HOLLYWOOD, FL. Inspectors visiting Don Rodone, Inc. on Sheridan Street on August 14 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, shellfish with no identification records, four distinct handwashing failures, and improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, a total of seven high-severity violations in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The sourcing violations are the most immediate concern. Inspectors cited the restaurant both for obtaining food from unapproved or unknown sources and for failing to maintain shell stock identification records, two separate citations that together mean the seafood on the menu could not be traced back to a licensed supplier or a specific harvest location.
Shell stock records are required precisely because shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, are frequently eaten raw or lightly cooked. If a customer became ill, investigators would have no documentation to identify where the shellfish came from or who else received product from the same source.
The handwashing picture was equally layered. Inspectors cited four distinct failures: employees not washing hands adequately, employees using improper technique, the facility lacking adequate handwashing infrastructure, and no written employee health policy to govern any of it. These are not variations of the same problem. They are four separate breakdowns in the chain of hygiene that separates a kitchen from a contamination event.
Food contact surfaces were also found not properly cleaned or sanitized. The intermediate citation noted multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned either.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is not a paperwork problem. When a restaurant obtains food outside the licensed supply chain, that food has bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspections. It may carry Listeria, Salmonella, or E. coli, and if a customer gets sick, investigators cannot trace the product back to its origin to determine how many others were exposed. At Don Rodone, this citation appeared alongside a separate shellfish traceability failure, meaning the restaurant had layered sourcing problems, not a single administrative gap.
The handwashing violations compound each other in a specific way. Inadequate facilities means the physical infrastructure for proper hygiene was not in place. Inadequate handwashing by employees and improper technique mean that even when employees attempted to wash their hands, the attempt was insufficient to remove pathogens. The absence of a written employee health policy means there is no formal mechanism to keep sick workers out of the kitchen. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads primarily through the hands of infected food workers who have no protocol directing them to stay home.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, the seventh high-severity citation, create a transfer route for whatever pathogens hands or raw food carry. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils that are not properly sanitized become vectors between raw and ready-to-eat food. The intermediate citation for multi-use utensils adds to that picture. Bacterial biofilms can establish on inadequately cleaned utensils within 24 hours and are significantly harder to remove than surface contamination.
The Longer Record
Don Rodone has 25 inspections on record and 129 total violations documented across that history. The August 14 visit, with seven high-severity citations, is the worst single inspection in the data provided, but the record shows this restaurant has not been consistently clean.
The facility has been emergency-closed twice, both times for roach activity. Inspectors shut it down on October 22, 2024, and it reopened the next day after corrections. Less than 13 months later, on November 5, 2025, inspectors closed it again for roach activity. It reopened November 6. The two closures follow an identical pattern: documented infestation, one-day correction, reopening.
The inspection immediately following the second closure, on January 7, 2026, found two high-severity and two intermediate violations. The August 2026 inspection, seven months later, produced seven high-severity violations. The trajectory from the November 2025 closure to August 2026 is not an improvement.
Prior inspections in 2024 and 2025 showed recurring high-severity citations, with the October 2024 pre-closure inspection logging three high-severity violations and the July 2025 inspection logging two. The restaurant has passed clean inspections as well, including one in October 2024 (the day after a closure) and one in November 2025 (the day after a second closure). Those clean results came under the pressure of a reopening check, not routine visits.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations at Don Rodone on August 14, 2026. The facility had been emergency-closed twice in the prior two years, both for roach activity. It had 129 violations across 25 inspections on record.
After the August 14 visit, the restaurant remained open.
