DAVIE, FL. State inspectors ordered Elvis Italian Grille at 4261 Griffin Rd closed on June 5 after documenting live roach and fly activity inside the restaurant, triggering an emergency shutdown that sent the facility through two separate inspections in a single day before it was allowed to reopen at 3:59 that afternoon.
The closure was not the restaurant's first. Records show Elvis Italian Grille has now been emergency-closed twice in its inspection history, accumulated 212 total violations across 32 inspections on record, and walked into June 5 carrying a pattern of recurring high-severity citations that stretches back years.
What Inspectors Found
The first of the two June 5 inspections turned up 5 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations. The follow-up inspection, which appears to have been the one triggering the formal closure order, documented 6 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations across the facility.
Among the high-severity citations: food from an unapproved or unknown source, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, improper hand and arm washing technique, no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used.
The intermediate violations included improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
That is a broad sweep of simultaneous failures, touching sourcing, cooking temperatures, surface sanitation, chemical storage, and waste handling all in a single visit.
What These Violations Mean
The roach and fly activity that triggered the closure order is the kind of finding that warrants an immediate shutdown because pests are not a passive problem. Roaches travel between sewage, garbage, and food preparation surfaces, depositing bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli along the way. Flies land on food directly. Neither can be contained by cleaning around them.
The food-from-unapproved-source violation compounds that risk. When a restaurant sources food outside USDA or FDA-inspected supply chains, there is no traceability if a customer gets sick. Inspectors cannot verify where the food came from, how it was handled, or whether it was safe when it arrived. That gap matters most when the same inspection also documents inadequate cooking temperatures, because undercooked food from an unverified source removes two of the primary safeguards between a kitchen and a foodborne illness outbreak.
The toxic-substances violation adds a separate and immediate hazard. Chemicals stored or used improperly near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, with no cooking step capable of neutralizing the exposure.
Improper sewage disposal at a food service facility means fecal contamination can reach food preparation surfaces. Combined with improperly cleaned utensils and reused single-use items, the cumulative contamination risk documented in this single inspection is significant.
The Longer Record
June 5 was not an anomaly for Elvis Italian Grille. It was the second emergency closure in the restaurant's documented history, and the inspection record leading up to it shows a facility that has cycled through high-severity violations repeatedly without resolving the underlying conditions.
The January 2025 inspection turned up 4 high-severity violations. September 2024 produced 2 high-severity and 1 intermediate. May 2024 produced 2 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations. The one clean inspection in this stretch, June 2024, recorded zero violations at either severity level, which makes the surrounding record harder to explain as isolated incidents.
Elvis Italian Grille: Recent Inspection History
Across 32 inspections on record, the facility has accumulated 212 total violations. That averages to more than 6.6 violations per inspection visit, a figure that reflects not a series of isolated bad days but a sustained pattern of recurring deficiencies.
The restaurant was allowed to reopen on June 5 at 3:59 p.m., meaning the closure lasted only hours. Whether the conditions that produced 6 high-severity violations in a single morning, including food from unapproved sources and live pest activity, were fully corrected in that window is a question the next inspection will answer.