FORT MYERS, FL. Florida Boy Burger Co. on Fowler Street drew the most serious findings of any Lee County restaurant inspected the week of May 25, with six high-severity violations that included food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, missing shellfish identification records, and no person in charge present or performing duties when inspectors arrived.
The violations at the Fowler Street burger spot did not stop there. Inspectors also cited an employee for not reporting illness symptoms, documented improper handwashing technique, and found no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. Three intermediate violations rounded out the report, including multi-use utensils not properly cleaned and single-use items being reused.
Five other Fort Myers restaurants drew high-severity citations during the same seven-day stretch.
What Inspectors Found
Tung Hing Chinese Restaurant on Fowler Street recorded four high-severity violations, including toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled near food, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and no written employee health policy. Inspectors also cited the restaurant for failing to follow required procedures for specialized food processes, a violation that applies to preparations such as smoking, curing, fermenting, or reduced-oxygen packaging.
Three intermediate violations accompanied those findings at Tung Hing: improper sewage or wastewater disposal, improper sanitizing solution or procedures, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
Eatery by Ryan on Alico Mission Way drew three high-severity violations. Inspectors found no written employee health policy, improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals, and a failure to properly use time as a public health control, a method that allows food to sit in the temperature danger zone for a fixed window before being discarded. When that window is not tracked or documented, there is no way to know whether food has been held too long.
Ren's Bistro on West First Street was cited for two high-severity violations: no employee health policy and improper handwashing technique. Inspectors also noted improper sanitizing procedures, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
Vuelve a la Vida Seafood Restaurant on Boy Scout Drive drew two high-severity violations: improper handwashing technique and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. For a restaurant whose name and menu center on seafood, the absence of a consumer advisory carries particular weight, since raw shellfish and undercooked fish carry the highest risk of foodborne illness among menu items.
Metro Deli and Cafe on Metro Parkway was also cited for two high-severity violations: no employee health policy and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
What These Violations Mean
The most common high-severity violation across this week's six facilities was the absence of a written employee health policy, cited at Tung Hing, Eatery by Ryan, Ren's Bistro, and Metro Deli and Cafe. That document is the mechanism by which a restaurant requires workers to report when they are sick. Without it, an employee with norovirus, salmonella, or hepatitis A can work a full shift handling food and surfaces with no formal obligation to tell anyone. Norovirus alone accounts for roughly 20 million infections in the United States each year, and food workers are a primary transmission route.
Improper handwashing technique, cited at Florida Boy Burger Co., Ren's Bistro, and Vuelve a la Vida, compounds that risk. An employee who attempts to wash their hands but uses the wrong technique, too brief, skipping between fingers, not using soap long enough, leaves pathogens on their hands even after the attempt. The handwashing step is the single most effective barrier between a sick worker and a customer's plate.
The undercooked food violation at Florida Boy Burger Co. is the most acute danger on this week's list. Salmonella survives in poultry below 165 degrees Fahrenheit and can cause severe illness within hours of consumption. The missing shellfish identification records at the same restaurant create a second, separate problem: if a customer becomes ill after eating oysters or clams, investigators need those records to trace the source and identify whether other consumers were exposed.
Improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals, cited at both Tung Hing and Eatery by Ryan, represent a different category of hazard entirely. Cleaning chemicals stored near or above food preparation surfaces can contaminate food directly through spills or aerosol contact. Mislabeled containers have caused acute poisoning events in restaurant settings when chemicals were mistaken for food-safe products.
The Longer Record
Vuelve a la Vida Seafood Restaurant has the longest inspection history of any facility on this week's list, with 46 prior inspections on record. That is a substantial file, and the two high-severity violations documented this week, including the missing consumer advisory at a restaurant that serves raw seafood, are not findings associated with a new or inexperienced operation.
Eatery by Ryan has 32 prior inspections on record. Tung Hing Chinese Restaurant has 31. Both facilities drew multiple high-severity violations this week despite years of inspection history. At Tung Hing, the combination of improperly stored chemicals, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and a sewage disposal violation in a single inspection represents a broad range of failure categories, not a single overlooked detail.
Metro Deli and Cafe has 28 prior inspections on record, and Florida Boy Burger Co. has 18. Florida Boy Burger Co.'s six high-severity violations in a single inspection, including food not cooked to temperature and no manager present, stand out regardless of inspection count. The absence of a person in charge performing duties at the time of inspection is significant because it means there was no one on site with the authority or awareness to catch the other five high-severity problems before the inspector did.
Ren's Bistro is the newest operation in this week's group, with only five prior inspections on record. Two of those inspections apparently preceded this week's visit, which produced two high-severity violations including both a missing health policy and a handwashing technique failure. At a location still early in its inspection history, those citations suggest foundational training gaps rather than isolated oversights.
Still Unresolved
Florida Boy Burger Co.'s shellfish identification records were flagged as inadequate by inspectors. As of the close of the inspection week, the state's public record does not show whether those records have since been produced or corrected, and no follow-up inspection result was available in the data reviewed for this report.