long enough or thoroughly enough.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces create a secondary transfer route. A cutting board used for raw protein and not properly sanitized before the next use carries whatever was on the first item directly onto the second. Combined with undercooked food and compromised hand hygiene, the three violations form a chain from source to plate.
The missing consumer advisory matters most to specific groups: pregnant women, elderly customers, people with compromised immune systems, and young children face elevated risk from raw or undercooked proteins. Without the advisory posted, none of those customers had the information needed to make an informed choice about what to order.
The Longer Record
The July 29 inspection was not the first time Craft Bar has produced a serious violation count. State records show 36 inspections on file and 218 total violations documented across the facility's history.
The February 2026 inspection, five months before this one, turned up 6 high-severity violations and 5 intermediate violations. That visit came after a clean inspection in April 2026 showed zero violations of any kind, meaning the bar has cycled between clean and significantly problematic within the span of a single year.
The pattern goes back further. In December 2024, an inspection found 9 high-severity violations and 5 intermediate violations. That same month required two additional follow-up inspections, on December 16 and December 17, before the record shows any resolution. October 2023 produced another 9 high-severity and 5 intermediate violations.
Craft Bar has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. The facility has reached double-digit high-severity violation counts on at least two prior occasions and returned to compliance, then accumulated serious violations again.
Still Open
State records show no emergency closure order was issued following the July 29 inspection. Seven high-severity violations, including food not cooked to required temperature and employees not reporting illness symptoms, were documented and the bar continued operating.
Craft Bar sits in a resort corridor on the Emerald Coast, a stretch of Walton County that draws heavy tourist traffic through the summer. The July inspection fell during peak season.
The facility has 218 violations on record across 36 inspections. It has never been closed.
