FERNANDINA BEACH, FL. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled inside Dick's Wings and Grill on State Road 200 when state inspectors walked through on September 23, and inspectors found a second, separate violation for toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used, meaning the chemical hazard showed up twice in the same inspection report.
The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The six high-severity violations documented that day covered nearly every major category of food safety failure. In addition to the two chemical storage citations, inspectors found the restaurant had no written employee health policy, or an inadequate one, and separately cited an employee for not reporting symptoms of illness.
Those two violations appeared in the same inspection.
Inspectors also documented improper hand and arm washing technique among staff, meaning employees were attempting to wash their hands but doing it wrong. The sixth high-severity citation was the absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, required to warn customers who are pregnant, elderly, or immunocompromised.
On the intermediate side, inspectors cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities. That last citation, combined with the handwashing technique violation, points to a facility where basic hygiene infrastructure was not functioning as designed.
What These Violations Mean
The pairing of no employee health policy with an employee not reporting illness symptoms is not a paperwork problem. Food workers who fail to report that they are sick are the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks, particularly for Norovirus, which spreads rapidly through a kitchen and onto every plate that passes through it. A written health policy exists precisely to give workers a clear, documented obligation to stay home or report symptoms. Without one, there is no standard to enforce.
The handwashing violation compounds that risk directly. Improper technique, even when an employee makes the attempt, leaves pathogens on the hands. Studies have shown that incorrect handwashing can be nearly as ineffective as no handwashing at all. At a restaurant where an employee was simultaneously cited for not reporting illness, the technique failure means any contamination present had a clear path to food.
The two chemical violations carry a different but immediate danger. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food create the conditions for acute poisoning, either through direct contamination of a food surface or through mislabeling that leads a worker to use the wrong substance in the wrong place. Two separate citations for chemical hazards in a single inspection suggests the problem was not isolated to one shelf or one container.
Improper sewage or wastewater disposal introduces the risk of fecal contamination throughout the facility. That violation, alongside inadequate toilet facilities, creates a scenario where employees have both less access to proper restroom infrastructure and less incentive to use it correctly, feeding back into the handwashing failure already documented.
The Longer Record
The September inspection was not an aberration. State records show Dick's Wings and Grill has been inspected 35 times and has accumulated 313 total violations across its history in Nassau County.
The most recent prior inspection, on May 4, 2026, produced 4 high-severity and 5 intermediate violations. The inspection before that, on December 9, 2025, produced 10 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations. Going back further, the April 10, 2025 inspection also produced 10 high-severity and 5 intermediate violations, severe enough that the restaurant was emergency-closed that day for fly activity. It passed a follow-up inspection the next day and reopened.
The facility has been emergency-closed twice in its inspection history. The first closure came on December 28, 2023, for roach activity. The second was the April 2025 fly closure. Both times, the restaurant cleared a follow-up inspection within a day and resumed service.
The pattern across eight documented inspections spanning roughly two years shows a facility that oscillates between serious violation counts and occasional clean visits, with no sustained improvement. The April 11, 2025 inspection immediately following the fly closure showed zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. Four months later, on June 23, 2025, the count was back to 3 high-severity violations. By December 2025, it was 10.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when an inspector determines that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations on September 23 did not meet that threshold, at least not in the judgment of the inspector on site that day.
Two prior emergency closures are part of this restaurant's record. Each time, the closure lasted roughly 24 hours.
Dick's Wings and Grill on State Road 200 was serving customers after the September 23 inspection closed.
