TAMPA, FL. BT on S. MacDill Avenue drew six high-severity violations in a single inspection during the week of June 8, including food from unapproved or unknown sources, failure to cook food to required minimum temperatures, and no shellfish traceability records — a combination inspectors rarely see stacked in one visit.
The MacDill address had no employee health policy on file and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items, either. Six high-severity findings, zero intermediate violations: every citation the inspector wrote carried the highest weight the state assigns.
What Inspectors Found
Molly Malone's Irish Pub on E. Davis Boulevard accumulated four high-severity and two intermediate violations. Inspectors found inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, no consumer advisory for raw items, and no person in charge present or performing duties. Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned, and toilet facilities were inadequate or improperly maintained.
Pho 813 LLC on Henderson Boulevard drew four high-severity violations, including food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled. The restaurant also had no employee health policy and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Improperly stored chemicals near food are not a hypothetical risk. They can cause acute poisoning through contamination or mislabeling, and the violation at Pho 813 sat alongside a citation for unclean food contact surfaces, meaning two separate cross-contamination pathways were documented in the same inspection.
Tasty Mediterranean Grill on Gunn Highway was cited for three high-severity violations: no employee health policy, improper handwashing technique, and inadequate shellfish identification records. The facility also had inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
Good Luck Chuck's on S. Howard Avenue had three high-severity violations, including inadequate shellfish identification records and no consumer advisory. Inspectors also found multi-use utensils not properly cleaned.
Rome and Fig on N. Rome Avenue was cited for toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, no employee health policy, and no consumer advisory. All three violations carried the highest severity designation.
Spartaco's Kitchen on E. Davis Boulevard had an employee not reporting symptoms of illness and no person in charge present, alongside improper handwashing technique. That pairing matters: when no one is in charge and an ill employee is working, there is no one positioned to intervene before food reaches a customer.
Brother Trattoria on S. MacDill Avenue, just a few blocks from BT, was cited for no employee health policy and improper handwashing technique. Two violations, both high-severity.
Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits on E. Fletcher Avenue drew citations for no person in charge and an employee not reporting symptoms of illness. The combination at a high-volume fast food location means the oversight gap existed precisely where illness exposure would be widest.
Ybor City Tap House on E. 8th Avenue was cited for food not cooked to required minimum temperatures and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items. Serving undercooked food without telling customers is the core problem: the advisory exists specifically so vulnerable diners can make an informed choice before ordering.
What These Violations Mean
Four of the ten facilities inspected this week had no written employee health policy: BT, Pho 813, Tasty Mediterranean Grill, and Rome and Fig. That document is not a formality. It is the mechanism that legally obligates a sick worker to tell a manager before handling food. Without it, a worker experiencing Norovirus symptoms has no written directive to stay off the line, and Norovirus is infectious at a dose of fewer than 20 viral particles.
Spartaco's Kitchen and Popeyes on Fletcher both drew citations for employees not reporting illness symptoms. The distinction between "no policy" and "not reporting" is meaningful: one is a missing document, the other is an active failure in the moment an inspector was present. Both create the same outcome, a sick worker handling food, but the second means it was already happening.
Shellfish traceability violations appeared at BT, Tasty Mediterranean Grill, and Good Luck Chuck's. Oysters, clams, and mussels are typically consumed raw or lightly cooked, which means they carry bacteria and viruses from the water they were harvested in directly to the customer. The tag and record system exists so that when someone gets sick, investigators can trace the shellfish back to a specific harvest location and lot. Without those records, an outbreak cannot be traced and other consumers cannot be warned.
The food-from-unapproved-sources citation at BT stands apart from the rest of the week's findings. Food that has not passed through USDA or FDA inspection carries no paper trail. If a customer becomes ill, there is no supplier to contact, no lot to recall, and no inspection record to review. It is the violation that most completely severs the public health response chain.
The Longer Record
Molly Malone's Irish Pub carries 36 prior inspections on record, the longest history of any facility cited this week. This week's findings, including inadequate handwashing facilities and an absent person in charge, are not the product of a new operation still working out procedures. Thirty-six inspections represents years of documented oversight, and the handwashing and management violations are among the most basic markers inspectors assess.
Ybor City Tap House has 28 prior inspections on record. Pho 813 has 29. Both are established operations with substantial inspection histories, and both drew high-severity violations this week in categories, food temperatures at Ybor, chemical storage at Pho 813, that are among the most straightforward to correct.
Spartaco's Kitchen and Popeyes on Fletcher each have 24 prior inspections. BT and Brother Trattoria share the same count: 21 each, and they sit within blocks of each other on S. MacDill. BT's six high-severity findings this week represent the most concentrated single-visit record of any facility on the street.
Rome and Fig and Tasty Mediterranean Grill have the shortest inspection histories in this week's group, at 12 and 14 visits respectively. Rome and Fig's three high-severity violations, including chemical storage and no health policy, arrived relatively early in its documented record. Tasty Mediterranean Grill, despite only 14 prior inspections, had already accumulated a shellfish traceability violation this week, a citation that requires specific record-keeping practices that should be in place from the first day shellfish appears on the menu.
BT's food-from-unapproved-sources citation, combined with its undercooking violation and shellfish records failure, remained unresolved in state records at the time this report was filed.