TAMPA, FL. Live roach activity inside Devito's Italian Specialties at 200 N Tampa St triggered an emergency closure order on August 4, the second time state inspectors have shut the downtown Tampa restaurant down for conditions threatening public health.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation ordered the restaurant vacated by August 5. Inspectors returned the following morning and, finding the conditions resolved, cleared the restaurant to reopen at 1:50 p.m. that same day.
What Inspectors Found
Devito's Italian Specialties: Inspection Pattern, 2025-2026
The August 4 inspection produced two high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. The high-severity citations are the most serious category in the state's inspection framework, reserved for conditions that pose a direct risk of foodborne illness or, in this case, contamination from pest activity.
State records do not specify the exact roach count or the precise locations inside the kitchen where activity was observed. What the record does show is that the activity was serious enough for inspectors to order the restaurant closed immediately rather than issue a warning and schedule a follow-up.
The restaurant was cleared to reopen less than 24 hours after the closure order was issued. The August 5 follow-up inspection found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations remaining.
What This Means
Roach activity in a food service environment is one of the conditions that state inspectors treat as grounds for emergency closure without delay. The reason is direct: cockroaches carry pathogens including Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria on their bodies and in their waste, and they move freely between drains, garbage, raw food surfaces and plated dishes.
Unlike a temperature violation, which can be corrected by adjusting equipment, an active roach infestation touches every surface in its path. A customer eating at a restaurant with documented live roach activity has no way of knowing whether the plate in front of them has been contaminated.
Emergency closure is the state's mechanism for removing that risk immediately. The restaurant cannot legally reopen until a follow-up inspector confirms the condition has been resolved, which in this case happened the morning of August 5.
The three intermediate violations documented alongside the roach activity are also notable. Intermediate violations typically involve issues like inadequate food manager certification, improper food handling procedures, or failures in employee hygiene training. They sit below high-severity in the state's ranking but above basic violations, and their presence alongside a pest finding suggests the August 4 inspection was not a narrow, isolated problem.
The Longer Record
This was not the first time Devito's has been ordered closed. State records show the restaurant has one prior emergency closure on record in addition to the August 4 shutdown, making this its second emergency closure across 19 total inspections.
Across those 19 inspections, the facility has accumulated 86 total violations. That averages to more than four violations per inspection visit, though the distribution has been uneven.
The pattern in the recent record is particularly notable. In April 2025, inspectors documented four high-severity violations and one intermediate violation in a single visit, the highest single-visit severity count in the recent inspection history. A follow-up two days later showed those issues resolved. Seven months later, in November 2025, inspectors returned and found three high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. Another follow-up two days later again showed the problems addressed.
Then came August 2026 and the roach closure.
What the record shows is a recurring cycle: serious violations documented, a follow-up visit confirming resolution, a period of clean inspections, then another round of serious violations. The restaurant passed inspections in January 2026 and July 2025 with zero high-severity or intermediate violations. It also passed in November 2025 and April 2025 on follow-up visits. But the underlying pattern, two prior emergency closures and repeated high-severity findings across a 19-inspection history, suggests the resolutions have not been permanent.
The restaurant has been licensed for permanent food service at the 200 N Tampa St location. Whether the roach activity documented on August 4 was connected to any of the prior high-severity violations, or represented a new and separate failure, the state records do not specify.
What the records do confirm is that Devito's has now been emergency-closed twice. The facility's 86 total violations across 19 inspections place it among the more heavily cited permanent food service operations in the Tampa area. The August 5 reopening means the restaurant is currently operating, but the prior closure is now part of its documented record.
