CLERMONT, FL. A Denny's operating without an approved potable water supply served customers through a June 11 inspection that turned up six high-severity violations, state records show. Inspectors documented the problem, logged it as a high-priority finding, and left the restaurant open.
The facility at Denny's #7422 on Town Center Boulevard accumulated 11 total violations that day, six of them at the highest severity level the state assigns.
What Inspectors Found
The water supply violation sits at the top of the list for a reason. A restaurant without an approved potable water source is cooking, rinsing, and washing hands with water that has not been verified safe. State records document the violation but do not specify what alternative source, if any, was in use.
Inspectors also found that employees were not properly reporting illness symptoms. At a breakfast-and-lunch chain where workers handle eggs, raw meat, and shared plates across dozens of tables, that violation describes a direct transmission route for norovirus and other pathogens from kitchen staff to customers.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and multi-use utensils were also cited for improper cleaning. Those two findings together mean surfaces that touched raw food were not reliably decontaminated before touching the next order.
Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled somewhere in the facility. Inspectors also cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, a finding that signals potential fecal contamination risk throughout the kitchen.
The remaining violations included improper handwashing technique, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked menu items, improper sanitizer concentration, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting. Eleven violations. The restaurant stayed open.
What These Violations Mean
The potable water violation is the one that most directly affects every item on the menu. Water that has not been verified as safe can carry E. coli, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Legionella. Every dish washed, every surface wiped, every pot filled draws on that supply. There is no way for a customer to know this is happening.
The employee illness reporting failure compounds the water problem. Norovirus is the leading cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, and it spreads most efficiently when a sick food worker handles food without triggering any internal reporting or removal from duty. The violation at this Denny's means that system was not functioning on June 11.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and multi-use utensils create what food safety specialists call a cross-contamination chain. Bacteria transferred from raw eggs or meat to a cutting board, then to a spatula, then to a plate, can reach a customer without any single step looking obviously wrong. The sanitizer violation found the same day means the chemical backstop against that chain was also compromised.
Improper sewage disposal at a food service facility is not a plumbing inconvenience. Raw sewage contains fecal coliform bacteria. When disposal is improper, contamination can reach food prep areas, floor drains, and hand-washing sinks.
The Longer Record
Denny's #7422, Town Center Blvd, Clermont: Recent Inspection Pattern
This location has 29 inspections on record and 314 total violations. That is not a spike. That is a baseline.
The two inspections in fall 2025 each produced 9 high-severity violations. The October 2024 visit produced 7. The March 2024 visit produced 6, matching exactly what inspectors found on June 11. There is no inspection in the recent record that came back clean.
The follow-up inspection conducted the very next day, June 12, found 4 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate violations still in place. A facility that cannot clear its most serious violations within 24 hours of a documented inspection is not a facility that resolved the problems and moved on.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed. Across 29 inspections and 314 violations, the state has not once issued an emergency shutdown order for this location.
It was open on June 11. It was open on June 12.