JACKSONVILLE, FL. Back in April 2026, a state inspector walked into Pepes Hacienda and Restaurant on Merrill Road and found food that had not been cooked to the minimum required temperature, a violation that public health researchers consistently rank among the most direct routes to a foodborne illness outbreak.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented during the April 8 inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooked food violation sat alongside a citation for food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, a combination that creates compounding risk: pathogens that survive undercooking can also be transferred to other foods through contaminated prep surfaces.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for inadequate shellfish identification records. Pepes Hacienda serves food that, based on the citation, includes shellfish, and the facility could not demonstrate the required shell stock tags or sourcing documentation.
The handwashing picture was equally stark. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning the physical infrastructure for proper hygiene was deficient and the technique being used was wrong regardless.
There was no employee health policy on file. And the person in charge was either not present or not performing required supervisory duties.
The single intermediate violation, improperly cleaned multi-use utensils, rounded out an inspection record that totaled eight violations, seven of them at the highest severity level the state assigns.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooked food citation is the most immediate danger on this list. Salmonella in poultry, for example, survives temperatures below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. A customer who ate undercooked protein at Pepes Hacienda on or around April 8 had no way of knowing the food had not reached the temperature required to kill those pathogens.
The shellfish traceability violation compounds that risk in a specific way. Shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, are among the highest-risk foods in any kitchen because they are often consumed raw or lightly cooked. The shell stock identification requirement exists so that if a customer gets sick, investigators can trace the product back to a specific harvest location and pull it from circulation. Without those records, that chain breaks entirely.
The handwashing violations deserve to be read together. Inadequate facilities means the physical setup, soap, water, and a designated sink, was not in order. Improper technique means that even where handwashing was attempted, it was not being done correctly. Studies consistently show that improper handwashing technique leaves enough pathogens on hands to contaminate food even after a wash. Both problems existed at the same time.
The missing employee health policy is the violation that operates in the background of all the others. Without a written policy requiring sick workers to stay home or be restricted from food handling, there is no formal mechanism to keep a worker with Norovirus or Salmonella away from the prep line. Norovirus alone accounts for an estimated 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are a documented transmission route.
The Longer Record
Pepes Hacienda has a short inspection history, two visits on record, but what that history shows is not improvement.
The restaurant's first inspection on record, conducted September 30, 2025, produced five high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. The April 2026 inspection produced seven high-severity violations and one intermediate. The high-severity count increased by two in the span of roughly six months.
Across both inspections, the facility has accumulated 27 total violations. For a location with only two inspections on record, that is a significant accumulation. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The overlap between the two inspections is worth noting. A facility that logged five high-severity violations in September 2025 and then logged seven in April 2026 is not a facility that corrected the conditions that generated the first round of citations. The specific violations documented in April, including management failure, missing health policies, and handwashing deficiencies, are the kind of systemic issues that tend to persist when the underlying culture of a kitchen does not change between visits.
Still Open
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations at Pepes Hacienda on April 8, 2026. The facility was not emergency-closed.
Under Florida's inspection framework, emergency closure requires an inspector to determine that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. The state's records show the inspector found undercooked food, missing shellfish traceability, compromised handwashing infrastructure, and no employee health policy, and determined those conditions did not meet that threshold.
Pepes Hacienda remained open for business.