POMPANO BEACH, FL. Employees at a Pompano Beach restaurant were not reporting illness symptoms to management during a June 18 inspection, a violation that state health officials link directly to multi-victim outbreaks, and the restaurant remained open.
State inspectors visited Cuban Cafe at 1699 Powerline Rd and documented six high-severity violations along with two intermediate violations. Not one of those findings triggered an emergency closure order.
What Inspectors Found
The illness-reporting failure was not the only finding. Inspectors also cited employees for improper handwashing technique, a separate violation from simply failing to wash hands. Workers were going through the motions without completing the process correctly, meaning pathogens remained on their hands after the attempt.
Food contact surfaces, the cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that touch the food customers eat, were not properly cleaned or sanitized. That finding, combined with the handwashing failure, creates a direct route for bacterial transfer from surface to food to customer.
Inspectors also found that the restaurant was misusing time as a public health control. When a kitchen relies on time rather than temperature to keep food safe, there are strict rules about how long food can stay in the temperature danger zone. Those rules were not being followed here.
The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items. Cuban cuisine often includes dishes that can be served at temperatures below what fully kills pathogens, and customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised have no way to make an informed choice without that notice.
No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties during the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting failure is the violation that most directly puts customers at risk of becoming sick in large numbers. Food workers infected with norovirus, salmonella, or hepatitis A can contaminate dozens of meals before a single customer reports symptoms. The entire system of outbreak prevention depends on sick workers staying out of the kitchen, and that system requires employees to self-report. At Cuban Cafe on June 18, that system was not functioning.
Improper handwashing technique compounds the risk. A worker who attempts to wash hands but does so incorrectly, skipping the scrubbing duration or missing surfaces between fingers, leaves the same pathogens on their hands as a worker who skips handwashing entirely. Paired with unsanitized food contact surfaces, the kitchen had multiple simultaneous routes for contamination to reach food.
The time-as-public-health-control violation is less visible to customers but equally serious. When food is held in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, bacteria multiply rapidly. The rules governing time-based controls exist precisely to cap that window. Inspectors found those controls were not being properly applied.
The missing consumer advisory affects a specific and vulnerable population. Customers who are pregnant, elderly, living with chronic illness, or immunocompromised face serious health consequences from pathogens that a healthy adult might shake off. Without the required notice, they cannot protect themselves.
The Longer Record
The June 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. Cuban Cafe has 22 inspections on record in state data, with 127 total violations accumulated across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent across years. Inspectors found five high-severity violations in July 2025, three in December 2024, three in September 2024, and nine in a single visit in January 2023. The January 2023 inspection, with nine high-severity citations and one intermediate, stands as the worst single visit in the record, but the June 2026 inspection with six high-severity violations is the second-highest total in recent years.
Only one inspection in the available history came back clean. In November 2022, inspectors found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. Every subsequent inspection has included at least two high-severity findings.
The illness-reporting failure documented in June 2026 is particularly notable given the history. A kitchen that repeatedly draws high-severity violations across multiple inspection cycles, including violations tied to management oversight and employee behavior, suggests the problems are not being corrected between visits.
Still Open
State inspectors have the authority to issue emergency closure orders when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations at Cuban Cafe on June 18, 2026, including employees not reporting illness symptoms, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and no manager on duty, did not meet that threshold.
The restaurant at 1699 Powerline Rd in Pompano Beach continued serving customers.