FLORIDA. A seafood restaurant on the Gulf Coast was shut down August 7 after inspectors found all three of the pest categories that most alarm Florida health officials: live roaches, active rodent evidence, and flies, all inside the same building on the same day.
Shells of St. Pete Beach, at 7081 Gulf Blvd, sits on one of the most visited stretches of beach in the Tampa Bay region. The triple-pest closure was among 26 emergency shutdowns the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation ordered statewide between August 1 and August 14, 2026. Eleven were roach-related, ten were rodent-related, and five involved flies or other pest activity.
Orlando led all cities with six closures in the two-week span. Miami followed with three. The closures stretched from Key West to Jacksonville, hitting chains and independents, tourist corridors and neighborhood spots alike.
The Closures: Roaches in the Chains
August 7 was the single busiest closure day of the period, with five restaurants shut across four cities. Jersey Mike's Subs at 6700 Conroy Rd in Orlando was closed for roach activity and cleared by 8:43 a.m., the fastest turnaround of any closure in the dataset.
Juicy Crab at 7308 International Drive in Orlando, a location on the city's main tourist corridor, was shut the same day for both roach and fly activity. It reopened at 11:17 a.m.
Sugar Bae at 8253 Sunset Strip in Fort Lauderdale was also closed August 7 for roach activity and had cleared state standards by midday.
The day before, Tacombi at 3930 NE 2nd Ave in Miami's Design District was shut for combined rodent and fly activity. It reopened the following morning at 9:21 a.m.
Rodents from Key West to Fort Myers
The rodent closures spread across the widest geographic range of the two-week period. Pickles Pub Sandbar at 511 Greene St in Key West was closed August 3 for rodent and fly activity. It did not reopen until 4:20 p.m., the latest reopening time of any closure that day.
Panaderia Restaurante La Bamba Inc at 3900 Palm Beach Blvd in Fort Myers was shuttered the same day for rodent activity and cleared before 9 a.m.
Café Enclave at 524 W 27th St in Hialeah and Pack Supermarket at 8235 NE 2nd Ave in Miami were both closed August 3 for rodent activity, with Pack Supermarket reopening first at 8:17 a.m.
White Wolf Café and Bar at 1829 N Orange Ave in Orlando was closed August 3 for rodent activity alone and reopened at 10:15 a.m.
Café Bich Nga at 5572 Park Blvd in Pinellas Park and Cypress Creek Golf Club at 1011 Cypress Village Blvd in Sun City Center were both closed August 5 for rodent and fly activity. The golf club, a less typical food-service closure, cleared inspection by 9:29 a.m.
Rotis Indian Restaurant at 13025 US Hwy 301 S in Riverview was closed August 4 for rodent and fly activity and did not reopen until 4:08 p.m., the latest reopening of any single closure in the entire two-week span.
Flies and the August Heat
Five closures were driven primarily by fly or other pest activity. Hooters at 8510 Palm Pkwy in Orlando was shut August 5 for fly activity and did not clear until 1:18 p.m.
Maggie McFly's at 662 SE Becker Rd in Port St. Lucie was closed August 5 for fly activity and reopened by 10:41 a.m.
Subway Sandwiches and Salads at 8839 Conroy Rd in Orlando was closed August 4 for fly activity and reopened at 1:36 p.m. That made two closures on the same stretch of Conroy Road in Orlando within 24 hours, with Jersey Mike's on the same road shut the following morning for roaches.
Eleventh Street Pizza at 9025 SW 72nd Place in Miami was closed August 3 for fly activity and cleared by 9:14 a.m.
Taqueria La Calentana Dos LLC at 604 E Moody Blvd in Bunnell was closed August 3 for fly activity and reopened just after 9 a.m.
What These Violations Mean
Live pest infestations represent some of the most direct contamination routes in a commercial kitchen. Cockroaches carry bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli on their bodies and legs, depositing those pathogens on food-contact surfaces, prep areas, and stored ingredients as they move through a kitchen at night. A single live roach seen during a daytime inspection typically signals a much larger hidden population, because roaches are nocturnal and avoid light. When inspectors document live roach activity during business hours, as they did at Castellos Pizza on Conroy Windermere Road in Orlando and at DeVito's Italian Specialties on N Tampa St in Tampa, both on August 4, the threshold for emergency closure has already been crossed.
Rodent evidence carries a distinct set of risks. Rodent droppings, urine, and hair can contaminate food directly and are associated with transmission of Hantavirus, Leptospirosis, and Salmonella. Unlike roaches, which spread contamination through surface contact, rodents can gnaw through food packaging and deposit waste directly into stored product. The rodent closures at Pack Supermarket in Miami and at Buffet City at 1030 58th St N in St. Petersburg are particularly significant because both are high-volume food-service or retail environments where large quantities of food are stored and handled daily.
Fly closures, while sometimes treated as less severe, are not minor. Flies transfer bacteria from waste and decaying matter to food surfaces within seconds of landing. The Hooters closure on Palm Parkway in Orlando and the Juicy Crab closure on International Drive, both involving fly activity alongside other pest evidence, reflect the compounding risk of fly infestations in kitchens that are already managing other pest pressure. August heat accelerates fly breeding cycles, which is why fly-related closures tend to cluster in summer inspection periods.
The combined roach, rodent, and fly closure at Shells of St. Pete Beach is the most serious documented in this period precisely because it indicates simultaneous failures across multiple pest-control systems. Each pest type requires a different treatment protocol. Finding all three active at once suggests that no effective pest-control program was operating at the facility.
The Longer Record
Pit Boss Bar B Que and Pub at 4221 Little Rd in New Port Richey was closed August 7 for rodent and fly activity and cleared by 9:13 a.m. that morning. Italiano's at 4191 Tamiami Trail S in Venice was closed August 3 for roach activity and reopened by 2:08 p.m.
The Jacksonville closures on August 4 hit two very different types of operations within hours of each other. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at 6310 103rd St was closed for roach activity and cleared before 9 a.m. Apna Addaa at 8350 Baymeadows Rd, a smaller independent, was also closed for roach activity and reopened just after 8 a.m. Both were back in service the same morning they were shut.
Yellow Tail Subs Grill Inc at 27275 S Dixie Hwy in Homestead was closed August 6 for roach and fly activity. It is the only facility in this dataset for which no reopening status was recorded. Every other closure in the August 1 to 14 period has a documented reopening time. Yellow Tail Subs Grill's status as of the close of this reporting period remains unknown.
