Three South Florida restaurants shut down after inspections

Flies landing on ready-to-eat fish and on drinking straws, and live roaches crawling in all-purpose flour forced state inspectors to temporarily close a trio of South Florida eateries last week.

One adventurous fly even landed on the state inspector’s hat during their visit to Blue Pointe Bar and Grill in Tequesta. (Whoops.) Live roaches crawled on the seasoning and flies landed on bread rolls at Just Spoons Cafe in Plantation, while flies landed on drinking straws, clean dishes and napkins at Papichulo Taco Bar in Royal Palm Beach.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel highlights restaurant inspections in Broward and Palm Beach counties from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Here’s how it works: We cull through hundreds of restaurant and bar inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for “high-priority

violations,” like improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches. On occasion we may highlight the weirder violations we notice, like this pizzeria that put a dead 80-pound iguana in its freezer.

Sun Sentinel readers can browse full Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade county reports on our state inspection map, updated weekly (usually Monday) with fresh data pulled from the Florida DBPR website.

Any restaurant that fails inspections must stay closed until it passes a follow-up state inspection. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR here. (But don’t contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesn’t inspect restaurants.)

Papichulo Taco Bar

1005 N. State Road 7, Royal Palm Beach

Ordered shut :May6

Why: State inspectors spotted a trio of violations (one major), including 16 flies landing on clean dishes, soup lids and storage shelves. Flies landed on single-use drinking straws, diningroom napkins and takehome containers, all thrown away during inspection. The restaurant was allowed to reopen May 7 when a follow-up inspection found one minor issue.

Just Spoons Café

455 SW 78th Ave., Plantation

Ordered shut :May6 Why: Nine violations (eight high-priority) including four live roaches in the kitchen “crawling on bottom shelf of steam table” and “on seasoning and all-purpose flour,” and 13 live flies “landing on bread loaves” and on a beverage prep table. One employee touched “readyto-eat fish with their bare hands,” and inspectors ordered them to throw it away for contamination. The restaurant also was ordered to stop selling one case of chicken, and inspectors also saw in-use utensils at the bar stored in dirty water. Inspectors let the café reopen May 7 when they found zero follow-up violations.

Blue Pointe Bar and Grill

18701 SE Federal Highway, Tequesta

Ordered shut :May5 Why: State inspectors found eight violations (four high-priority), including 38 dead flies in various kitchen traps and 15 live flies “landing on cutting board, clean plates, wiping cloths,” a plate of salad — and even on the state inspector’s hat. Inspectors ordered the restaurant to throw away the salad and found one employee who “touched [their] hat and continued food prep without changing gloves.” The restaurant was allowed to reopen May 6 when inspectors spotted only one minor violation.