APOLLO BEACH, FL. Toxic chemicals were stored improperly near food, shellfish could not be traced if a customer got sick, and no one in charge was present to oversee operations when a state inspector walked into Hungry Greek at 6156 Paseo Al Mar Blvd on August 5. The restaurant collected 7 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate violations that day. It was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The chemicals violation is the most acute. When cleaning agents, sanitizers, or pesticides are stored near or above food without proper labeling or separation, a single spill or mislabeled container can contaminate an entire food prep surface or ingredient supply. The inspector documented this condition at a restaurant that also, on the same visit, lacked a manager present to catch or correct it.
The shellfish records violation compounds the risk for anyone who ordered oysters, clams, or mussels. Without proper shell stock identification tags, there is no way to trace where that shellfish came from if a customer develops vibrio or norovirus in the days after eating there. Shellfish are among the highest-risk foods in any kitchen because they are often consumed raw or barely cooked.
The restaurant also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. That notice is the only mechanism by which a pregnant customer, an elderly diner, or someone on immunosuppressants learns they are taking on additional risk by ordering something like a rare lamb chop or a lightly seared dish.
Time as a public health control was also cited as not properly used. When a kitchen uses time rather than temperature to manage food safety, the rules require strict tracking of when food entered the danger zone and when it must be discarded. No proper tracking means food can sit in the bacterial growth range indefinitely with no one counting down the clock.
The Pattern
This was not a bad day in an otherwise clean operation. It was the third inspection in four visits to produce high-severity violations, and the second consecutive inspection to produce exactly 7 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations.
The August 5 inspection mirrored the February 19 visit earlier this year almost exactly: 7 high, 3 intermediate. The October 2025 inspection found 2 high and 2 intermediate violations. Only the February 2025 inspection, the earliest on record, came back with zero high-severity violations.
In four inspections, Hungry Greek has accumulated 28 total violations on record. No emergency closure has ever been ordered.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no manager present, inadequate handwashing facilities, and documented improper handwashing technique is not three separate problems. It is one cascading failure. CDC data cited in the inspection record shows establishments without active managerial control produce three times more critical violations than those with someone in charge and paying attention. When no one is watching, handwashing stations fall into disrepair, and when the stations are inadequate, even an employee who tries to wash their hands properly cannot do it effectively.
The cooling equipment violation adds another layer. Refrigeration that cannot hold required temperatures allows food to drift into the 40-to-140-degree range where bacteria like salmonella and listeria multiply rapidly. For a kitchen that is also misusing time as a public health control, that means two separate temperature-management systems were failing at once on the same inspection day.
Single-use items being reused, documented as an intermediate violation, matters because those items were designed without the material durability to be sanitized between uses. Reused gloves, foil, or single-use containers carry whatever contamination they picked up the first time directly to the next food they touch.
The toilet facilities violation is not cosmetic. Employees who encounter broken, inaccessible, or inadequate restroom facilities are less likely to use them and less likely to wash their hands afterward. In a kitchen already cited for improper handwashing technique and inadequate handwashing infrastructure, that is one more point of failure in a system that had already broken down in several places before the inspector arrived.
The Longer Record
Hungry Greek opened with a relatively clean record. The February 2025 inspection produced a single intermediate violation and no high-severity findings. By October 2025, two high-severity violations had appeared. By February 2026, that number had jumped to 7. The August 2026 inspection matched that peak exactly.
Four inspections. Three of the four produced high-severity violations. The two most recent inspections produced identical high-severity totals. That is not a restaurant trending toward compliance.
No inspector has ever ordered Hungry Greek closed. After accumulating 7 high-severity violations in February and another 7 in August, including toxic chemical storage near food and no ability to trace shellfish back to its source, the restaurant on Paseo Al Mar remained open for business.
