BOCA RATON, FL. State inspectors ordered Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza at 851 S Federal Highway closed on July 13 after documenting live roach and fly activity inside the restaurant, the fourth time the location has been emergency-shut since 2021.
The closure order required the restaurant to vacate by July 14. It passed a follow-up inspection the same day, with zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations recorded, and was allowed to reopen at 9:59 a.m.
What Inspectors Found
Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza: Emergency Closure History
The July 13 inspection produced three high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. The specific pest activity documented, roaches and flies present inside the restaurant, was severe enough that the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation ordered the restaurant vacated before it could continue serving customers.
Three high-severity violations in a single inspection is not unusual for this location. Inspectors recorded the same count, three high-severity and one intermediate, during a visit on June 8, just five weeks before the closure.
What This Means
An emergency closure for roach and fly activity is not issued for a handful of insects near a back door. Florida regulators reserve emergency shutdown orders for conditions that pose an immediate threat to public health, meaning inspectors determined the pest presence was active, widespread, or both.
Roaches are direct vectors for pathogens including Salmonella, E. coli, and Staphylococcus aureus. They travel between sewage, drains, and food preparation surfaces, depositing bacteria along the way. A customer eating at a table while live roaches are present in a kitchen is eating food that may have been contaminated at any point in its preparation.
Flies carry more than 100 pathogens and can transfer bacteria from waste to food surfaces in a single landing. The 2021 closure at this same location was ordered specifically for fly activity, meaning this restaurant has now been shut down for each pest type, flies and roaches, multiple times at the same address.
The combination of both in a single inspection, roaches and flies documented together, is what triggered the July 13 order.
The Longer Record
Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza at 851 S Federal Highway has 31 inspections on record and 91 total violations. That history places this closure in a context that goes well beyond a single bad day.
The 2021 closure was for fly activity. The 2023 closure was for roach activity. The July 2026 closure was for both. In each case, the restaurant passed a follow-up inspection within 24 hours and reopened. The pattern is not one of prolonged shutdowns but of recurring conditions serious enough to trigger emergency action.
The inspection record between closures shows the same severity tier appearing repeatedly. The July 2024 inspection logged three high-severity and two intermediate violations. The September 2025 inspection logged two high-severity and three intermediate violations, followed by a clean follow-up the next day. The June 2026 inspection, five weeks before the closure, logged three high-severity and one intermediate violation, with no closure ordered at that time.
What the record shows is a location that cycles through high-severity findings, passes follow-up inspections, and then accumulates high-severity violations again in subsequent months. Four emergency closures across five years at the same address is not a streak of bad luck. It is a documented pattern.
The Reopening
The July 14 follow-up inspection found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations, and the restaurant was cleared to reopen before 10 a.m. That turnaround, less than 24 hours from closure to reopening, mirrors the outcomes of the 2021 and 2023 closures, both of which also resulted in next-day reopenings after passing re-inspection.
What the record does not show is whether the conditions that triggered four emergency closures over five years have been addressed in any lasting way. The June 8 inspection, five weeks before this closure, already showed three high-severity violations at this location.
The restaurant holds a valid food service license and was permitted to reopen as of July 14.
