PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL. When state inspectors walked into Ponte Vedra Outdoors Bar and Grill at 377 S Roscoe Blvd on May 21, they found food that had not been cooked to the minimum required temperature, toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, no written employee health policy, and a person in charge who was either absent or not doing the job. They cited seven high-severity violations and five intermediate ones. They did not close the restaurant.

What Inspectors Found

1HIGHFood not cooked to required minimum temperatureHigh severity
2HIGHToxic chemicals improperly stored or labeledHigh severity
3HIGHNo employee health policy or inadequate policyHigh severity
4HIGHPerson in charge not present or not performing dutiesHigh severity
5HIGHInadequate handwashing facilitiesHigh severity
6HIGHImproper hand and arm washing techniqueHigh severity
7HIGHNo consumer advisory for raw/undercooked foodsHigh severity
8INTImproper sewage or waste water disposalIntermediate
9INTSingle-use items improperly reusedIntermediate
10INTImproper waste disposal or recyclingIntermediate

The most direct hazard documented was food not cooked to the required minimum temperature. For poultry, that threshold is 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Below that temperature, Salmonella survives. The inspector also found toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly near food, a condition that can cause acute poisoning through contamination or mislabeling.

No consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked menu items. That notice exists specifically to warn customers who face the highest risk from undercooking: elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system.

The inspector also cited inadequate handwashing facilities and documented that employees were using improper hand and arm washing technique. Both violations were marked high severity on the same visit, which means the infrastructure for hand hygiene was deficient and the technique being used at that infrastructure was also deficient.

Inspectors additionally noted improper sewage or wastewater disposal, single-use items being reused, inadequate ventilation and lighting, improper waste disposal, and improper use of wiping cloths.

What These Violations Mean

The combination of undercooked food and no consumer advisory is not a paperwork problem. Salmonella, which can survive in poultry cooked below 165 degrees, causes an estimated 1.35 million infections in the United States each year. Customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised cannot make an informed choice about that risk if no advisory is posted.

The toxic chemicals citation compounds the picture. When chemicals are stored near food without proper labeling or separation, the contamination pathway is direct. A customer does not have to witness the storage arrangement to be affected by it.

The handwashing violations at Ponte Vedra Outdoors are particularly significant because they occurred together. Inadequate facilities means proper handwashing is structurally impossible at that location. Improper technique means that even where facilities exist, the practice is wrong. Studies show that proper handwashing reduces foodborne illness transmission by as much as 50 percent. Two violations, one inspection, zero margin.

No written employee health policy means there is no formal system requiring sick workers to report symptoms or stay home. Norovirus, which accounts for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States annually, spreads through exactly this gap. One ill employee without a policy requiring disclosure can expose an entire dining room.

The Longer Record

Ponte Vedra Outdoors Bar and Grill: Recent Inspection Pattern

2026-05-217 high-severity, 5 intermediate violations. Restaurant remained open.
2025-09-035 high-severity, 5 intermediate violations.
2025-09-052 high-severity, 1 intermediate violation.
2025-09-170 high-severity, 0 intermediate violations. Passed.
2025-01-214 high-severity, 3 intermediate violations.
2025-01-210 high-severity, 0 intermediate violations. Passed.
2024-11-201 high-severity, 1 intermediate violation.
2024-09-181 high-severity, 1 intermediate violation.

This is not a new location finding its footing. State records show 46 inspections on file for Ponte Vedra Outdoors Bar and Grill, with 274 total violations accumulated across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.

The May 2026 inspection is the worst on recent record, but it follows a documented pattern of high-severity violations cycling in and out. In September 2025, inspectors cited five high-severity violations and five intermediate ones on September 3. Two days later, on September 5, two more high-severity violations were documented. A follow-up on September 17 showed zero violations.

That pattern, a serious inspection followed by a clean one, appeared again in January 2025. On January 21, inspectors cited four high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. A second inspection on the same date showed zero violations.

The May 21, 2026 inspection produced the highest single-visit high-severity count in the recent record. Seven high-severity violations, including undercooked food, toxic chemical storage, no health policy, and compromised handwashing infrastructure.

The restaurant was not closed.