MELROSE, FL. Inspectors ordered Blue Water Bay on SR 26 closed on September 21 after documenting active rodent activity inside the restaurant, the same violation that had triggered an emergency shutdown at the same address just two months earlier.
The closure was the third emergency shutdown in the facility's recorded history and the second in 2026. State inspectors cited 11 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate violations during the September 21 inspection before ordering the restaurant vacated.
What Inspectors Found
Blue Water Bay: Emergency Closure History
The September 21 inspection produced 11 high-severity violations, the most of any single inspection this year at the restaurant. Inspectors documented active rodent activity as the primary driver of the closure order.
The facility was ordered vacated by September 23. Records show a follow-up inspection on September 22 found zero high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. A second follow-up on September 23 found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations, and the restaurant was cleared to reopen at 10:38 a.m. that day.
A Pattern That Keeps Repeating
The September closure was not the first time rodents forced Blue Water Bay to shut down in 2026. On July 16, inspectors cited 10 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate violations, also for rodent activity. That closure lasted less than 24 hours. The restaurant passed a follow-up inspection on July 17 and reopened the same day.
Before July, the restaurant had already drawn a serious inspection in late March. On March 30, inspectors documented 8 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations, though that inspection did not result in a closure order. A same-day re-inspection on March 30 showed the same violation count, with 8 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations still on record.
Three inspections in 2026 alone produced high-severity violation counts in the double digits or near it. The July and September visits both ended in emergency closures.
The Longer Record
The September 21 closure was Blue Water Bay's third emergency shutdown across its full inspection history. The first came on November 30, 2022, when inspectors cited both roach and rodent activity. That closure lasted one day, with the restaurant cleared to reopen on December 1, 2022.
Across 50 inspections on record, the facility has accumulated 416 total violations. That works out to an average of more than 8 violations per inspection across its history.
The pattern in 2026 is particularly concentrated. Four of the facility's most recent inspections, in March, July twice, and September, each produced high-severity violation counts of 8 or higher. The two inspections that followed the July and September closures showed clean or near-clean results, suggesting the restaurant can meet standards when inspectors are present for follow-up, but the underlying conditions have returned quickly enough to trigger another closure within weeks or months.
The July closure and the September closure were separated by 66 days.
What This Means
Rodent activity is one of the violations that state inspectors treat as grounds for immediate emergency closure, and for specific reasons. Rodents move through a facility's entire footprint, across food prep surfaces, into storage areas, along shelving where packaged goods are kept. Unlike a temperature violation tied to a single piece of equipment, an active rodent presence contaminates broadly and unpredictably.
Rodent droppings and urine carry pathogens including Salmonella and Leptospira. A customer who ate at Blue Water Bay on or before September 21 could have consumed food that had contact with surfaces rodents had traveled across, with no visible sign that anything was wrong.
The risk compounds when the activity is ongoing rather than incidental. A facility closed twice in the same year for the same violation, rodent activity, raises the question of whether the infestation is being eliminated between closures or simply suppressed long enough to pass a follow-up inspection.
State inspectors documented zero high-severity violations on both the September 22 and September 23 follow-up visits, and the restaurant was cleared to reopen on the morning of September 23. Whether the conditions that produced three emergency closures across the facility's history have been addressed at the source is not reflected in the inspection record.
