ST. PETERSBURG, FL. State inspectors walked into Original Flavor 1889 on Central Avenue on July 23 and found a restaurant operating without an approved potable water supply, a violation that means the water used to cook, clean, and prepare food may have contained E. coli, Cryptosporidium, or Legionella. They cited nine other high-severity violations the same day. Then they left the restaurant open.
The inspection produced 10 high-priority citations and 3 intermediate violations, one of the worst single-visit tallies the restaurant has recorded across 13 inspections on file with the state.
What Inspectors Found
The potable water violation sits at the top of the list because it touches everything else. Food preparation, surface cleaning, handwashing, and dishwashing all depend on a safe water supply. An unapproved source carries no guarantee of treatment or testing.
Food from unapproved or unknown sources was also cited. That means at least some of what was served that day had no documented inspection trail, no way to trace it back if a customer became ill.
Inspectors further cited the restaurant for failing to cook food to required minimum temperatures. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit and remains viable long enough to sicken a diner who eats a piece of chicken pulled from heat too early.
The citation for employees not reporting illness symptoms compounds all of the above. A worker who is sick and not required to disclose it becomes a direct transmission route, handling food that may already be contaminated from an unsafe source, prepared on unsanitized surfaces, served without adequate consumer warnings.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of violations documented July 23 is not a list of paperwork failures. It is a map of every point in the food preparation chain where something can go wrong.
Shell stock identification records exist so that if a customer gets sick after eating raw oysters or clams, public health investigators can trace the batch within hours and pull it from other restaurants. Without those records, an outbreak investigation stalls. The citation here means that shellfish served at Original Flavor 1889 that day carried no traceable origin.
The improper use of time as a public health control is less intuitive but equally serious. When a kitchen does not use refrigeration to keep food cold, state rules allow it to track time instead, discarding food after a set window in the temperature danger zone between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit. When that system is not followed correctly, food sits in that range indefinitely, giving bacteria like Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus the conditions they need to multiply to dangerous levels.
Inadequate handwashing facilities and improperly maintained toilet facilities cited on the same visit point to a shared infrastructure problem. If sinks are not stocked, accessible, or functional, the handwashing that is supposed to happen after restroom use, before food handling, and between raw and ready-to-eat food simply does not happen. The improperly reused single-use items and misused wiping cloths documented as intermediate violations add two more contamination vectors to that chain.
The Longer Record
The July 23 inspection is not an anomaly for this address. State records show 13 inspections on file and 122 total violations accumulated across that history.
The pattern runs back to at least July 2023, when a visit produced four high-priority violations and three intermediate ones. The following January, inspectors cited eight high-priority violations in a single visit, the previous high-water mark before this month's inspection. After that January 2024 visit, the numbers dipped, then climbed again.
The January 2025 inspection produced five high-priority violations. A follow-up the next day, January 15, produced another five. Six months later, three high-priority citations. Then two in January 2026, a number that looked like improvement. Then July 23.
Original Flavor 1889 has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history on file with the state.
Open for Business
Florida law gives inspectors discretion to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. The threshold includes, among other things, an unapproved water supply and the presence of conditions that cannot be corrected on the spot.
Inspectors documented both on July 23. The restaurant was not closed.
Customers who dined at Original Flavor 1889 on or around that date had no way of knowing the water supply had not been approved, that some of the food had no documented inspection origin, or that the shellfish on the menu could not be traced to a verified source. The restaurant remained open after the inspection concluded.
