KISSIMMEE, FL. State inspectors who visited Encore Club-Finn's Cafe at 7635 Fairfax Drive on September 29 found toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, no manager present or performing duties, an employee not reporting symptoms of illness, and improper handwashing technique, among six total high-severity violations. The facility was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The two chemical violations are among the most acute hazards in the inspection record. Inspectors cited both improper storage or labeling of toxic chemicals and improper identification, storage, or use of toxic substances, two related but separately documented failures involving chemicals in a food service environment. When cleaning agents or other toxic substances are stored near food or in unlabeled containers, the risk is direct: chemical contamination of food or food-contact surfaces, which can cause acute poisoning with no warning signs visible to a customer.
The absence of a person in charge is not a paperwork violation. When no manager is actively overseeing a kitchen, the violations that follow tend to compound. Inspectors documented exactly that pattern here: improper handwashing technique, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and multi-use utensils improperly cleaned, all on the same visit.
The employee illness reporting failure is its own category of concern. A food worker who does not report symptoms of illness, and who continues handling food, is a direct transmission route for pathogens including norovirus, which spreads person-to-person through contaminated food and can sicken dozens from a single meal service.
What These Violations Mean
The handwashing violation at Finn's Cafe is distinct from a facility that provides no handwashing station. An employee who attempts to wash hands but uses improper technique, skipping steps or not scrubbing long enough, leaves pathogens on their hands even after the wash. Those hands then touch food, surfaces, and utensils. Combined with the finding that food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and that multi-use utensils were also improperly cleaned, the inspection describes a kitchen where contamination had multiple active pathways on the same day.
The wiping cloth violation adds to that picture. Improperly used wiping cloths, reused across surfaces without sanitizing, function as transfer vehicles, moving bacteria from one surface to the next. In a kitchen where handwashing technique is already failing and surfaces are not being sanitized, a contaminated wiping cloth can spread whatever is already present across the entire prep area.
The chemical violations are the most immediately alarming. Mislabeled or improperly stored toxic substances near food require no biological process to cause harm. A single cross-contamination event, a chemical stored above a prep surface or in an unmarked container mistaken for something else, can injure a customer before anyone recognizes what happened.
The Longer Record
The September 29 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Finn's Cafe has been inspected 24 times, accumulating 136 total violations. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The prior inspection on May 11, 2026, produced eight high-severity violations and two intermediate ones, the highest single-visit high-severity count in the recent history. The visit before that, on May 27, found two high-severity violations. The pattern is not a steady decline or a single bad stretch. It is recurring.
Going back through 2023 and 2024, high-severity violations appeared at every inspection on record. The April 2024 visit produced six high-severity violations, matching the September 29 count exactly. The November 2023 visit produced five high-severity violations with two intermediate ones. The June 2023 visit produced four high-severity violations.
Eight consecutive inspections, all with high-severity violations, and no emergency closure in the facility's entire recorded history.
Open for Business
Florida's emergency closure authority exists for situations where inspectors determine a facility poses an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations, including toxic chemicals improperly stored, no manager present, an employee not reporting illness, and food contact surfaces not properly sanitized, did not meet that threshold on September 29 at Finn's Cafe.
The facility served customers that day and the days that followed.
State records show 136 violations across 24 inspections, and the restaurant has never once been shut down.
