ELLENTON, FL. Food at Woody's River Roo Pub and Grill on East 18th Street was not cooked to the minimum required temperature during a July 27 inspection, one of eight high-severity violations state inspectors documented that afternoon. The facility was not closed.
Undercooked food is among the most direct routes to a foodborne illness outbreak. It was not the only serious problem inspectors found.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection record shows no manager was present or performing supervisory duties during the visit. That single fact ripples through everything else on the list.
Inspectors also cited employees for improper hand and arm washing technique, and separately documented that the handwashing facilities themselves were inadequate. That is two distinct failures in the same hygiene chain. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and wiping cloths were used improperly, compounding the cross-contamination risk.
The establishment had no written employee health policy and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items. Time was being used as a public health control, meaning food was held without temperature monitoring, but that method was not being applied correctly.
Nine violations total. Eight of them high severity. The restaurant remained open.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of undercooked food and no employee health policy is particularly dangerous. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and without reaching the required internal temperature, a single serving can cause acute illness. A written health policy is what keeps a symptomatic worker out of the kitchen. Without one, there is no documented protocol for when an employee with vomiting, diarrhea, or a diagnosed infection should be excluded from food handling. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads rapidly through exactly this route.
The handwashing failures at Woody's River Roo compound that risk. Inadequate facilities means the infrastructure for proper hygiene was not in place. Improper technique means that even when employees attempted to wash their hands, they were not doing it correctly. Those are two separate breakdowns, and together they mean pathogens on hands were reaching food preparation surfaces.
Food contact surfaces that are not properly sanitized are a primary vehicle for bacterial transfer. When wiping cloths are also being misused, the surfaces that appear clean may not be. The time-as-public-health-control violation adds another layer: food held without proper temperature monitoring or time tracking can enter the bacterial growth zone, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, and stay there long enough to become dangerous.
The missing consumer advisory matters specifically to vulnerable diners. Elderly customers, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems face acute risk from raw or undercooked proteins. Without a posted advisory, they have no information on which to base a decision.
The Longer Record
The July 27 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Woody's River Roo has been inspected 26 times and has accumulated 200 total violations across that history.
The pattern of high-severity citations is consistent and recent. In March 2026, four months before the July inspection, inspectors found six high-severity and four intermediate violations. In August 2025, two high-severity violations. In September 2023, three high-severity violations. In May 2023, five high-severity violations. Every inspection in the past three years that was not a routine follow-up or callback has produced high-severity findings.
The July 2026 inspection was the worst single visit in the recent record, with eight high-severity violations. It was followed by a callback inspection on August 5, which showed zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. That rapid turnaround is consistent with the facility's prior pattern: violations accumulate, a follow-up visit clears the record, and then serious citations reappear at the next scheduled inspection.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in 26 inspections. That fact is notable given the volume and severity of what inspectors have repeatedly documented.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Eight high-severity violations on July 27, including undercooked food, absent managerial oversight, dual handwashing failures, and unsanitized food contact surfaces, did not meet that threshold at Woody's River Roo.
The callback inspection nine days later found nothing wrong.
The restaurant served customers throughout.
