HAWTHORNE, FL. A state inspector visiting Da Spot at 6005 SE US Hwy 301 on June 11 found that the restaurant was serving food from unapproved or unknown sources, a violation that means inspectors have no way to trace where that food came from if a customer gets sick.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The full violation list reads as a breakdown across multiple safety systems at once, not a single lapse. The inspector cited the restaurant for having no written employee health policy and for employees not reporting illness symptoms, two separate violations that together describe a kitchen with no formal mechanism for keeping sick workers away from food.
The handwashing problems compound that. Inspectors found both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper handwashing technique being used by staff. That means the infrastructure for basic hygiene was insufficient, and the technique being practiced would not have corrected for it even if the facilities had been adequate.
The final two violations involve customer protection. Da Spot had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, leaving customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, the elderly, and young children without the information they need to make safe choices. Inspectors also found no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff.
What These Violations Mean
The food sourcing violation is the one with the longest reach. When food comes from unapproved or unknown sources, it has bypassed USDA and FDA inspection systems entirely. If a customer becomes ill, investigators have no supply chain to trace. Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli can all enter a kitchen through uninspected product, and there is no paper trail pointing back to the origin.
The illness reporting violations work differently but are equally direct. Food workers who do not report symptoms are the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, which spreads person-to-person and through contaminated food, can move from a single sick employee to dozens of customers in a single service. A written health policy exists precisely to create a documented expectation that workers stay home when symptomatic. Da Spot had neither the policy nor the reporting practice in place.
The handwashing failures close the loop. Studies consistently show that proper handwashing is the single most effective barrier between a contaminated surface and a customer's food. When the facilities are inadequate and the technique is wrong, that barrier does not exist, regardless of how often workers approach the sink.
The allergen finding carries its own specific weight. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. A staff that cannot demonstrate allergen awareness cannot reliably answer a customer's question about whether a dish contains tree nuts, shellfish, or dairy.
The Longer Record
Da Spot has three inspections on record. The most recent, on June 11, produced all seven of the high-severity violations documented across the restaurant's entire history.
The two prior inspections tell a different story. On October 6, 2025, inspectors found two high-severity violations. Four months later, on February 6, 2026, the restaurant came back clean, with zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. That February inspection looked like a turnaround.
The June 11 visit erased that reading entirely. Seven high-severity violations in a single inspection, after a clean report four months earlier, is not a slow accumulation of problems. It is a sharp reversal. The February result now looks less like improvement and more like a single good day between two worse ones.
The restaurant has no prior emergency closures on record.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority exists for situations where an inspector determines an immediate threat to public health. Seven high-severity violations, including food from an unknown source and a complete absence of illness reporting infrastructure, did not meet that threshold on June 11.
Da Spot remained open after the inspection.
The next inspection will determine whether the violations documented on June 11 have been corrected, or whether the pattern that emerged this month continues. As of the date of this report, the restaurant's doors were open and the violations were on record.