CORAL GABLES, FL. Inspectors visiting Tina in the Gables on South Le Jeune Road on August 6 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning it had bypassed federal safety inspections entirely. That was one of nine high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
The August 6 inspection also turned up food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, a finding that means pathogens like Salmonella can survive in the finished dish. Inspectors cited improper use of time as a public health control, a violation that occurs when food is allowed to sit in the bacterial growth temperature range without adequate safeguards in place.
What Inspectors Found
The handwashing violations cut two directions. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper handwashing technique, meaning the infrastructure to wash hands was deficient and, where it existed, staff were not using it correctly. Those two violations together represent a complete breakdown in one of the most basic lines of defense against foodborne illness.
The shellfish records violation adds a specific layer of risk. Without proper shell stock identification tags and records, there is no way to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their harvest source if a customer gets sick. The unapproved food source violation compounds that: any product that entered the kitchen outside the licensed supply chain left no inspection paper trail at all.
A person in charge was either absent or not performing duties during the inspection. According to CDC data cited in the inspection records, establishments without active managerial control log three times more critical violations than those with it. On August 6, the absence showed.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is not a paperwork problem. USDA and FDA inspections exist to screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli before product reaches a kitchen. When a restaurant sources food outside that system, those screens never happen. If a customer gets sick, investigators have no supply chain to trace back.
The undercooked food violation is one of the most direct illness vectors an inspector can document. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. A dish that leaves the kitchen at 155 degrees is not a borderline case; it is a delivery mechanism for a pathogen that causes severe gastrointestinal illness and, in vulnerable populations, hospitalization.
The employee illness reporting failure is what epidemiologists call an outbreak enabler. Norovirus spreads person-to-person with extraordinary efficiency, and a food worker who comes in sick and does not report symptoms can expose every customer served during that shift. Combined with the handwashing failures documented on the same day, the contamination pathway from worker to plate was not theoretical.
Improper sanitizer concentration, cited as an intermediate violation, means surfaces that appear clean may not be. Bacterial biofilms develop on improperly cleaned utensils within 24 hours and resist standard cleaning once established.
The Longer Record
The August 6 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 24 inspections on file for this location, with 341 total violations accumulated across that history. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in the prior inspection data is consistent. The August 7, 2025, inspection, exactly one year before this one, produced 10 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate ones, the single highest high-severity count in the recent record. The October 2025 inspection found 7 high-severity violations. January 2026 found 6. The numbers fluctuate, but they do not trend toward zero.
Eight of the most recent inspections on record each produced at least 4 high-severity violations. The November 2023 inspection matched this week's August 6 count exactly: 9 high-severity, 3 intermediate. That inspection did not result in a closure either.
The follow-up inspection conducted the day after this report, on August 7, 2026, found 3 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations still present. Some of the most serious findings from August 6 had been addressed within 24 hours. Others had not.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when an inspector determines that continued operation poses an immediate threat to public health. Nine high-severity violations on August 6, including food from unapproved sources, undercooked food, and employees not reporting illness symptoms, did not meet that threshold at Tina in the Gables.
The restaurant served customers that day.
