Hawkers Asian Street Fare in Neptune Beach was closed Tuesday and will remain closed Wednesday with an orange sign saying the closure is "to protect public health and safety."
According to an inspection report from the Department of Business and Professional Regulations (DBPR), on Tuesday the restaurant received three high priority violations, two intermediate violations and nine basic violations.
The inspection report states that the high priority violations stemmed from keeping potentially hazardous food at the wrong temperature, presence of live, small flying insects, and an employee failing to wash hands before putting on gloves to work with food.
DBPR ordered the operation of the business to be stopped until violations are corrected.
Less than 24 hours later, Hawkers did poorly on a follow-up inspection with another high priority violation associated with live, flying insects.
Hawkers released a statement via Facebook Wednesday saying it will reopen Thursday and this was closed due to increased fruit fly activity.
The increased fruit flies were reportedly brought on by recent heavy rains and flooding in the area that caused drainage complications and flooding in the restaurant, the Facebook post said.
The restaurant will reopen on Thursday at 11 a.m., according to the post.
"At this time, we have the all-clear to reopen, as this afternoon’s re-inspection found zero fruit fly activity," the restaurant said. "Due to the nature of our open-kitchen concept, we have decided to perform an additional thorough deep-clean of the restaurant in its entirety, to ensure that no ingredients, equipment and/or cleanliness standards are compromised."
