BONITA SPRINGS, FL. State inspectors walked into Fernandez the Bull Cuban Cafe and Bar on Bonita Beach Road on May 28, 2026, and found food sourced from an unapproved or unknown supplier, a violation that means no one can trace where that food came from if a customer gets sick.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source violation was not the only one tied to shellfish. Inspectors also cited the cafe for inadequate shell stock identification and records, meaning the oysters, clams, or mussels on hand could not be traced to a certified harvest location or date.
Inspectors also documented that at least one employee was not reporting symptoms of illness, and that employees were using improper hand and arm washing technique. Those two violations appeared in the same inspection.
The cafe was also cited for having no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, and for having no person in charge present or performing supervisory duties during the visit. A seventh violation, at the intermediate level, found that multi-use utensils were not being properly cleaned between uses.
What These Violations Mean
The unapproved food source citation is among the most consequential a restaurant can receive. Food purchased outside the licensed supply chain bypasses federal USDA and FDA safety inspections, which means it could carry Listeria, Salmonella, or other pathogens with no mechanism for a recall or public health alert if someone becomes ill after eating it.
The shellfish violations compound that risk. Oysters, clams, and mussels are frequently consumed raw or barely cooked, and they filter large volumes of water during their lives, concentrating whatever bacteria or viruses are present. Without shell stock tags documenting the harvest location and date, health officials cannot identify the source of contamination in an outbreak.
The illness reporting and handwashing violations found at Fernandez the Bull are what food safety officials call a direct transmission route. A food worker who does not report symptoms, and who does not wash hands correctly, is capable of spreading norovirus or other pathogens to every plate that leaves the kitchen.
The person in charge violation ties all of it together. CDC research shows that restaurants without active managerial control during service accumulate three times more critical violations than those with engaged supervision on the floor. At Fernandez the Bull on May 28, inspectors documented management absent, illness protocols ignored, handwashing performed incorrectly, and food sourced from unknown origins, all in a single visit.
The Longer Record
The May 2026 inspection was the sixth on record for Fernandez the Bull, and it produced more high-severity violations than the previous five combined. The cafe's first inspection, in December 2023, turned up zero high-priority or intermediate violations.
That clean start did not hold. By February 2024, inspectors were documenting two high-severity violations. July 2024 added one more. November 2024 brought two high-severity violations and one intermediate. By October 2025, the cafe had accumulated three high-severity violations in a single visit.
The May 2026 inspection doubled the October 2025 count.
Fernandez the Bull: Inspection History
Across all six inspections, the cafe has never been emergency-closed. No single prior inspection flagged food from an unapproved source or inadequate shellfish traceability records, making the May 2026 findings a new category of concern, not simply a continuation of prior patterns.
The cafe has accumulated 21 total violations across its inspection history. Six of those came in the most recent visit alone.
Still Open
State inspectors have the authority to order an emergency closure when violations pose an immediate threat to public health. Food from an unknown source, shellfish with no traceability, an employee failing to report illness, and no manager on the floor are each, individually, conditions that can precede a foodborne illness outbreak.
On May 28, 2026, all of them were present at the same time at Fernandez the Bull Cuban Cafe and Bar on Bonita Beach Road.
The restaurant was not closed.