MIAMI, FL. Surry Hills Coffee on NE 2nd Avenue drew 11 high-severity violations during the week of September 7, the highest single-facility count among 15 Miami restaurants cited for serious food safety failures in seven days.
Inspectors at Surry Hills documented a cascade of interconnected failures: no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, missing shellfish identification records, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and time used as a public health control without proper procedures. Eight distinct high-severity categories in a single visit at a coffee shop that has now accumulated 15 inspections on record.
What Inspectors Found
El Turco at NE 39th Street followed with 10 high-severity violations, including no person in charge present, no employee health policy, inadequate handwashing facilities, food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled. That last violation, combined with the absence of a manager on site, creates conditions where chemical contamination of food can occur without anyone authorized to catch it.
Salumeria 104 on NE 1st Avenue recorded 9 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited food not cooked to the required minimum temperature alongside missing shellfish identification records and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. A restaurant serving cured meats and raw preparations that cannot document where its shellfish came from, and does not tell customers which items are served undercooked, leaves vulnerable diners without the information they need to make safe choices.
Motek Brickell on South Miami Avenue drew 8 high-severity violations including an employee not reporting illness symptoms, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, inadequate shellfish records, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. The combination of a sick employee who did not report symptoms and food pulled from heat before reaching safe temperatures represents two simultaneous pathogen pathways at a single meal service.
Ambassador Cafe on Brickell Bay Drive also reached 8 high-severity violations. Inspectors found inadequate handwashing by food employees, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, and two separate toxic chemical violations: chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Parasite destruction failures are particularly acute at a waterfront location where raw or lightly cooked fish is common on the menu.
Primo's Restaurant and Lounge on North Bayshore Drive produced 8 high-severity violations: no person in charge, inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, missing shellfish records, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and time used improperly as a public health control. No manager. No functioning handwashing infrastructure. No documentation of where shellfish came from.
North Italia at SW 88th Street was cited for food from an unapproved or unknown source, a violation that stands apart from the others in its week. Food from unapproved sources bypasses federal safety inspections entirely, meaning there is no chain of custody if a customer becomes ill. Inspectors also found inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, missing shellfish records, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored.
Mario the Baker Downtown on West Flagler Street was cited for 8 high-severity violations, including no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, time used improperly as a public health control, no consumer advisory, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no allergen awareness demonstrated. That last citation is notable: food allergies send 30,000 people to emergency rooms annually in the United States, and a bakery without allergen awareness protocols is a direct risk to customers with wheat, nut, or egg sensitivities.
Narbona at CocoWalk in Coconut Grove drew 8 high-severity violations with no intermediate violations, a pattern that suggests systemic rather than incidental failures. Inspectors cited food from an unapproved or unknown source, required procedures for specialized processes not followed, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, missing shellfish records, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, no consumer advisory, inadequate handwashing facilities, and improper handwashing technique.
Chelas Nicaraguan Cuisine on SW 127th Avenue was cited for bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food, one of the most direct transmission routes for Norovirus documented this week. Inspectors also found no employee health policy, inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and time used improperly as a public health control.
Crepes Cafe on SW 137th Avenue recorded 7 high-severity violations including food from an unapproved or unknown source, no person in charge, no employee health policy, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, missing shellfish records, and no consumer advisory.
Sanpocho Restaurant on SW 8th Street was cited for food from an unapproved or unknown source, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, and no allergen awareness demonstrated. Two separate allergen-awareness failures at Miami restaurants in a single week.
Sushi Sake on Biscayne Boulevard drew 7 high-severity violations including no person in charge, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing by food employees, food in poor condition, missing shellfish records, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored. At a sushi restaurant, missing shellfish identification records and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods are not paperwork problems. They are the documentation that allows health authorities to trace a shellfish-related illness back to its source.
Fuddruckers on South Dixie Highway was cited for 4 high-severity violations: food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored. For a burger chain where undercooked beef is an established public health concern, a failure to reach minimum cooking temperatures is the most direct citation in the week's record.
Sabor Venezolano Kendall on SW 88th Street drew the lowest count of the 15 facilities, one high-severity violation for no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
What These Violations Mean
The two violations that appeared most frequently across this week's inspections, improper handwashing technique and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, are functionally the same failure at different points in the food handling chain. Pathogens that survive on hands transfer to surfaces; pathogens that survive on surfaces transfer back to food. Both violations were documented at Surry Hills Coffee, El Turco, Salumeria 104, Primo's Restaurant, North Italia, Narbona at CocoWalk, Chelas Nicaraguan Cuisine, Crepes Cafe, Sanpocho, and Mario the Baker Downtown.
Employee illness reporting failures are the violation type most directly tied to multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States, is shed by infected workers who continue to handle food before symptoms are reported. Surry Hills Coffee, Motek Brickell, Mario the Baker Downtown, Sanpocho, and Sushi Sake all drew citations this week for either no employee health policy, an employee not reporting symptoms, or both. Without a written policy, workers have no formal obligation to report, and supervisors have no documented standard to enforce.
Shellfish identification records appeared as a violation at nine of the fifteen facilities this week: Surry Hills Coffee, Salumeria 104, Motek Brickell, Ambassador Cafe, Primo's Restaurant, North Italia, Crepes Cafe, Sushi Sake, and Narbona at CocoWalk. The record is not bureaucratic. When a customer becomes ill after eating oysters or clams, the tag attached to the original harvest container is how health investigators trace the batch, identify other affected customers, and stop ongoing exposure. Without it, the investigation stops before it starts.
Food from unapproved sources, cited at North Italia, Narbona at CocoWalk, Crepes Cafe, and Sanpocho, is the one violation in this week's record with no corrective action that can be taken after the fact. Once unapproved food is served, there is no inspection history, no recall mechanism, and no traceability. If someone gets sick, the source may never be identified.
The Longer Record
Three facilities in this week's data carry inspection histories that frame the current findings as part of a documented pattern rather than isolated events. Ambassador Cafe has 28 prior inspections on record. Primo's Restaurant and Lounge has 32. Fuddruckers on South Dixie Highway has 36, the longest inspection history of any facility in this week's data, and still drew a citation for food not cooked to minimum temperature this week.
Salumeria 104 has 25 prior inspections and returned this week with 9 high-severity violations. Chelas Nicaraguan Cuisine has 30 prior inspections and was cited this week for bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food, inadequate handwashing facilities, and no employee health policy. Mario the Baker Downtown has 26 prior inspections and this week had no employee health policy and an employee not reporting illness symptoms, two violations that would be addressed in a first-year food safety training.
On the other end, Narbona at CocoWalk has only 12 prior inspections and drew 8 high-severity violations this week, including food from an unapproved source and required procedures for specialized processes not followed. North Italia, with 14 prior inspections, also drew food from an unapproved source alongside 7 other high-severity citations. Both facilities are relatively new to the inspection record and already accumulating serious citations in categories that take deliberate corrective action to resolve.
Sushi Sake has 27 prior inspections on record and was cited this week for missing shellfish identification records and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. At a sushi restaurant with that inspection history, those two violations remain unresolved.
