Napolino’s restaurant in Wildwood was shut down by an inspector who discovered rodent activity.
An inspector visited the popular Italian restaurant on U.S. 301 on Feb. 20 and found rodent droppings, according to a report on file with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Eighteen rodent droppings were found on the floor behind a stand mixer in the cook line area. Two more rodent droppings were found on the base of a stand mixer in the kitchen area.
In addition, the inspector found high-priority violations in connection with food storage and temperature.
Food that was supposed to be at 41 degrees was found at higher temperatures, including pasta fagioli soup at 57 degrees, marinara sauce at 53 degrees, gravy at 71 degrees and red sauce at 56 degrees. A “stop sale” order was issued for all of those foods. The inspector determined that food was being cooled without any temperature monitoring.
A food storage violation was noted by the inspector, who found raw beef stored over ice in a walk-in freezer.
There were also problems with food being stored on the floor of a walk-in cooler, rusty shelves in the walk-in cooler and water leaking from a pipe at a hand wash sink by a drink station.
The inspector opted to shut down the restaurant. Napolino’s was allowed to reopen later that day after the majority of the issues were addressed to the satisfaction of the inspector, with the exception of the leaking pipe and the rusty shelves.
