FORT LAUDERDALE, FL. A state inspector walked into Grio Express at 4308 N SR 7 on June 23 and found employees not reporting symptoms of illness, food cooked below the minimum required temperature, and toxic chemicals stored improperly near food. Seven of the ten violations were high-severity. The restaurant was not closed.
The facility has been inspected 54 times. It has accumulated 480 total violations on record. Inspectors have ordered it shut down three times.
What Inspectors Found
The June 23 inspection produced a violation list that cuts across almost every basic food safety category at once. Employees were not reporting illness symptoms, not washing hands adequately, and not using correct technique even when a handwashing attempt was made.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Multi-use utensils had not been cleaned correctly. And food was not being cooked to the minimum required temperature.
Inspectors also found toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly, and documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal on the premises.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting and handwashing violations together describe a direct transmission route from a sick employee to every plate leaving the kitchen. When food workers do not report symptoms, they continue handling food while infectious. Norovirus, one of the most common sources of restaurant-linked outbreaks, spreads through exactly this pathway. The two handwashing violations found at Grio Express compound the problem: employees were both failing to wash hands when required and using incorrect technique when they did wash, meaning pathogens remained on hands even after an attempt to remove them.
The undercooking violation is separately serious. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Without a consumer advisory posted, customers at Grio Express had no way to know their food may not have reached a safe internal temperature. Elderly customers, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems face the highest risk from undercooked poultry.
Improperly stored chemicals near food create a different category of danger entirely. Mislabeled or unsecured toxic substances can contaminate food through direct contact or spray drift, causing acute poisoning that can be difficult to diagnose because it mimics other illnesses.
The sewage violation adds a third contamination vector. Improper wastewater disposal allows fecal bacteria to reach food preparation surfaces and spread through a facility in ways that are difficult to trace after the fact.
The Longer Record
Fifty-four inspections over the life of this facility have produced 480 total violations. The June 23 inspection, with its seven high-severity citations, is not an outlier. It is consistent with what state records show across the past eight months of documented visits.
On November 10, 2025, inspectors cited the restaurant for eight high-severity violations and three intermediate ones, the highest single-visit count in the recent record. Four days later, on November 12, there were four more high-severity violations. A follow-up on November 17 produced four more. The pattern in late 2025 suggests violations were being documented at nearly every visit without producing lasting correction.
The three prior emergency closures tell their own story. In February 2018, inspectors shut the facility for roach and rodent activity. It reopened the same day. In May 2020, inspectors shut it again for the same reason, roach and rodent activity. In February 2024, the closure was for lack of potable water. That one also resolved the same day.
The April 2025 inspection found seven high-severity violations and three intermediate ones, a count identical to the June 2026 inspection. Fourteen months apart, the same number and severity of violations.
Still Open
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations at Grio Express on June 23, 2026. The list included employees not reporting illness symptoms, food not cooked to minimum safe temperatures, improper handwashing, unsanitized food contact surfaces, improperly stored toxic chemicals, and sewage disposal problems.
The facility has been closed three times since 2018 and has accumulated 480 violations across 54 inspections.
After the June 23 visit, it remained open.
