MIAMI BEACH, FL. Fish served at Lovett Sand Bar & Kitchen on Collins Avenue did not meet state-required parasite destruction procedures during a May 18 inspection, a violation that means live parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm can survive in undercooked or improperly frozen seafood and reach the plate. Inspectors documented that finding alongside six other high-severity violations. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The May 18 inspection produced 10 total violations: seven high-severity and three intermediate. The high-severity list covered nearly every critical failure category a seafood-forward kitchen can produce.
Food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures, a violation that means Salmonella in poultry can survive below 165 degrees Fahrenheit and reach a customer's plate fully intact. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled, a condition that creates a direct contamination pathway to food. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, which inspectors classify as a primary vehicle for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat items.
The restaurant also had no written employee health policy. Without one, there is no documented procedure for keeping sick workers out of food preparation. Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique, which means pathogens remain on hands even when a worker attempts to wash them. And there was no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items, leaving customers with no way to make an informed choice about dishes that carry elevated risk.
What These Violations Mean
Parasite destruction is not a paperwork requirement. Florida rules exist because fish like grouper, snapper, and salmon can carry Anisakis larvae or tapeworm that survive if the fish is not frozen to a specific temperature for a specific duration before service. When that protocol is skipped, the parasite can survive light cooking and cause intestinal illness, sometimes severe. At a Collins Avenue restaurant whose menu centers on seafood, this violation applies to a large portion of what customers order.
The combination of undercooking violations and no consumer advisory is particularly significant for vulnerable diners. Elderly customers, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems face the highest risk from undercooked proteins, and the advisory exists precisely to warn them. At Lovett Sand Bar, neither safeguard was in place on May 18.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and reused single-use items compound the problem. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils that carry bacterial residue from one preparation to the next can transfer pathogens to food that never touches heat at all. Biofilms that develop on improperly cleaned multi-use utensils within 24 hours are resistant to standard surface cleaning, meaning the contamination persists across shifts and service periods.
Toxic chemicals stored near or improperly labeled around food represents a separate and acute risk. Mislabeled containers have caused poisoning incidents when workers mistake cleaning agents for food-safe liquids. This violation has nothing to do with cooking temperatures or technique. It is a storage and labeling failure with immediate consequences.
The Longer Record
The May 2026 inspection was not an outlier. State records show 25 inspections on file for Lovett Sand Bar and 210 total violations accumulated across that history.
High-severity violations appeared in every inspection going back to at least January 2023. The worst single inspection on record came in May 2024, when inspectors documented 10 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate ones, a tally that matches this month's count exactly. The pattern did not produce a closure then, either.
The most recent four inspections before May 2026 each produced between one and five high-severity violations. The October 2025 visit found five high-severity and three intermediate violations. The January 2026 visit found three high-severity and three intermediate violations. Neither triggered an emergency closure.
Lovett Sand Bar has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history on record. That is notable given that the facility has now logged 210 violations across 25 inspections, a rate of more than eight violations per visit on average. The May 2026 inspection brought that average up, not down.
Open for Business
State inspectors left Lovett Sand Bar & Kitchen open on May 18 after documenting seven high-severity violations, including failures in parasite destruction, minimum cooking temperatures, chemical storage, and surface sanitation.
Customers who ate there that day had no consumer advisory on the menu warning them about raw or undercooked items. They had no way of knowing whether the staff preparing their food had been trained to stay home when sick. And they had no reason, from the outside, to know that inspectors had been citing the same kitchen for high-severity violations across eight consecutive documented inspections.
The restaurant remained open.