CLERMONT, FL. A state inspector walked into Philly Steak & Wings II on US Highway 27 on September 30 and documented toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, no allergen awareness among staff, food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, and four other high-severity violations. The restaurant was not closed.
Six high-severity citations in a single visit is a significant threshold. Florida's emergency closure authority exists precisely for inspection outcomes like this one. Inspectors exercised it here.
What Inspectors Found
The chemical storage violation is among the most acute risks in any restaurant inspection. When cleaning agents, sanitizers, or pesticides are stored near food or without proper labeling, the contamination pathway is direct and the consequences can be severe before anyone realizes what happened.
Inspectors also found that staff demonstrated no allergen awareness. That is not a paperwork gap. It means employees handling food could not reliably identify or communicate which menu items contain common allergens to customers who ask.
The food contact surfaces citation compounds both of those findings. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and equipment that are not properly cleaned and sanitized become transfer points for whatever contamination is already present, whether chemical residue, bacterial buildup, or allergen cross-contact.
Employees were also observed using improper handwashing technique. The violation is distinct from not washing hands at all. It means workers went through the motion of handwashing without actually removing pathogens from their hands.
No consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods appeared on the menu. A restaurant serving items that can be ordered undercooked is required to post a notice so customers, particularly those who are pregnant, elderly, or immunocompromised, can make an informed decision. There was none.
The seventh citation, an intermediate violation for inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities, rounds out an inspection record that covers nearly every layer of a restaurant's safety infrastructure.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and improper handwashing technique is particularly dangerous because the two failures reinforce each other. Without a written health policy, a sick employee has no formal guidance about whether to report symptoms or stay home. If that employee does work while ill and then washes hands incorrectly, the pathogens remain on their hands and transfer directly to food. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads exactly this way.
The allergen violation at Philly Steak & Wings II carries its own acute risk. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send 30,000 people to emergency rooms annually. A staff that cannot demonstrate allergen awareness is a staff that cannot reliably answer a customer's question about whether a dish contains tree nuts, shellfish, or dairy, and that gap can be fatal for someone with a severe allergy.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces are a primary bacterial transfer vehicle. When surfaces that touch raw meat, raw eggs, or contaminated hands are not sanitized between uses, every item prepared on them afterward carries that contamination forward. Combined with a chemical storage violation, the risk is not theoretical. It is a function of how many customers ate at this restaurant between the last inspection and September 30.
The consumer advisory absence affects a specific and vulnerable population. Pregnant women, elderly customers, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system face elevated risk from undercooked proteins. The advisory requirement exists so those customers can protect themselves. Without it, they cannot.
The Longer Record
September 30 was not a bad day at an otherwise clean restaurant. State records show 19 inspections on file for Philly Steak & Wings II, with 130 total violations across that history.
Every single inspection on record going back to at least 2023 produced high-severity citations. The facility logged three high-severity violations in September 2023, four in February 2024, five in June 2024, four again in October 2024, four in February 2025, two in September 2025, and three in February 2026. September 30, 2026 produced six, the highest single-inspection high-severity count in the recent record.
The pattern is not one of a restaurant that occasionally slips. It is one of a restaurant that has never, across nearly two dozen documented visits, produced a clean inspection. The June 2024 inspection alone generated five high-severity and four intermediate violations, nine citations of elevated concern in a single visit.
The facility has never been emergency-closed. That fact sits alongside 130 cumulative violations and a trajectory that reached six high-severity citations on its most recent inspection date.
After inspectors documented toxic chemicals near food, no allergen training, unsanitized food contact surfaces, flawed handwashing, no consumer advisory for undercooked items, no employee health policy, and broken toilet facilities, Philly Steak & Wings II on US Highway 27 in Clermont remained open for business.
