KEY WEST, FL. The week of September 20, 2026, state inspectors worked their way through the Florida Keys tourist corridor and found high-severity violations at every stop, twelve restaurants in all, from Key Largo to the foot of Duval Street.
Bagatelle Restaurant at 115 Duval Street led the week with eight high-severity citations, the most of any facility inspected. Inspectors documented food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. They also found toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, shellfish without adequate traceability records, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, inadequate handwashing by employees, and no written employee health policy.
What Inspectors Found
Dante's Key West / Prime 951 at 951 Caroline Street drew seven high-severity violations, including a finding that no person in charge was present or performing duties during the inspection. Inspectors also cited the restaurant for having no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, food from an unapproved or unknown source, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and two separate chemical storage violations: toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. An improper sewage or wastewater disposal citation rounded out the record.
Surly Siren Saloon at 310 Front Street also reached seven high-severity violations. Among them: food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and the same dual chemical storage failures documented at Dante's. Inspectors also cited the saloon for not properly using time as a public health control and for lacking a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. The facility's intermediate violations included inadequate cooling and cold holding equipment.
KeysBite at 99000 Overseas Highway in Key Largo matched the seven high-severity count, with inspectors finding no person in charge, no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, improper use of time as a public health control, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled. Four intermediate violations accompanied those findings.
Main Kitchen and Tropicado & Perla at 430 Duval Street, another address directly on Key West's primary tourist corridor, also logged seven high-severity violations. Inspectors found no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper hand and arm washing technique, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, improper use of time as a public health control, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored. An improper sewage or wastewater disposal citation was among the intermediate findings.
Mrs Mac's Kitchen II at 99020 Overseas Highway in Key Largo drew six high-severity violations, including no person in charge, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing facilities, food from an unapproved or unknown source, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and no allergen awareness demonstrated. The allergen violation is notable: inspectors found no evidence that staff could identify or communicate allergen risks to customers.
Lazy Days Restaurant at 79867 Overseas Highway in Islamorada recorded five high-severity violations, including an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper hand and arm washing technique, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, improper use of time as a public health control, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Three intermediate violations, including inadequate cooling equipment and improper sewage disposal, accompanied the high-severity findings.
Tikka Bar at 509 Southard Street drew five high-severity violations and zero intermediate violations. Inspectors cited the restaurant for no employee health policy, improper hand and arm washing technique, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
Duetto at 540 Greene Street logged five high-severity violations, including an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper hand and arm washing technique, food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
La Creperie French Cafe Key West at 801 Thomas Street also drew five high-severity violations: no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, food from an unapproved or unknown source, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
Pepe's Cafe at 806 Caroline Street recorded five high-severity violations, including no person in charge, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper hand and arm washing technique, improper use of time as a public health control, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Roostica Pizzeria at 5620 MacDonald Avenue closed out the week with four high-severity violations: no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper hand and arm washing technique, and food from an unapproved or unknown source.
What These Violations Mean
The most pervasive pattern across this week's inspections is the combination of no written employee health policy and employees not reporting illness symptoms. Both violations appeared at eight of the twelve facilities, including KeysBite, Dante's Key West, Main Kitchen and Tropicado & Perla, Mrs Mac's Kitchen II, Lazy Days, Duetto, La Creperie, Pepe's Cafe, and Roostica Pizzeria. For visitors, this is the most direct risk: a sick food worker with no obligation to report symptoms, handling food at a restaurant they stopped at on vacation, is the documented mechanism behind the majority of multi-victim norovirus outbreaks.
Food from unapproved or unknown sources, cited at Dante's Key West, Mrs Mac's Kitchen II, La Creperie, and Roostica Pizzeria, carries a different but serious risk. When food bypasses USDA and FDA inspection channels, there is no traceability. If a customer gets sick, investigators cannot follow the supply chain back to the source. In a tourist corridor where visitors leave the area within days, that traceability gap makes outbreak investigations far harder to complete.
The chemical storage violations at six facilities, Bagatelle, Dante's Key West, Surly Siren Saloon, KeysBite, Main Kitchen and Tropicado & Perla, and Tikka Bar, represent a risk that has nothing to do with cooking temperatures or pathogen thresholds. Toxic chemicals stored near or alongside food can contaminate surfaces or ingredients through spills, mislabeling, or accidental use. The outcome is acute poisoning, not the gradual onset of a foodborne illness.
Bagatelle's shellfish traceability violation deserves specific attention. Oysters, clams, and mussels are consumed raw or lightly cooked and are among the highest-risk foods for Vibrio and hepatitis A transmission. Without proper shell stock identification records, there is no way to determine the harvest location or date if a customer becomes ill after eating shellfish at that address.
The Longer Record
Several of the facilities cited this week are long-established Keys addresses, not new operations finding their footing. Pepe's Cafe on Caroline Street is one of Key West's oldest continuously operating restaurants. The combination of no person in charge during an inspection, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, and improper handwashing technique at an operation with that kind of history is a different finding than the same violations at a newly opened location.
Lazy Days Restaurant in Islamorada and Mrs Mac's Kitchen II in Key Largo are both well-known stops on the Overseas Highway corridor, frequented by visitors driving the length of the Keys. Mrs Mac's drew six high-severity violations, including inadequate handwashing facilities, meaning the physical infrastructure for proper hygiene was absent, not just the practice.
Main Kitchen and Tropicado & Perla sits at 430 Duval Street, among the highest-foot-traffic addresses in the entire state during peak tourist season. Its seven high-severity violations, including improper sewage or wastewater disposal as an intermediate finding alongside the high-severity citations, represent a layered set of failures at a location that serves a large daily volume of out-of-state visitors.
Dante's Key West at 951 Caroline Street recorded an improper sewage or wastewater disposal violation alongside its chemical storage and food sourcing citations. Sewage disposal failures in a commercial kitchen create fecal contamination pathways that affect surfaces, utensils, and food preparation areas throughout the facility. That citation, combined with food from an unapproved source and no mechanism for employees to report illness, places Dante's among the week's most concerning records.
