POMPANO BEACH, FL. State inspectors walked into Latin Bohemia Grill on South Powerline Road on August 25 and found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning no one at the restaurant could confirm where some of what customers were eating had actually come from.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved food source violation was not the only one pointing to a breakdown in basic oversight. Inspectors also cited the restaurant for inadequate shell stock identification and records. Latin Bohemia Grill serves shellfish, which are high-risk foods often consumed raw or lightly cooked, and without proper tagging records there is no way to trace where a specific batch of oysters or clams came from if a customer becomes ill.
Inspectors found that employees were not reporting symptoms of illness, and that handwashing technique was improper. Those two violations compound each other: an employee with a stomach illness who does not report it and does not wash hands correctly is a direct transmission route to every plate that goes out.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and multi-use utensils had not been properly cleaned. The restaurant also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, and elderly diners had no notice that certain menu items carried elevated risk.
The person in charge was either not present or not performing supervisory duties. That finding sat at the top of the inspection report.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources means the supply chain behind some of what Latin Bohemia Grill served that day had not passed through USDA or FDA inspection checkpoints. If a customer became sick, investigators would have no starting point for a traceback. That is not a paperwork problem. It is the difference between identifying a contaminated batch quickly and watching an outbreak spread unchecked.
The shell stock records violation sharpens that risk specifically for shellfish. Oysters, clams, and mussels are filter feeders that can concentrate pathogens like Vibrio and norovirus from the water they grow in. Florida law requires restaurants to keep the original harvest tags for every bag of shellfish served, tied to the date the last item from that bag was sold. Without those records, a Vibrio case traced to a meal at this restaurant on August 25 would have nowhere to go.
The illness-reporting failure is the violation that public health officials treat with the most urgency during outbreak investigations. Norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States, spreads person to person and survives on surfaces for days. A single employee working a double shift while symptomatic and not washing hands correctly can expose dozens of diners in a single service. That is not a hypothetical. It is the documented mechanism behind some of the largest restaurant-linked outbreaks on record.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and utensils close the loop. Even if an employee attempted to follow safe food handling practices, surfaces carrying bacterial biofilm from prior service would re-contaminate food prepared on them. Biofilms begin forming within 24 hours on inadequately cleaned surfaces and become increasingly resistant to standard sanitizers over time.
The Longer Record
The August 25 inspection was not the first time state records have flagged serious problems at this restaurant. Latin Bohemia Grill has accumulated 300 violations across 40 inspections on record, a total that averages 7.5 violations per visit.
The pattern of high-severity findings is not new. In December 2025, inspectors documented six high-severity violations and three intermediate violations on December 5, then returned the next day and found one more high-severity violation. In July 2025, there were four high-severity and two intermediate violations. In September 2024, inspectors recorded five high-severity violations and one intermediate violation on the 5th, then returned on the 6th to a clean report.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once before, on April 20, 2020, for roach activity. It was allowed to reopen the following day.
The two inspections that came back with zero violations, in November 2024 and September 2024, show the restaurant is capable of passing. What the record also shows is that clean visits have not prevented the return of high-severity violations in subsequent inspections, including the seven documented this August.
Open for Business
State inspectors cited Latin Bohemia Grill for seven high-severity violations on August 25, 2026, including food from an unapproved source, no shell stock traceability records, employees not reporting illness, and a person in charge who was not performing supervisory duties.
The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
