JACKSONVILLE, FL. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled near food at a downtown Jacksonville bar and restaurant that state inspectors visited in May, one of six high-severity violations they documented before leaving the facility open for business.
Element Bistro, Bar and Lounge/Myth Nightclub at 333 E. Bay Street drew the citations on May 13, 2026. Inspectors found violations spanning chemical safety, hand hygiene, food contact surfaces, and disclosure to customers, yet the facility was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The chemical storage violation is among the most acutely dangerous on the list. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food create a direct route to accidental poisoning, whether through a spill, a mislabeled container, or residue left on a surface where food is prepared or plated.
Inspectors also documented that the facility had no written employee health policy, meaning there was no formal mechanism requiring sick workers to report symptoms or stay off the floor. That was paired with a separate citation for inadequate handwashing facilities and a third for improper handwashing technique, observed in practice.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, a violation that functions as a multiplier: every surface a contaminated cutting board or prep area touches becomes a new transfer point. Inspectors also noted the facility had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, which is required when a menu includes items like rare burgers, raw oysters, or undercooked eggs.
Single-use items were found being reused, the one intermediate violation in an otherwise high-severity inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and observed improper handwashing technique describes a specific and well-documented transmission path. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness in the United States, spreads primarily through infected food workers who either don't know they should stay home or don't wash their hands correctly when they do come in. Both failure points were present at Element Bistro on May 13.
Inadequate handwashing facilities compounds the technique problem. If the infrastructure for proper handwashing is not in place, even a worker who knows the correct technique cannot reliably execute it. These three violations, documented together at the same facility on the same day, represent a layered breakdown in the most basic barrier between kitchen workers and the food customers eat.
The food contact surface violation adds a separate contamination route. Bacteria transferred from an unwashed cutting board or an unsanitized prep surface can survive long enough to reach a finished plate. Combined with the chemical storage violation, the May 13 inspection describes a kitchen where both biological and chemical hazards were inadequately controlled at the same time.
The missing consumer advisory is a narrower but consequential citation. Customers who are pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised, or managing chronic illness rely on that disclosure to make informed decisions about what they order. Without it, they have no way of knowing a dish carries elevated risk.
The Longer Record
The May 2026 inspection is not an outlier in this facility's history. State records show 24 inspections on record at Element Bistro, with 121 total violations documented across those visits. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The inspection history shows high-severity violations in nearly every visit going back years. The October 2023 inspection produced six high-severity and three intermediate violations, matching the count from May 2026. The April 2025 inspection found four high-severity violations. The November 2025 inspection found three high-severity violations. The only inspection in the recent record with a clean result was December 2022, which produced zero high or intermediate violations.
The pattern is consistent: high-severity violations appear, the facility remains open, and the violations reappear in the next inspection cycle. No emergency closure has ever followed, despite multiple inspections reaching six high-severity citations.
Still Open
State inspectors have the authority to emergency-close a facility when violations pose an immediate threat to public health. At Element Bistro on May 13, 2026, they documented six high-severity violations including toxic chemicals near food, no mechanism to keep sick workers off the floor, and food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized.
The facility was not closed.