CLERMONT, FL. State inspectors ordered Cedar Grill Clermont on South Highway 27 closed on June 23 for roach activity, triggering the restaurant's third emergency closure in its documented inspection history and its second shutdown for the same pest problem in just over two years.
The closure order required the restaurant to vacate by June 24. Inspectors returned that same day and conducted two separate follow-up inspections, each still finding five high-severity violations. The restaurant was cleared to reopen at 4:10 p.m. on June 24.
What Inspectors Found
Cedar Grill Clermont: Recent Inspection Severity
The closure-triggering inspection on June 23 documented six high-severity violations alongside four intermediate ones. Among the high-severity findings: an employee not reporting symptoms of illness, inadequate shell stock identification records, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
The intermediate violations included single-use items being reused, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and equipment found in poor repair.
Even after remediation efforts overnight, the follow-up inspections on June 24 each still showed five high-severity violations. The restaurant was allowed to reopen despite those remaining citations.
What These Violations Mean
Roach activity alone is enough under Florida law to justify an emergency closure, and the reason is direct: roaches travel between sewage, garbage, and food preparation surfaces, depositing bacteria including salmonella and E. coli along the way. A customer eating food that roaches have contacted has no way of knowing it.
The June 23 inspection documented problems that compound that risk substantially. Food contact surfaces that are not properly cleaned or sanitized, cited as a high-severity violation, are a primary route for bacterial transfer from one food to the next. When those surfaces are also in equipment found to be in poor repair, with cracks and corroded areas that cannot be effectively sanitized, the contamination risk does not end when the roaches are exterminated.
The shellfish traceability violation is a separate and serious concern. Shellfish served without proper shell stock identification records, the tags that track oysters, clams, and mussels from their harvest beds, cannot be traced if a customer gets sick. If a contaminated harvest lot sickens multiple diners, investigators have no chain to follow.
The employee illness reporting violation is among the most direct outbreak risks in food service. A worker who does not report symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, or jaundice can transmit norovirus or hepatitis A to dozens of customers before anyone connects the cases to a single source.
The Longer Record
Cedar Grill Clermont has accumulated 322 violations across 29 inspections on record. That is an average of more than 11 violations per inspection visit.
The restaurant's first documented emergency closure came on March 20, 2024, also for roach activity. It was cleared to reopen the following day. Sixteen months later, the same condition forced a second closure.
The inspection record in the year between those two closures shows no meaningful improvement in severity. The September 2025 inspection produced eight high-severity violations and six intermediate ones. The March 2025 inspection produced nine high-severity violations. The December 2024 inspection produced six high-severity violations. Those are not the numbers of a facility that corrected a roach problem and stabilized.
The February 2026 inspections, conducted two days apart, produced four and three high-severity violations respectively. Those visits came four months before the June closure, and neither resulted in an emergency order. By June 23, the roach activity had returned to a level that inspectors judged required the restaurant to shut down immediately.
The Pattern
Three emergency closures across 29 inspections is not a streak of bad luck. It is a documented pattern at a single address, with roach activity as the recurring trigger.
What makes the June 2026 closure notable is what the follow-up inspections showed. After an overnight remediation effort, inspectors returned twice on June 24 and found five high-severity violations remaining each time. The restaurant was cleared to reopen on the second visit, at 4:10 p.m., despite those outstanding high-severity citations still on the record.
Whether the violations that remained at reopening, including food contact surface sanitation and toxic chemical storage, have since been corrected is not confirmed in the available inspection data.
