JACKSONVILLE, FL. State inspectors ordered Captain D's #3380 on North Main Street closed on July 28 after finding evidence of rodent activity inside the restaurant, the second time in the facility's documented history that inspectors have pulled the plug on the location entirely.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation issued the emergency closure order, requiring the restaurant to vacate by July 29. A follow-up inspection the same day it was ordered to close cleared the high-severity violations, and the restaurant reopened at 10:08 a.m. on July 29.
What Inspectors Found
Captain D's #3380: Recent Inspection History
The closure-triggering finding on July 28 was rodent activity, documented as a high-severity violation. The inspection that day also turned up two additional violations, one intermediate and two high-severity in total across the visit.
The July 29 follow-up inspection cleared all three high-severity violations. One intermediate violation remained: inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What This Means
Rodent activity inside a food-service facility is one of the conditions Florida regulators treat as grounds for immediate closure, and the reasoning is direct. Rodents move through walls, storage areas, and prep surfaces, contaminating food and food-contact surfaces with droppings, urine, and fur. Unlike a temperature violation that can be corrected by moving food to a working cooler, rodent activity signals an infestation that requires extermination before the kitchen can safely operate.
The risk is not theoretical. Rodents carry pathogens including salmonella and leptospirosis, and they can contaminate food that customers eat without any visible sign of spoilage or tampering. A restaurant that continues serving food while rodent activity is present is serving food that may have been in contact with those animals overnight or for longer.
The intermediate violation that survived the July 29 re-inspection, inadequate ventilation and lighting, carries its own concern. Poor ventilation allows grease-laden vapors, carbon monoxide, smoke, and steam to accumulate in the kitchen. Over time, grease buildup from inadequate exhaust also becomes a fire hazard. That this violation remained after the emergency was resolved means it was not the focus of the overnight corrective effort.
The Longer Record
The July 28 closure did not come out of nowhere. This location has accumulated 197 violations across 24 inspections on record, and this was its second emergency closure.
The inspection history since late 2023 shows a facility that has not sustained compliance. The only visit in the recent record that produced zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations was November 8, 2023. Every inspection since then has cited high-severity violations, and the counts have been consistent: five high-severity violations in February 2024, five again in August 2024, four in March 2025, three in August 2025, two in December 2025, and three on the day of the July 2026 closure.
That is six consecutive inspections with high-severity violations before the closure was ordered.
The March 2025 inspection stands out in the recent run. It produced four high-severity and three intermediate violations, the highest intermediate count in the period reviewed. The back-to-back visits in early and mid-2024, each with five high-severity violations, represent the worst single-visit severity counts in the data.
The facility has now been emergency-closed twice. The first prior closure is on record but the specific triggering violation for that earlier shutdown is not included in the available data. What the record does show is that a prior emergency closure, followed by continued high-severity violations at nearly every subsequent inspection, preceded the July 28 rodent finding.
The restaurant reopened the morning of July 29. The intermediate ventilation violation documented that day remains uncorrected in the inspection record.
