Start at Brown County Public Health’s business-licensing page and follow its inspection-report link. The inspection menu separates Food from Retail Food Establishments Not Serving Meals. A familiar business name or street address is not enough to identify the restaurant’s licensed operation. In the Food list, one address can have separate entries for a tavern and a retail food establishment serving meals. Choose the entry whose facility type and permit history match the operation you want to check.
Choose the program and permit before comparing reports
The portal’s Food overview says its reports exclude establishments inspected by the De Pere Health Department and Oneida Nation Health Department. If a place does not appear, check which health authority handles that address instead of treating the blank result as a clean record. Brown’s retail-food page links the Wisconsin retail-food rules and gives the local program contact.
| If the operation is listed as… | Check… |
|---|---|
| Retail Food Establishment Serving Meals or Tavern | The Food module and the exact licensed operation, even when its name or address resembles another entry. |
| Retail Food Establishment Not Serving Meals | The not-serving-meals page; its facilities can include varied food sellers, so verify the displayed facility type. |
| Mobile operation or base | The specific mobile or base entry and its own inspection history. Do not combine two permits into one record. |
The not-serving-meals page has Search Establishment and an alphabetic facility list. Its search box asks for at least two characters. Search results display a name, address, and type, while the longer browse list remains below them. A word search returned results whose visible names did not all contain that word. Use the displayed location and type to verify the entry; do not assume the search is an exact name match or that every item below the results matches your query.
Open the chosen facility. The opened Food facility history displayed the facility ID, location, type, status, last-inspection field, and dated inspection entries. The opened not-serving-meals history displayed those fields too. Use the type and location to keep separate permits apart, then open the relevant dated event. A status field on the facility page does not replace a later inspection or a separate operating order. If an expected event is missing, note the period you need and ask Brown Public Health where the record is held; the oldest event visible in one history is not a countywide archive start date.
Read the event’s violations, not a borrowed grade
The opened Food Routine report had Main and Violations sections, with general-information fields for complexity rating, inspection type, and whether re-inspection was required. The opened not-serving-meals Pre-inspection report had those sections and fields too. Read the event type and date before comparing them: a pre-inspection and a routine visit serve different points in the licensing history. No numeric grade appeared in the opened Food report; none appeared in the opened not-serving-meals report. Do not invent one from the violation count or borrow a grade from another Wisconsin jurisdiction.
On a violation screen, look for the Priority, Priority Foundation, or Core category beside the item. Read each violation with its code, correction text, Repeat, Corrected During Inspection, and Correct By fields. A correction made during the visit is different from a later deadline; a repeat label concerns that item, not every item on the permit. The site’s violation-reading guide can help you keep each finding and later correction on its own date.
An opened report said Re-inspection required: No while still showing violations. That field does not mean there were no findings or that every correction was completed. The Food overview describes general correction periods, while reports give item-specific Correct By dates. Use the date on the item, and contact the department if you need to reconcile it with general guidance. Do not replace the displayed date with a standard deadline.
Find an order or missing record through the agency
Brown County’s Chapter 37 ordinance describes written compliance orders with a time limit and potential license suspension if that order is unmet. It also describes separate immediate-hazard action. A violation entry or a No re-inspection field alone is not a closure order or proof of reopening. For an operating-status question, ask for the dated order and any later agency authorization for the same licensed operation.
The county’s public-records ordinance describes record custodians by county authority. For a missing inspection or an order, start with Brown Public Health at (920) 448-6400, or use its contact form to ask which custodian holds the record. Include the establishment name, address, licensed operation, and period you need. The site’s closure and permit-suspension guide explains why a later authorization is a separate document to check.
The agency pages and public report route were checked September 27, 2026. A dated inspection describes what was recorded then; it does not guarantee present food safety. Recheck the latest event and any later agency action for the exact permit.