VENICE, FL. Inspectors who walked into Norma Jean Sport's Bar and Grill at 1635 US 41 Bypass S on September 22 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning that food had bypassed every federal safety inspection that stands between a supplier and a customer's plate. That single violation, stacked alongside nine other high-severity citations, did not result in an emergency closure.
The restaurant remained open.
What Inspectors Found
The September 22 inspection produced 10 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate citations, a total of 14 documented problems in a single visit. Among the high-severity findings: food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, food found in poor condition or mislabeled, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items.
Three violations dealt directly with employee illness. Inspectors cited the bar for having no written employee health policy, for employees not reporting symptoms of illness, and for improper hand and arm washing technique. Together, those three citations describe a kitchen where a sick employee could prepare food without any formal system requiring them to disclose that illness, and where handwashing, even when attempted, was not being done correctly.
Shellfish records were also flagged. Inspectors cited inadequate shell stock identification, meaning there was no verifiable paper trail connecting the oysters, clams, or mussels served at the bar to a licensed and inspected supplier. That traceability matters most when someone gets sick.
The person in charge was cited as either not present or not performing supervisory duties during the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is not a paperwork problem. When a restaurant buys food outside licensed, inspected supply chains, there is no mechanism to trace an illness back to its origin. If a customer gets sick, investigators have no supplier records to pull, no lot numbers to check, no recall to issue. The risk is compounded here because shellfish records were also deficient. Oysters and clams are consumed raw or lightly cooked, and without shell stock tags showing harvest location and date, a contaminated batch is effectively invisible.
The cooking temperature violation adds a second independent pathway to illness. Undercooking poultry is one of the most direct routes to Salmonella exposure. A bird that looks done and is not is not something a customer can detect.
The illness policy violations are the ones that affect everyone who walked in that week, not just the customers who ordered shellfish or chicken. Norovirus, one of the most contagious pathogens in food service, spreads through direct contact with an infected food handler. Without a written health policy and without employees trained to report symptoms, there is no checkpoint between a sick kitchen worker and the food going out. Improper handwashing technique means that even the employees who tried to wash their hands may have left the sink still carrying pathogens.
The Pattern
The September 22 inspection was not the first time Norma Jean's has drawn serious citations, and it was not even the worst inspection in recent memory. Records show the bar has accumulated 261 total violations across 26 inspections on file. In July 2024, inspectors found 9 high-severity violations in a single visit. In October 2023, they found 7. In May 2026, 6 high-severity violations. The September 22 count of 10 is the highest single-visit high-severity total in the inspection record.
The facility has never been emergency-closed.
A follow-up inspection the very next day, September 23, found 3 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate still present. Three of the most serious problems documented on September 22 remained uncorrected 24 hours later.
The Longer Record
Twenty-six inspections over the life of this record is a substantial history, and the pattern it shows is not one of isolated incidents. High-severity violations have appeared in eight of the last eight inspections with any violations noted, going back to at least October 2023. The single clean inspection in that stretch, in March 2025 with zero high or intermediate violations, stands as an exception rather than a turning point.
The categories repeat. Illness policies, food sourcing, and food contact surfaces have each appeared across multiple inspection cycles. That repetition matters because it shows these are not one-time oversights corrected and forgotten. They are conditions that inspectors have returned to find again.
The July 2024 inspection found 9 high-severity violations. Three months later in November 2024, inspectors found 3 more. The bar reached 10 high-severity violations in a single inspection on September 22, 2026, its highest single-visit total on record.
Norma Jean Sport's Bar and Grill was not closed after that inspection. It was open the next morning when inspectors came back and found three high-severity violations still unresolved.
