NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL. Toxic substances were improperly identified, stored, or used at a waterfront bar and grille in New Smyrna Beach during a state inspection last month, one of six high-severity violations that inspectors documented and then left open for business.
The June 22 inspection of Outriggers Tiki Bar & Grille at 300 Boatyard St. produced a violation sheet that reads less like a routine checkup and more like a catalog of compounding risk. No person in charge was present or performing duties. Employees were not reporting symptoms of illness. Handwashing technique was cited as improper. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. And the restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods.
That last item matters more than it sounds.
What Inspectors Found
The toxic substance violation is the kind that inspectors treat as an immediate physical hazard. Cleaning chemicals and sanitizers stored near or improperly labeled around food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, with no warning to the customer and no visible sign that anything is wrong.
The missing consumer advisory is a different kind of failure, but one with a specific victim in mind. Customers who are elderly, pregnant, immunocompromised, or very young face elevated risk from raw or undercooked proteins. Without a posted advisory, those customers have no way to make an informed choice about what they order.
Multi-use utensils that are not properly cleaned develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours. Those biofilms are resistant to standard rinsing and can transfer bacteria to every plate they touch afterward. Inspectors also cited the reuse of single-use items, which compounds the contamination risk from the utensil violation.
What These Violations Mean
The absence of a person in charge is not a paperwork problem. CDC data links establishments without active managerial control to three times as many critical violations as those with a certified manager present and engaged. Every other violation on the June 22 inspection sheet is easier to understand when you know no one in authority was there to catch it.
The illness-reporting failure is the violation that most directly threatens the public. Food workers who do not report symptoms are the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, in particular, spreads through a single infected food handler who touches shared surfaces or prepares food without disclosing symptoms. There is no way for a customer to know it happened.
Improper handwashing technique is a subtler version of the same problem. An employee who washes their hands but does so incorrectly, too briefly, without soap, or without reaching all surfaces, leaves pathogens behind. Studies show that technique failures can leave contamination levels nearly as high as no washing at all.
Food contact surfaces that are not properly cleaned and sanitized become transfer points. A cutting board, a prep table, a slicer that carries bacteria from one food to the next is invisible to the customer and, on June 22 at Outriggers, was not being addressed.
The Longer Record
Forty inspections are on record for Outriggers Tiki Bar & Grille, covering a span that includes 305 total documented violations. The June 22 inspection was not an outlier.
The eight most recent prior inspections, dating back to February 2023, each produced between four and seven high-severity violations. The December 2025 inspection found seven high-severity violations and one intermediate. The September 2024 inspection found seven high-severity violations and one intermediate. The March 2025 inspection found six high-severity violations and one intermediate, matching the June 2026 count exactly.
That is eight consecutive inspections, across more than three years, each producing at least four high-severity violations. The pattern does not show a facility that struggled and corrected. It shows a facility that has been cited repeatedly in the same severity category and has continued operating.
Outriggers has never been emergency-closed in its inspection record.
Still Open
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations at Outriggers Tiki Bar & Grille on June 22, 2026. Toxic substances were improperly handled. No manager was on duty. Sick employees were not required to report symptoms. Food contact surfaces were unsanitary.
The restaurant was not closed.
It was the eighth inspection in a row to find at least four high-severity violations at the same address. The 305th, 306th, 307th, and 308th violations in the facility's recorded history were logged that day, along with four more.
Outriggers Tiki Bar & Grille remained open for business.
