FLORIDA. Thirty-one restaurants, bars, and food service operations across the state were emergency-closed for pest activity between October 5 and October 18, 2026, a two-week stretch that swept up a Dunkin' franchise in Arcadia, a golf club dining room in Miami Shores, a waterfront crab house in downtown Tampa, and an upscale steakhouse in Doral.
Roach activity drove 19 of the 31 closures. Rodents accounted for 9. Flies or mixed infestations made up the remaining 3. Miami led all cities with 3 closures, followed by Lakeland, Jacksonville, and Orlando with 2 each.
The Closures
The most striking single closure of the period came on October 9, when the Miami Shores Golf Club at 10000 Biscayne Blvd was shut down after inspectors documented both roach and rodent activity on the premises. A golf club dining room serving a membership clientele is not the setting most diners associate with pest infestation, and the closure drew the period's sharpest contrast between expectation and the inspection record.
That same day, Call Street Café at 111 Call St in Starke was ordered closed after inspectors found rodent activity, roach activity, and flies, all three pest categories documented in a single visit. It was one of only two facilities in this two-week period to trigger all three pest types simultaneously.
The October 8 closures covered four facilities across four different cities. China Spring III at 8100 Wiles Rd in Coral Springs was shut for roach and rodent activity. Baci Beachside at 218A Hwy A1A in Satellite Beach, a waterfront restaurant on the barrier island, was closed for rodent and fly activity. Tribute to Tobacco Road by Kush at 650 S Miami Ave in Miami was cited for roach and fly activity. No 1 Jin Jin Kitchen at 1239 Ariana St in Lakeland was closed for roach activity alone.
October 7 was the busiest single day of the period, with twelve facilities closed statewide. Thai Cuisine and Noodle House at 11701 San Jose Blvd in Jacksonville was hit with both roach and rodent citations. Asian Fusion Buffet at 117 Harbor Village Ln in Apollo Beach was closed for roach and fly activity. World Tennis Club at 4802 Airport Rd in Naples, another private club dining operation, was ordered shut for rodent activity.
Nawabi Hyderabad House Biryani Place at 4225 W Lake Mary Blvd in Lake Mary was closed for rodent and fly activity. Gaspar Patio Bar and Grille at 8448 N 56 St in Temple Terrace and Copp Winery and Brewery at 7855 W Gulf to Lake Hwy in Crystal River were both ordered closed for rodent activity.
Amar Orlando at 8001 S Orange Blossom Trl in Orlando was shuttered for roach activity. Northside Asian Kitchen at 6737 US Hwy 98 N in Lakeland and China One at 15711 Sheridan St in Davie were both closed for roach activity; neither had a URL in state records. Winghouse Bar and Grill at 250 N Atlantic Ave in Daytona Beach was also cited for roach activity and ordered closed that day.
The Grill at Stonegate Golf Club in Poinciana and The Buccaneer Restaurant at 142 Lake Dr in Palm Beach Shores were both closed for fly activity on October 7, making them two of only three fly-primary closures in the entire period.
October 6 brought four more closures. Panhandlers at 3008 Hwy 98 in Santa Rosa Beach was ordered closed for rodent activity. La Carreta Mia at Miami International Airport's Concourse D was cited for rodent and fly activity, making it one of the busiest public transit food operations to close in the period. Bamboo Creek China Bistro at 800 Belle Terre Pkwy in Palm Coast was closed for roach activity. Loading Zone at 24 E Washington St in Orlando was shut for rodent activity. Harpoon Harry's Crab House at 225 S Franklin St in Tampa was also closed that day, for roach activity in its downtown waterfront location.
