Insect in pizza flour, roaches on customer table: 4 South Florida restaurants ordered shut
State inspectors last week shut four restaurants in Broward and Palm Beach counties after discovering violations such as cockroaches crawling on hot sauce bottles, syrup and a customer table, and one insect crawling inside a bowl of pizza flour.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel typically highlights restaurant inspections conducted by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Broward and Palm Beach counties. We cull through inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for “high-priority violations,” such as improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches.
Sun Sentinel readers may browse full Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade county reports through our state inspection map, updated weekly (usually Mondays) with fresh data pulled from the Florida DBPR website.
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Any restaurant that fails a state inspection must stay closed until it passes a follow-up. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR here. (But please don’t contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesn’t inspect restaurants.
Beach Pizza, Fort Lauderdale
3009 E. Las Olas Blvd.
Ordered shut: June 7 and again June 8; remains closed pending reinspection
Why: 13 violations (five high-priority), including 50 flies spotted swarming “in back kitchen area near 3-compartment sink” and landing on “chest freezer, cans of food, flip-top cooler cutting board, and equipment.” Other flies landed on “chest freezer in front counter/food preparation area.”
The report also noted a “small, live insect inside bowl of flour at pizza station,” but doesn’t identify the type of pest nor whether the restaurant operator was ordered to discard the tainted flour.
The state did order the restaurant to stop selling and trash “approximately 16 quarts of sweet peppers with mold-like growth, stored inside walk-in cooler.” The restaurant was also ordered to toss a number of pizza slices because there was “no time marking” to determine when they were “removed from temperature control.”
The state noticed “pizza slices stored on speed rack in front counter area without protection from contamination,” “ricotta cheese and roasted peppers stored on floor inside walk-in cooler” and “food debris inside flip-top cooler in kitchen.” They also “observed no wall, door, or any means to close establishment” to prevent “environmental cross-contamination.”
The pizzeria was ordered shut a second time the next day for being “not compliant” after the state discovered 10 more flies “landing on wall above flip-top cooler in kitchen.” The restaurant remains shut pending a third inspection.
Buoy One Seafood Restaurant and Market, Oakland Park
4391 N. Federal Highway
Ordered shut: June 6; reopened June 8
Why: 11 violations (five high-priority), including 22 live cockroaches found “at cook line under/behind cooktop,” “at cook line on shelf above prep sink,” “on wall behind ice machine” and “under clean dish storage shelves across from triple sink.”
The inspection also reported five dead roaches “in prep sink on cook line” in the kitchen,” “on dry storage shelves next to hot sauce and condensed milk,” and “on chlorine dispensing bucket at dish machine.”
One employee was seen switching from “working with raw oysters and raw shrimp and raw fish to portioning ready-to-eat marinara sauce” without washing hands first. Finally, the state noticed the walls behind the dishwashing machine “soiled with mold-like substance.”
The seafood spot was given the all-clear to reopen two days later, despite the second inspection finding another three violations (one of each: high-priority, intermediate and basic).
Bees Knees Diner, West Palm Beach
3027 Forest Hill Blvd., Suite A1
Ordered shut: June 6 and June 7; reopened June 8
Why: 13 violations (eight high-priority), including six live cockroaches found “on (a) 2-by-4 under dryer by hot water heater,” “under dishwasher rack in dry food storage/prep room” and “by plastic beverage glasses on shelf next to soda station in the kitchen area.”
The restaurant was also cited for one live fly “on dishwasher rack in prep room/dry food storage room by dishwasher,” and a pair of dead roaches “under dryer by hot water heater.”
The restaurant was ordered to stop selling and toss the ice in the bar’s ice bin in the dining room “due to adulteration of food product” after a Campbell’s tomato juice can was discovered chilling there. The eatery was also ordered to trash a can of West Creek brand Whole Kernel Corn that was “severely dented at seams.”
Finally, the state red-flagged a number of sanitation issues, such as “old food stuck to clean pan on storage rack,” a “bag of raw mahi-mahi stored over box of French fries” and “several pans on rack stored wet” and “not properly air-dried.”
The diner was ordered shut a second time the next day for more cockroach woes and for “raw animal food stored over or with ready-to-eat food in a freezer.” The restaurant was allowed to reopen on June 8 after a third inspection revealed zero new issues. (It had last been ordered shut in April.)
Sushigami, Sunrise
12801 W. Sunrise Blvd.
Ordered shut: June 8; reopened June 9
Why: 10 violations (two high-priority), including five flies spotted swarming around and “landing on customer table” and “landing on sushi service mobile tray line.” They also spotted six cockroaches “crawling on customer table” in dining area and on “hot sauce bottles and syrup” in the kitchen’s dry storage food shelf.
An employee’s cellphone was found on the prep station of the sushi bar, and an employee’s personal cup of water was seen inside “a cold holding unit with food to be served to customers.”
Finally, the state inspection reported “no hot running water at mop sink,” “soiled wiping cloths on prep table” and plates being stored improperly at the kitchen sushi bar.
The eatery reopened the next day after a second inspection found one basic and three intermediate violations.
