KEY BISCAYNE, FL. State inspectors walked into Novecento at 260 Crandon Blvd on April 28 and found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means no one can trace where that food came from if a customer gets sick.
The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
Six of the seven violations documented that day carried the state's highest severity rating. Inspectors cited the restaurant for improperly identified, stored, or used toxic substances, a category that signals a direct risk of chemical contamination reaching food or drink. They also found no written employee health policy, meaning no documented procedure existed to keep sick workers out of the kitchen.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items, leaving customers with no way to make an informed decision about dishes that carry elevated risk. The single intermediate violation, improper sanitizing solution or procedures, compounded the surface-cleaning failure.
No person in charge was present or performing their duties during the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-sources violation is the one that matters most if someone gets sick. Food that moves through state-licensed and federally inspected supply chains carries paperwork, lot numbers, and supplier records. When inspectors cannot verify where food came from, there is no trail to follow if a diner later develops symptoms consistent with Listeria, Salmonella, or E. coli.
The absence of an employee health policy is a direct transmission problem. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads efficiently from an infected food worker to customers through prepared food. A written health policy is the basic mechanism that keeps a symptomatic employee off the line. Without one, the decision to work sick is left entirely to the individual worker's judgment on any given shift.
Improperly stored or identified toxic substances, paired with food contact surfaces that were not adequately sanitized, describes a kitchen where chemical contamination and bacterial transfer were both possible on the same day. The intermediate sanitizing violation reinforces the surface-cleaning finding: even if staff attempted to sanitize, the solution or method was wrong.
The management failure ties these together. CDC data cited in the inspection record indicates establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with engaged supervision. The person-in-charge violation at Novecento was not a paperwork issue. It was the condition that allowed the other six to exist simultaneously.
The Longer Record
Novecento Inspection History, Selected Visits
The April 28 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Novecento has accumulated 176 total violations across 22 inspections on file. In January 2025, inspectors found 8 high-severity violations. In March 2026, a single inspection date produced 8 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations before a same-day follow-up recorded zero, suggesting rapid corrective action when inspectors were present.
The pattern across those records is consistent: high-severity violations appear in nearly every inspection cycle, corrections get made under scrutiny, and the violations return. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The January 2025 visit, the March 2026 initial inspection, and now April 2026 each produced six or more high-severity findings. That is three inspections in roughly 15 months at or above that threshold.
Still Open
Florida's inspection system allows restaurants to remain operating after high-severity violations if inspectors determine an emergency closure is not warranted. The threshold for an emergency order typically involves an imminent hazard, such as a sewage backup, loss of running water, or an active pest infestation.
Six high-severity violations at Novecento on April 28, including food from an unverifiable source and toxic substances stored or identified improperly, did not meet that threshold.
The restaurant was open for business when the inspection concluded.