Dirty Dining In Florida: Check This Database Before Going Out To Eat

Have you ever gone to look up a restaurant, but the reviews were not enough to sell you? Maybe knowing if the place is up to code will. Try searching any restaurant or hotel in the state of Florida on the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation (DBPR) website. 

With just the establishment’s name or license number, this database can pull up its address, license number, rank (seating, non-seating, hotel, etc.), status, status expiration date, and inspection details, including the type of inspection, date it was completed, what the inspectors found, and the overall result.

To start, visit the DBPR website here and type the information you have about the restaurant or place of lodging into the search bars, then select the “search” button near the bottom of the page. When you find the establishment in the search results, click on its name for further information. 

To see the details on a particular inspection, click on the date of that inspection. From there, you can see the number of high priority, intermediate, and basic violations and an in-depth report of any violations. 

All inspections are completed through Florida Health by the Environmental Health section, which is responsible for all Department of Health (DOH)-regulated establishments involving food service in its county, at the level of the County Health Department (CHD). 

Furthermore, inspections are performed based on complaints, routine matters, and re-inspections. Complaint and routine inspections are unannounced, meaning that no prior notice is given to the establishment before the inspector shows up. Re-inspections are performed only if the initial inspection resulted in an inordinate degree of violations, and they are scheduled.

Following an inspection, the establishment is given a score of Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, or Incomplete, which correlates directly with no or insignificant violations present, significant violations that pose a threat to public health, and the inspection was interrupted or the inspector had to leave prior to completing the inspection. 

A few restaurants with a large number of high priority violations in St. Petersburg include:

Harbor Master Tiki Grille:
-Most Recent Routine Inspection: February 8th, 2024
-Total Violations: 40
-High Priority Violations: 8
-Violations include kitchen staff washing hands without soap and the presence of small, live flying bugs.
-Result: A re-inspection is required.

West Shore Pizza:
-Most Recent Routine Inspection: January 31st, 2024
-Total Violations: 31
-High Priority Violations: 6
-Violations include the storage of ready-to-eat food with or under raw animal food, operating with an expired license, and an employee neglecting to wash his or her hands prior to putting on gloves and handling food. 
-Result: A re-inspection is required.

Sid’s At The Catalyst:
-Most Recent Routine Inspection: February 8th, 2024  
-Total Violations: 35
-High Priority Violations: 10
-Violations include gray sewage/wastewater backing up through a kitchen floor drain and wiping cloth chlorine solution being stored next to potato chips in the bar counter.
-Result: The restaurant was temporarily closed.
-A re-inspection was performed on February 9th, 2024, where 14 violations were still present.
-The restaurant has reopened, but another re-inspection is required.

If you need to report a potential health code violation, you can file a complaint with Florida Health and the DBPR here.

Article by Ema Tibbetts