NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL. State inspectors visiting Merk's Bar & Grill at 193 N Causeway on April 20 found toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, no records to trace the origin of the shellfish being served, and no written policy to keep sick employees out of the kitchen. The restaurant collected six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations that day. It was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The shellfish citation is among the most direct threats to customers. State records show inspectors found inadequate shell stock identification, meaning the restaurant could not document where its oysters, clams, or mussels came from. Shellfish are frequently consumed raw or lightly cooked, and without sourcing records, there is no way to trace an illness back to a contaminated harvest area if someone gets sick.
Toxic chemicals were found stored or labeled improperly near food. That violation creates a direct route to accidental poisoning, whether through a mislabeled container or a chemical spilled onto a food surface.
The inspector also cited the restaurant for not properly using time as a public health control. When a facility opts to use time rather than temperature to keep food safe, it must follow a strict written procedure. Without that, food can sit in the bacterial growth zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, with no reliable mechanism to limit risk.
Rounding out the high-severity findings: no written employee health policy, inadequate handwashing by food employees, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items. The consumer advisory is required any time a menu offers items like rare burgers or raw oysters, so customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised know the risk before they order.
The two intermediate violations, improper sewage or wastewater disposal and inadequate ventilation and lighting, added to a picture of broad, systemic failure across multiple areas of the operation.
What These Violations Mean
The shellfish traceability violation matters because oysters and clams are filter feeders that concentrate whatever is in the water around them, including bacteria, viruses, and toxins. When a restaurant cannot produce sourcing records, public health officials cannot identify a contaminated harvest area if a customer falls ill. That paper trail is not bureaucratic paperwork. It is the only mechanism that exists to stop an outbreak once it starts.
The missing employee health policy and the inadequate handwashing citation work together in a particularly dangerous way. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness in the United States, spreads almost exclusively through the fecal-oral route, typically when a sick food worker handles food without washing their hands. A written health policy is what requires sick employees to stay home. Without it, and without consistent handwashing, the kitchen has no functional barrier against that transmission pathway.
The improper sewage disposal finding compounds the risk. Raw sewage contains pathogens including E. coli, hepatitis A, and Norovirus. Improper disposal means those pathogens can reach food contact surfaces, the same surfaces where the handwashing was already found to be inadequate.
The chemical storage violation is the outlier in terms of mechanism, but not in terms of severity. Acute chemical poisoning from a mislabeled or improperly stored cleaning compound can happen quickly and with no warning. It does not require repeated exposure. A single contaminated plate is enough.
The Longer Record
April's inspection was not a departure for Merk's. It was a continuation.
State records show the restaurant has logged 45 inspections and 404 total violations over its documented history. That averages to nearly nine violations per inspection across the entire record.
The pattern of high-severity findings is not new. In September 2025, inspectors cited the restaurant for eight high-severity and four intermediate violations. That same combination, eight high and four intermediate, appeared again in June 2025, just two days after a separate inspection that had already turned up three high-severity violations. In February 2025, there were three more high-severity violations.
The December 2025 inspection produced zero high-severity violations and one intermediate, the cleanest record in recent history. That improvement did not hold. By April 2026, the high-severity count had climbed back to six.
Merk's has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history on record. Not after the eight high-severity violations in September. Not after the eight in June. Not after April's six.
Still Open
Florida's inspection system allows restaurants to remain open after high-severity violations when inspectors determine the violations do not pose an immediate threat requiring emergency closure. The threshold for what constitutes "immediate" is a regulatory judgment call, not a fixed number.
What the record shows is this: Merk's Bar & Grill has accumulated 404 violations across 45 inspections, including repeated high-severity findings in consecutive inspection periods, and has never once been ordered to close.
On April 20, 2026, with six high-severity violations documented including missing shellfish records, improperly stored toxic chemicals, and no mechanism to keep sick workers out of the kitchen, it stayed open.