FORT LAUDERDALE, FL. A NE 62nd Street cafe racked up seven high-severity violations in a single inspection this week, more than any other Fort Lauderdale restaurant during a seven-day stretch that saw 15 facilities cited for serious food safety failures.
Michael's Cafe Bistro drew citations for undercooking food, storing toxic chemicals improperly near food, failing to maintain shellfish traceability records, and serving food inspectors described as being in poor condition. Employees were observed using improper handwashing technique, and the cafe had no adequate employee health policy on file.
Food contact surfaces were also not properly cleaned or sanitized, a violation that creates a direct bacterial transfer route between raw and ready-to-eat foods.
What Inspectors Found
Koi Sushi Lounge and Hibachi on Cordova Road accumulated six high-severity violations. Inspectors found the restaurant was obtaining food from unapproved or unknown sources, a serious concern for a sushi operation where raw fish traceability directly affects the ability to respond to illness complaints. Employees were also found not reporting symptoms of illness, handwashing facilities were inadequate, and time as a public health control was not being properly used.
Inadequate shellfish traceability records were cited at Koi Sushi as well, the same violation that appeared at Michael's Cafe Bistro and would surface at three additional facilities before the week was out.
Bohemian Latin Grill on NE 32nd Street also drew six high-severity violations, including a finding that no person in charge was present or performing duties. Employees were not reporting illness symptoms, handwashing by food employees was inadequate, handwashing facilities themselves were inadequate, and technique was also cited as improper. Shell stock identification records were missing.
Three separate handwashing failures at a single facility, covering infrastructure, practice, and technique, represent a near-complete breakdown of the most basic contamination control.
Larb BKK on N Federal Highway drew five high-severity violations, including toxic chemicals stored improperly alongside food, no adequate employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, and missing shellfish traceability records.
High Tides on Seabreeze Boulevard also collected five high-severity citations. Inspectors found food from an unapproved or unknown source on the premises, no person in charge present, employees not reporting illness, inadequate handwashing by food employees, and improperly stored toxic chemicals.
Fresh Box Cafe on W Commercial Boulevard drew five high-severity violations that included a failure to follow required procedures for specialized food processes. No person in charge was present, no employee health policy existed, employees were not reporting illness, and time as a public health control was not properly applied.
Bodega Taqueria y Tequila on Las Olas Boulevard drew four high-severity violations including food from an unapproved source and food not cooked to the required minimum temperature. The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods and had toxic chemicals improperly stored. An intermediate violation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal was also cited.
Serving food from an unapproved source while also undercooking it, and without informing customers of the risk, represents a layered set of failures at a single facility.
International House of Pancakes at 1101 N Federal Highway drew four high-severity violations including no person in charge, employees not reporting illness, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Juicy Crab on N Andrews Avenue, a seafood restaurant, drew a citation for inadequate shell stock identification records, the same traceability violation that appeared at four other facilities this week. Inspectors also cited employees for not reporting illness symptoms and food not cooked to the required minimum temperature.
Tree House Play and Cafe on Cordova Road drew three high-severity violations including food in poor condition, undercooking, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. The facility serves families with children, a population that includes some of the most vulnerable customers to foodborne illness.
Just 1 More on NE 33rd Avenue drew three high-severity violations: inadequate handwashing by food employees, food in poor condition, and food not cooked to the required minimum temperature.
What These Violations Mean
The handwashing violations documented across this week's inspections span three distinct failure types, and all three appeared at Bohemian Latin Grill alone. Inadequate facilities means there is no functional station for employees to wash their hands at all. Inadequate handwashing means employees are skipping it. Improper technique means employees are going through the motions without removing pathogens. Any one of those is a contamination pathway. All three together effectively eliminate hand hygiene as a safety control.
Food from unapproved sources, cited at Koi Sushi Lounge, High Tides, and Bodega Taqueria y Tequila, is a traceability problem as much as a sourcing problem. When a customer gets sick, investigators need to know where food came from, what lot it was part of, and who else received it. Food purchased outside inspected supply chains has no paper trail. If a patron at one of those three restaurants develops a foodborne illness this week, there is no record to follow.
The shellfish traceability violations at Michael's Cafe Bistro, Koi Sushi, Bohemian Latin Grill, Larb BKK, and Juicy Crab carry the same logic. Oysters, clams, and mussels are frequently consumed raw or barely cooked, and they are among the highest-risk vectors for Vibrio and Norovirus. Shell stock tags are required to be kept on file for 90 days specifically because illness from shellfish can take days or weeks to manifest and trace back to a source.
The undercooking violations at Michael's Cafe Bistro, Bodega Taqueria y Tequila, Juicy Crab, Tree House Play and Cafe, and Just 1 More are not procedural technicalities. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. E. coli O157:H7 survives in ground beef below 155 degrees. Cooking to minimum temperature is the last kill step available before food reaches a customer's plate.
The Longer Record
Michael's Cafe Bistro has now accumulated 32 prior inspections on record, the highest count among facilities cited this week. That volume of inspections, combined with seven high-severity violations in a single visit, raises a question the records alone cannot answer: what those prior inspections found.
Bohemian Latin Grill has 30 prior inspections on record and drew six high-severity violations this week, including the near-complete collapse of handwashing controls. Koi Sushi Lounge has 28 prior inspections on record. Ceviche Barrio by Antojitos to Go and Larb BKK each have 27. None of those totals suggest a facility in its early months of operation still working out procedures.
Fresh Box Cafe and Tree House Play and Cafe are the newest entrants in this week's data. Fresh Box Cafe has 9 prior inspections on record and drew five high-severity violations, including a failure to follow required procedures for specialized food processes. Tree House Play and Cafe has only 7 prior inspections on record and already has undercooking and food-in-poor-condition violations on its file.
The longest-tenured repeat violator on this week's list in terms of specific citation categories is Michael's Cafe Bistro, where shellfish traceability failures, undercooking, and food contact surface sanitation all appeared together in one visit after more than three decades' worth of inspection history. Just 1 More, with 16 prior inspections and three high-severity violations including undercooking and food in poor condition, has fewer inspections on record but the same pattern taking shape.
Tree House Play and Cafe, seven inspections in and already drawing three high-severity violations at a facility that markets itself to families with young children, is the unresolved thread in this week's data.
