FERNANDINA BEACH, FL. Back in April 2026, a state inspector walked into Palace/Decantery at 117 S Centre Street and found toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly, no written policy for keeping sick employees out of the kitchen, and no one on the floor performing the duties of a person in charge. The visit produced six high-severity violations and five intermediate ones. The facility was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The two chemical violations stand out for the immediacy of the risk they represent. State records show inspectors cited the facility both for toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled and for toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. That is two separate citations in the same category on the same visit.
Allergen awareness was also flagged as absent. The inspector found no demonstration that staff understood allergen protocols, a violation that covers 32 million Americans who have food allergies and accounts for roughly 30,000 emergency room visits each year.
No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties during the inspection. No written employee health policy existed to prevent sick workers from handling food. And the facility had no consumer advisory posted for any raw or undercooked items on the menu.
On the intermediate side, inspectors cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, single-use items being reused, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities. That is a facility failing simultaneously on chemicals, staffing, food safety communication, sanitation equipment, and basic infrastructure.
What These Violations Mean
The two chemical violations carry the most acute risk. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, and mislabeled containers create the conditions for accidental poisoning. When the same inspection produces both a storage citation and an identification citation, it suggests the problem is not a single misplaced bottle.
The absence of an employee health policy is a direct transmission route for illness. Without a written policy requiring sick employees to stay home or be removed from food handling, Norovirus, which causes an estimated 20 million infections in the United States each year, can move from a single sick worker to dozens of customers in a single shift.
No allergen awareness is not a paperwork problem. It means staff at Palace/Decantery in April 2026 had no documented protocol for handling requests from customers with allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, or any of the other major allergens. For a customer with a severe allergy, that gap can be fatal.
The sewage and wastewater violation adds a separate layer of concern. Improper disposal of wastewater creates the risk of fecal contamination spreading through the facility, which compounds the risk already present from improperly cleaned multi-use utensils and reused single-use items.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not the first time Palace/Decantery produced a serious violation count. State records show 22 inspections on record at this address and 176 total violations accumulated over the facility's history.
The November 2024 visit produced seven high-severity violations and four intermediate ones, the highest single-inspection high-severity count in the available record before April 2026 matched it. The January 2025 inspection found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations, a clean result that came just ten weeks after that November visit.
The pattern across the prior inspections is one of sharp swings. Clean inspections appear, then high-severity counts climb back up. November 2023 produced five high-severity violations. January 2024 produced three. November 2024 produced seven. April 2026 produced six.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in 22 inspections. That fact sits alongside a record that includes multiple visits with five or more high-severity violations.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations and five intermediate violations at Palace/Decantery on April 15, 2026, including two separate chemical handling citations, no allergen awareness, no employee health policy, and no person in charge on the premises.
The facility was not closed.