CLERMONT, FL. A state inspector walked into Crooked Spoon Gastropub at 200 Citrus Tower Blvd on August 10 and found food coming from an unapproved or unknown source, a violation that means the restaurant was serving ingredients with no verifiable safety inspection trail.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source citation is among the most serious a restaurant can receive. When ingredients bypass USDA or FDA inspection channels, there is no traceability if a customer gets sick, and no guarantee the food was handled, stored, or processed safely before it arrived at the kitchen.
Inspectors also cited an employee for not reporting illness symptoms. That violation sits alongside the unapproved food source finding as a direct route to a multi-victim outbreak. A worker who does not disclose symptoms and continues handling food can spread norovirus or other pathogens to dozens of customers before anyone realizes what is happening.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. The precise location was not detailed in the public record, but the violation means chemicals capable of causing acute poisoning were accessible near food preparation areas.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and employees were observed using improper handwashing technique. Together, those two violations describe a kitchen where pathogens can move from one surface to another and from workers' hands to food, even when staff appear to be following hygiene steps.
The inspector also noted the absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked menu items. Customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised rely on that disclosure to make safe choices. Without it, they have no way of knowing which dishes carry added risk.
The two intermediate violations, improper sewage or wastewater disposal and inadequate ventilation and lighting, rounded out the citation list.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved source is not a paperwork problem. It means that whatever arrived at the Crooked Spoon kitchen through that channel was never inspected for Listeria, Salmonella, or other pathogens at the point of processing. If a customer became ill after eating there, investigators would have no supply chain records to trace.
The illness-reporting failure compounds that risk. Public health officials consistently identify sick food workers as the leading cause of restaurant-linked outbreaks. Norovirus in particular spreads with extreme efficiency when an infected worker handles ready-to-eat food, and a single shift can expose an entire dining room.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, combined with flawed handwashing technique, create a transmission loop. Bacteria from raw proteins or a sick employee's hands can reach a cutting board, move to a prep surface, and then onto a plate, without any visible sign that anything has gone wrong.
The missing consumer advisory affects a specific population, not the general public. Elderly diners, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems face significantly higher risk from undercooked proteins. The state requires the advisory so those customers can protect themselves. At the Crooked Spoon on August 10, that warning was absent.
The Longer Record
The August 10 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 39 inspections on file for the Crooked Spoon Gastropub, with 409 total violations accumulated across that history.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent and recent. On June 10, 2026, inspectors cited six high-severity violations and two intermediate ones, an identical count to the August 10 findings. On May 1, 2025, they found ten high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. On February 28, 2024, the tally was seven high and six intermediate.
The restaurant was emergency-closed on July 15, 2026, less than four weeks before the August 10 inspection, for roach activity. It reopened on July 17 after a follow-up inspection. The July 17 reopening inspection itself documented two high-severity violations.
That sequence is worth reading carefully. The restaurant was closed for pest activity on July 15. Two days later it was allowed to reopen, with two high-severity violations still on the books at that follow-up visit. Less than four weeks after that, inspectors returned and found six more high-severity violations.
December 2025 was the only recent inspection where zero high-severity violations appeared. Every other inspection in the past two years has included between two and ten.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine a facility poses an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations on August 10, documented at a location with 409 violations in its history, one prior emergency closure, and a July inspection record that included roaches, did not meet that threshold.
The Crooked Spoon Gastropub remained open after inspectors left that day.
