MIAMI BEACH, FL. An employee at Kalamata Mediterranean Cuisine on Washington Avenue was not reporting symptoms of illness during a June 12 inspection, a violation state records classify as an outbreak enabler and the single most direct threat to anyone who ate there that day.
The restaurant, at 423 Washington Ave., collected six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations during that inspection. State inspectors did not emergency-close it.
What Inspectors Found
The illness-reporting failure sat alongside toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, a violation that carries the risk of acute poisoning through direct contamination or mislabeling. Inspectors also found food contact surfaces, including cutting boards and prep equipment, not properly cleaned or sanitized, a direct pathway for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat foods.
The restaurant was also cited for misusing time as a public health control. When a facility uses time rather than temperature to keep food safe, the rules require precise tracking, and inspectors found that tracking was not being followed, meaning food sat in the bacterial growth zone with no documented limit.
No consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items appeared on the menu. That single omission removes the only warning available to elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system, the populations most likely to be seriously harmed by pathogens in undercooked food.
No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties. Inspectors also cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal and the reuse of single-use items.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting failure is the violation public health officials most directly link to multi-victim outbreaks. When a food worker with norovirus, salmonella, or hepatitis A continues handling food without reporting symptoms, every dish that leaves the kitchen becomes a potential transmission vehicle. State and federal food codes require workers to report symptoms to management precisely because this is the point at which an outbreak can be stopped before it starts.
The toxic chemical citation compounds the risk. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food preparation areas create the conditions for accidental contamination of food, surfaces, or both. A customer would have no way to know.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces are a separate and cumulative hazard. Bacteria from raw meat or fish transferred to a cutting board that is not sanitized between uses can reach a salad, a dip, or a plate of hummus. At Kalamata, that citation appeared alongside the time-control failure, meaning food that should have been tracked for safety was not, and the surfaces it touched may not have been clean.
The sewage citation adds a fecal contamination risk that extends beyond the kitchen. Improper wastewater disposal can introduce pathogens to surfaces throughout the facility.
The Longer Record
The June 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 26 inspections on file for Kalamata Mediterranean, with 205 total violations accumulated across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The eight most recent inspections before June 2026 all produced high-severity violations. The August 2025 inspection resulted in eight high-severity violations and two intermediate ones, the worst single inspection in the recent record. The February 2025 visits produced four high-severity violations and two high-severity violations respectively, across two separate inspections the same day. Going back to March 2023, a single inspection found six high-severity violations, matching the count from this month.
In other words, six or more high-severity violations in a single inspection has now happened at least twice in roughly three years. The pattern across all eight prior inspections is consistent: high-severity violations appeared every time, without exception.
The Pattern
Management failure has been a recurring thread. The person-in-charge violation cited on June 12 points to the same structural gap that CDC data associates with facilities that accumulate three times more critical violations than those with active managerial control. At Kalamata, the inspection record suggests that gap has not closed.
The 205 violations across 26 inspections average out to nearly eight violations per inspection. The June 2026 visit, with eight total violations, is not above that average. It is the average.
Kalamata Mediterranean Cuisine on Washington Avenue remained open after inspectors documented an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improperly stored toxic chemicals, unsanitized food contact surfaces, misused time controls, missing consumer advisories for raw food, no person in charge, improper sewage disposal, and the reuse of single-use items.