BROWARD COUNTY, FL. A Pompano Beach takeout restaurant was ordered closed for at least the fifth time in its inspection history during a two-week stretch in September that saw ten South Florida restaurants shuttered, seven of them locations that state inspectors had closed before.
The closures ran from September 8 through September 21 and stretched across Broward County and into Palm Beach County, hitting a national chain, an upscale Boca Raton seafood bar, a Delray Beach waterfront staple, and a West Palm Beach IHOP. Eight of the ten were closed for pest activity. The remaining two were shut for reasons that had nothing to do with insects or rodents, and both reopened within hours.
The Worst of the Bunch
Au Bon Gout Take Out Restaurant at 5273 N Dixie Hwy in Pompano Beach was ordered closed on September 15 for rodent activity. That closure was at least the fifth in the location's documented history, with four prior closures already on record with the state. Inspectors allowed it to reopen the same morning at 12:08.
On the same day, roughly 25 miles south, Chops Lobster Bar at 101 Plaza Real S in Boca Raton was closed for a combination of rodent, roach, and fly activity, the kind of triple-pest finding that inspectors flag as an emergency. That closure was the location's fourth on record. Inspectors cleared it by 12:26 p.m. the same day.
Both restaurants reopened within hours of their closures. Neither closure was the first, or even the second, time inspectors had ordered the doors shut.
Pest Activity Across the County
Eight of the ten closures this period were pest-related, and they spanned the county from Plantation to Delray Beach.
Deck 84 at 840 E Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach, a waterfront restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway, was closed September 17 for roach and rodent activity. It was the location's third closure on record. Inspectors allowed it to reopen that afternoon at 2:52 p.m.
Shanghai 818 at 7860 Glades Rd in Boca Raton was closed September 16 for roach and rodent activity, its second closure on record. It reopened at 3:18 p.m. the same day.
Pizzapiez at 614 SE 10th St in Deerfield Beach was closed September 15 for rodent activity and cleared by 12:32 p.m. No prior closures are on record for that location.
Vale Food Company at 420 N Federal Hwy in Fort Lauderdale was closed September 15 for fly activity and reopened at 3:32 p.m. No prior closures appear in state records for that address.
Riverside Market Plantation at 6900 Cypress Rd in Plantation was closed September 8 for fly activity. That closure was the location's third on record. Inspectors cleared it at 4:15 p.m.
CT Cantina and Taqueria at 176 N Pointe Dr in Dania Beach was closed September 16 for fly activity and allowed to reopen the same morning at 9:21 a.m., one of the faster turnarounds in the two-week period.
Two Closures With No Pests at All
Two of the ten closures this period had nothing to do with insects or rodents, and both involved conditions that made continued food service impossible.
Rivales Taqueria and Craft Bar at 106 N Olive Ave in West Palm Beach was closed September 14 because the location had no warewashing facilities, meaning dishes, utensils, and food-contact surfaces could not be properly sanitized. It was the location's third closure on record. Inspectors cleared it the next morning at 9:20 a.m.
IHOP 36-157 at 1503 Belvedere Rd in West Palm Beach was closed September 10 for a sewage backup, its second closure on record. It remained closed the longest of any location in this period, reopening at 3:57 p.m.
What These Violations Mean
Roach and rodent activity are treated as emergency conditions under state food safety rules because both carry direct contamination risks that cannot be managed while a facility stays open. Cockroaches spread bacteria including salmonella and E. coli across food-contact surfaces, and their presence in a kitchen typically signals ongoing harborage, not a one-time intrusion. At Chops Lobster Bar, Deck 84, and Shanghai 818, inspectors found both roaches and rodents, meaning two separate pest pressures were active at the same time.
Fly activity, the trigger at CT Cantina, Vale Food Company, Riverside Market Plantation, and the fly component at Chops, is not a minor nuisance violation. Flies transfer pathogens from waste and decaying matter directly onto food preparation surfaces and exposed food. A finding serious enough to close a facility means inspectors observed activity at a level they judged to be an active contamination risk, not a stray insect near a door.
The Rivales Taqueria closure for no warewashing facilities is a different category of risk. Without functioning sanitation equipment, dishes and utensils used in food preparation and service cannot be decontaminated between uses. Any bacterial load on equipment from previous service would carry forward to every plate that followed.
The IHOP sewage backup on Belvedere Road is the most acute sanitation failure in the group. Raw sewage in a food service environment introduces fecal contamination that can reach food, food-contact surfaces, and employee hand-washing areas simultaneously. The facility stayed closed for most of the day before inspectors cleared it.
The Longer Record
Seven of the ten locations closed during this period had been shut before, and for several, the September closures were the continuation of a documented multi-year pattern. Au Bon Gout in Pompano Beach leads that group with four prior closures already on record before September 15, making the latest shutdown its fifth. Chops Lobster Bar in Boca Raton had three prior closures before inspectors arrived September 8 and found roaches, rodents, and flies together.
Deck 84 in Delray Beach and Riverside Market Plantation each carried two prior closures into this period before adding a third. Rivales Taqueria and IHOP on Belvedere Road each added a third and second closure to their records, respectively.
The three locations with no prior closures, CT Cantina in Dania Beach, Pizzapiez in Deerfield Beach, and Vale Food Company in Fort Lauderdale, represent the only first-time emergency closures in the group. Whether those findings reflect isolated incidents or the beginning of a pattern that shows up in future inspections is something the state's records will eventually answer.
All ten locations had reopened by the close of their respective closure days, most within hours of the initial order. The fastest turnaround was CT Cantina, cleared in the same morning. The slowest was IHOP on Belvedere Road, which did not reopen until nearly 4 p.m. on September 10.
Au Bon Gout Take Out on North Dixie Highway in Pompano Beach has now been emergency-closed at least five times. It reopened within four hours on September 15.
