CLERMONT, FL. An inspector visiting Crooked Spoon Gastropub at 200 Citrus Tower Blvd on June 10 found that employees were not reporting symptoms of illness, a violation that state health records flag as the single leading cause of multi-victim foodborne outbreaks. The restaurant was not closed.
The inspection turned up six high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. Among the most serious: food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items on the menu.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is one that health officials treat with particular concern. When food arrives from suppliers outside the USDA and FDA-regulated supply chain, there is no paper trail. If a customer gets sick, investigators have nothing to trace.
The handwashing violation compounds the illness-reporting failure. Inspectors documented that employees were not using proper hand and arm washing technique, meaning that even workers who did wash their hands may have left pathogens behind.
Toxic chemicals were found stored or labeled improperly, in conditions where contamination of food or food prep surfaces is a documented risk. The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods meant that diners, including elderly customers, pregnant women, and anyone with a compromised immune system, had no warning before ordering.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting failure is the violation that health officials most directly connect to mass outbreaks. Norovirus spreads efficiently from a single infected food worker to dozens of customers, and the window between symptom onset and full contagion is short. A kitchen where workers are not required or expected to flag symptoms is a kitchen where that chain can run unchecked.
Food from unapproved sources removes the safety net that most diners assume is in place. Regulated suppliers must meet federal standards for handling, storage, and traceability. Food that bypasses that system can carry Listeria, Salmonella, or other pathogens with no checkpoint between the source and the plate.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, including cutting boards and prep tables, are among the most efficient routes for bacterial transfer in a commercial kitchen. Combined with flawed handwashing technique, the two violations create overlapping pathways for contamination that reinforce each other.
The sewage disposal violation adds a separate and serious concern. Improper waste water handling can introduce fecal contamination into a facility, affecting surfaces, equipment, and in the worst cases, food itself.
The Longer Record
The June 10 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Crooked Spoon Gastropub has been inspected 36 times and has accumulated 384 total violations across its history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent and long-running. In March 2023, inspectors documented 11 high-severity and 6 intermediate violations. Four months later, in August 2023, a follow-up visit found 10 high and 4 intermediate violations. The same month, a separate inspection found 1 high violation, suggesting brief improvement before the numbers climbed again.
By February 2024, the count was back to 7 high and 6 intermediate violations. December 2024 brought 6 high and 5 intermediate. May 2025 saw the record spike to 10 high and 3 intermediate violations. A December 2025 inspection found zero high-severity violations, the one clean stretch in recent years. Six months later, the June 2026 inspection returned 6 high-severity violations.
The Pattern
The inspection history reads as a cycle rather than a trend. High violation counts are followed by cleaner visits, which are followed by high violation counts again. The December 2025 inspection with zero high-severity findings might have suggested a turning point. The June 2026 inspection, five months later, closed that possibility.
Across the eight most recent inspections on record, the facility logged high-severity violations in seven of them. The single exception was a one-violation intermediate-only visit in December 2025.
The violations documented on June 10, including unreported employee illness, unknown food sources, and improperly stored toxic chemicals, are not new categories for this facility. They are the same categories that have appeared repeatedly across three years of inspection records.
The restaurant remained open after the June 10 inspection.