FLAGLER COUNTY, FL. A Flagler Beach bar accumulated seven high-severity violations in a single inspection week, the worst performance in a county where 12 of 17 facilities inspected between July 31 and August 6, 2026 drew at least two high-severity citations.
Anchor at 500 S Oceanshore Blvd led the county's worst performers with seven high-severity violations and four intermediate ones. Inspectors found no person in charge present or performing duties, no employee health policy, and inadequate handwashing facilities, three conditions that compound one another. Food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures, food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, toxic chemicals were improperly stored, and the restaurant had no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. An improper sewage or wastewater disposal violation rounded out the intermediate findings.
Seven high-severity violations at a single beachside bar in one week is not a routine tally for Flagler County.
The Violations
Sunbros Cafe at 301 Moody Blvd drew six high-severity violations. An employee was not reporting symptoms of illness, food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned, food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and the cafe had no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items. Two separate toxic substance violations were cited: improperly stored or labeled chemicals, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Inspectors also noted single-use items being improperly reused.
Anthony's Pizza at 250 Palm Coast Pkwy NE drew five high-severity violations, two of which are uncommon at a pizza operation: inadequate shell stock identification and records, and parasite destruction procedures not followed. Both point to raw or lightly cooked seafood being served without the traceability or preparation steps the state requires. Toxic chemicals were also improperly stored, food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned, and the restaurant had no consumer advisory.
Kawa Sushi at 1475 Palm Coast Pkwy NW received five high-severity violations, including food from an unapproved or unknown source. An employee was not reporting symptoms of illness, food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned, toxic chemicals were improperly stored, and there was no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. For a sushi operation, sourcing from an unapproved supplier is a particularly acute concern.
Giovanni's Pizza and Pasta at 218 Moody Blvd in Flagler Beach had four high-severity violations, including improper use of time as a public health control. When time is used as a substitute for temperature monitoring, the state requires strict documentation and limits; without it, food can sit in the bacterial growth zone with no safeguard.
Romero's Tuscany by the Sea at 308 S Oceanshore Blvd accumulated four high-severity violations and zero intermediate ones. Both a toxic chemicals citation and a separate toxic substances citation appeared in the report, along with improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and no consumer advisory.
Don Luigi's Gourmet Kitchen at 260 Cypress Edge Dr had three high-severity violations, including food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. That citation, combined with improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and no consumer advisory, was accompanied by three intermediate violations: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
Dulce de Leche Cafe at 909 N Ocean Shore Blvd drew three high-severity violations, including improper hand and arm washing technique. Inspectors noted the violation separately from handwashing facilities, meaning employees were attempting to wash their hands but doing so incorrectly.
Subway at 174 Cypress Point Pkwy had three high-severity violations: no person in charge present or performing duties, an employee not reporting symptoms of illness, and improperly stored toxic chemicals. An improper sewage or wastewater disposal citation also appeared in the intermediate findings.
Taco Bell at 1020 Palm Coast Pkwy, China Cafe at 426 Beach Village Dr, and China King at 1475 Palm Coast Pkwy each drew two high-severity violations. All three shared an improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals citation. China Cafe and China King were both cited for food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized. China Cafe also had an improper sewage or wastewater disposal citation among its intermediate findings.
What These Violations Mean
The toxic chemicals citation appeared in ten of the twelve worst-performing facilities this week, making it the most widespread high-severity finding in the county. Improperly stored or labeled chemicals near food preparation areas can cause acute poisoning through direct contamination or through mislabeled containers being used in food prep. The risk is not theoretical: chemical poisoning incidents from restaurant mishandling have sent customers to emergency rooms.
The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, cited at Anchor, Sunbros Cafe, Anthony's Pizza, Kawa Sushi, Giovanni's, Romero's, and Don Luigi's, carries a specific danger for customers who would choose differently if informed. Elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system face elevated risk from undercooked proteins. A missing advisory removes the one warning those customers would have had.
At Kawa Sushi, food from an unapproved or unknown source is a traceability failure with direct consequences. If a customer becomes ill, investigators need to trace the food back through the supply chain to identify contamination. Food from an unapproved supplier bypasses federal inspection checkpoints and breaks that chain entirely.
At Anchor, the combination of no person in charge, no employee health policy, and no adequate handwashing facilities in the same inspection is not three separate problems. It is a single management environment where no one is enforcing the basic rules, sick workers have no formal obligation to report symptoms, and the physical infrastructure for hand hygiene does not exist. CDC data associates active managerial control failures with three times the rate of critical violations at comparable establishments.
The Longer Record
The data this week does not include prior inspection counts for individual facilities, which limits direct comparison of Flagler County's repeat violators against their full histories. What the week's record does show is that Flagler Beach, a small barrier island community, produced four of the county's six worst performers: Anchor, Sunbros Cafe, Giovanni's, and Romero's all sit within a few blocks of each other on or near S Oceanshore Blvd and Moody Blvd.
That concentration is notable. Flagler Beach's restaurant corridor draws heavy summer traffic, and the inspection window of July 31 through August 6 falls squarely in peak season. Four high-severity performers clustered in the same beach town during the busiest week of the year represents the county's most significant food safety exposure.
Palm Coast, the county's largest city, contributed the next tier: Anthony's Pizza, Kawa Sushi, Don Luigi's, Subway, Taco Bell, and China King all drew high-severity citations. The Kawa Sushi finding of food from an unapproved source has no clear prior-record context in this week's data, but it is the kind of violation that state inspectors flag for follow-up, not just correction.
Romero's Tuscany by the Sea, a beachfront restaurant that markets itself as an upscale dining destination, had four high-severity violations and no intermediate ones. The all-or-nothing pattern, serious problems at the top of the severity scale with nothing flagged below, suggests the intermediate and basic items may not have drawn inspector attention rather than that none existed.