The October 5 openings of the period included some of the most recognizable names. The Dunkin' at 1329 E Oak St in Arcadia was emergency-closed for roach and fly activity, one of the few national chain locations in the two-week dataset. Knife Steak House at 1455 NW 107 Ave in Doral, a higher-end dining concept, was closed for roach activity. Sawa at 360 San Lorenzo Ave in Coral Gables and Sushi Sake at 9565 SW 72 St in Miami were also shuttered, for roach and fly activity respectively. Lucille's at 4831 San Juan Ave in Jacksonville and La Union Restaurant of Fla at 998 S State Rd 7 in Margate were both ordered closed for roach activity and combined roach and fly activity. U Restaurant and Cool Beans Café at 3505 S Northlake Blvd in Altamonte Springs was closed for roach activity. Metro Diner at 4726 Cortez Rd W in Bradenton, a regional chain location, was ordered closed for rodent activity and reopened by 8:09 a.m., the earliest confirmed reopening of any facility in the entire period.
What These Violations Mean
Live roach activity during a health inspection is not the same as finding a single roach in a corner. When inspectors cite roach activity as grounds for emergency closure, they are documenting evidence of an established infestation, typically live insects observed in food preparation or storage areas, in equipment, or in areas where cross-contamination with food contact surfaces is direct and immediate. Roaches carry bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli on their bodies and in their digestive tracts, depositing them on surfaces, equipment, and food as they move.
Rodent activity carries a distinct risk profile. Rodents urinate continuously as they travel, and their droppings and urine can contaminate food and surfaces with pathogens including Salmonella and Hantavirus. A rodent presence also implies entry points in the building's structure, meaning the animal has repeated access, not a single intrusion. The closures at Metro Diner in Bradenton, Gaspar Patio Bar and Grille in Temple Terrace, and Copp Winery and Brewery in Crystal River all involved rodent activity as the sole documented pest category, which inspectors treat as sufficient grounds for immediate closure without needing a secondary infestation present.
Fly activity, when cited as an emergency closure trigger, typically involves quantities and locations that create a direct contamination pathway to food. The closures at Baci Beachside in Satellite Beach and La Carreta Mia at Miami International Airport both combined rodent and fly citations, compounding the contamination risk across two separate vectors simultaneously.
The combination closures, where inspectors documented roaches and rodents together, represent the most serious tier. Call Street Café in Starke, which drew citations for all three pest categories in a single visit, and Miami Shores Golf Club, which was closed for both roach and rodent activity, faced conditions where multiple contamination pathways were active at the same time.
The Longer Record
Most of the 31 facilities in this period reopened the same day they were closed, often within hours of the initial order. Metro Diner in Bradenton reopened at 8:09 a.m. La Union Restaurant of Fla in Margate reopened at 8:34 a.m. Call Street Café in Starke, despite drawing all three pest categories, had cleared inspectors by 8:10 a.m. the following morning. The speed of those reopenings reflects the state's framework: closures require the operator to address the documented violation and pass a follow-up inspection, not to complete a structural remediation.
The presence of two golf club dining operations, Miami Shores Golf Club and the Grill at Stonegate in Poinciana, in the same two-week closure list is notable. Private club dining rooms typically operate with smaller customer volumes and less public scrutiny than street-facing restaurants, and their appearance in emergency closure records often surprises members who assume the setting implies higher standards. Both facilities reopened the same day they were closed.
The airport closure, La Carreta Mia in Concourse D at Miami International, carries its own significance. Airport food service operations serve a transient population with no ability to track illness back to a specific meal, which makes contamination events at those locations particularly difficult to trace if a customer falls sick after leaving the terminal.
Knife Steak House in Doral, a higher-price-point concept, reopened at 12:13 p.m. on October 5, roughly five hours after closure. Sawa in Coral Gables reopened at 1:04 p.m. the same day. The Dunkin' in Arcadia, which combined roach and fly activity, reopened at 9:25 a.m.
The Unresolved Picture
Northside Asian Kitchen in Lakeland and China One in Davie both appear in the October 7 closure list with no corresponding state record URL in the inspection database, which limits the public's ability to review their prior inspection histories online. Both were closed for roach activity. Both reportedly reopened the same day.
The Winghouse Bar and Grill in Daytona Beach, a chain with multiple Florida locations, was ordered closed for roach activity on October 7 and did not reopen until 3:41 p.m., the latest reopening time recorded for any roach-related closure in the entire two-week period. What inspectors found during that nearly eight-hour gap between closure and clearance is not reflected in the summary data available.
