FLORIDA. State inspectors emergency-closed 18 restaurants across Florida between August 4 and August 10, 2026, and 17 of those shutdowns came down to one thing: pests. Roaches, rodents, and flies triggered closures from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale, with a single seafood restaurant on the Gulf Coast earning the distinction of being shut down for all three at the same time.
The Week's Worst
Shells of St Pete Beach, at 7081 Gulf Blvd, was closed on August 7 with inspectors documenting rodent, roach, and fly activity simultaneously. It is the only restaurant this week cited for all three pest categories in a single inspection, and it reopened the same day at 12:24 p.m.
Orlando led all cities with five closures in seven days. Juicy Crab on International Drive was shut down August 7 for roach and fly activity, reopening at 11:17 a.m. That same morning, Jersey Mike's Subs on Conroy Road was closed for roach activity and back open by 8:43 a.m., the fastest turnaround of the entire week.
Three more Orlando restaurants had been closed earlier in the week. Castello's Pizza on Conroy Windermere Road was shut down August 4 for roach activity and did not reopen until 2:18 p.m. that afternoon. Subway Sandwiches and Salads on Conroy Road, less than a mile away, was also closed August 4 for fly activity, reopening at 1:36 p.m. Hooters on Palm Parkway followed on August 5, closed for fly activity and cleared by 1:18 p.m.
Monday's Wave
August 4 produced the week's single busiest day, with six simultaneous closures across four cities. Jacksonville saw two of them.
Apna Addaa, at 8350 Baymeadows Road in Jacksonville, was shut down for roach activity and cleared by 8:05 a.m., the earliest reopening time recorded this week. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at 6310 103rd Street in Jacksonville was also closed August 4 for roach activity, reopening by 8:58 a.m.
In Tampa, DeVito's Italian Specialties at 200 N. Tampa Street was closed August 4 for roach activity. It reopened at 1:50 p.m.
Rotis Indian Restaurant on U.S. Highway 301 in Riverview was also closed that Monday for rodent and fly activity. Its reopening time of 4:08 p.m. was the latest of any closure this week, suggesting inspectors or operators needed more time to address what was found.
Mid-Week Findings
Tuesday, August 5, brought four more closures in three counties. Cypress Creek Golf Club in Sun City Center was shut down for rodent and fly activity, an unusual setting given that golf club dining rooms typically serve a limited, older clientele with high expectations for cleanliness. It reopened at 9:29 a.m.
Café Bich Nga on Park Boulevard in Pinellas Park was closed the same day for rodent and fly activity, reopening at 12:24 p.m.
Maggie McFly's in Port St. Lucie was closed August 5 for fly activity and cleared by 10:41 a.m.
Wednesday, August 6, brought two closures. Yellow Tail Subs Grill Inc., at 27275 S. Dixie Highway in Homestead, was shut down for roach and fly activity. No reopening time appears in state records for Yellow Tail Subs Grill, making it the only closure this week without a confirmed return to operation.
Tacombi at 3930 NE 2nd Avenue in Miami was closed the same day for rodent and fly activity. It reopened at 9:21 a.m. Thursday.
Thursday, August 7, was the week's second-busiest day with six closures. In addition to Shells of St Pete Beach, Juicy Crab, and Jersey Mike's, inspectors closed Sugar Bae at 8253 Sunset Strip in Fort Lauderdale for roach activity. Sugar Bae reopened at 12:37 p.m.
Pit Boss Bar B Que and Pub on Little Road in New Port Richey was closed August 7 for rodent and fly activity, reopening at 9:13 a.m.
Mil Amores Mexican Food in North Palm Beach was the single outlier in an otherwise pest-dominated week. Inspectors closed it August 7 not for roaches or rodents but for a sewage backup. It reopened at 9:22 a.m.
What These Violations Mean
Roach and rodent activity in a commercial kitchen is not a housekeeping failure. It is a direct contamination pathway. Cockroaches carry Salmonella, E. coli, and other pathogens on their bodies and legs, and they move between drains, garbage, and food-contact surfaces without discrimination. When inspectors document live roach activity, as they did at DeVito's Italian Specialties, Castello's Pizza, Jersey Mike's, Sugar Bae, Juicy Crab, and both Jacksonville restaurants this week, they are documenting an active route from waste to food.
Rodents carry a separate and overlapping set of risks. Rodent droppings and urine can contaminate food and surfaces with Hantavirus, Leptospirosis, and Salmonella. Rotis Indian Restaurant, Café Bich Nga, Cypress Creek Golf Club, Pit Boss Bar B Que and Pub, Shells of St Pete Beach, and Tacombi were all closed this week for rodent activity, in some cases alongside fly infestations.
Flies are often treated as a lesser violation, but their biology makes them acutely dangerous. A fly that lands on food has almost certainly landed on something fecal before it got there. Flies were a factor in at least ten of this week's seventeen pest closures, including at Hooters, Subway, and Maggie McFly's, where fly activity alone was enough to trigger the shutdown.
The sewage backup at Mil Amores in North Palm Beach represents a different but equally serious category. Sewage in a food preparation environment contaminates surfaces, equipment, and potentially food with fecal bacteria. It also renders handwashing stations inoperable or unreliable, removing the primary barrier between contaminated hands and the food being served.
The Longer Record
Most of this week's closures came and went in a single business day, with operators clearing violations quickly enough to reopen before lunch or dinner service. That speed of resolution is worth noting, but it does not erase the fact that inspectors found conditions serious enough to pull the operating license in the first place.
Several of the restaurants involved are established locations with years of inspection history in state records. Shells of St Pete Beach, which drew the week's most serious citation with all three pest categories present, operates at an address that has been inspected repeatedly over the years. The same is true for Juicy Crab on International Drive, one of Orlando's highest-traffic tourist corridors, where the volume of customers passing through makes any pest finding especially consequential.
The two Orlando restaurants on Conroy Road, Castello's Pizza and Subway, sit less than a mile apart and were both closed on the same day for separate pest issues. Whether that proximity reflects a shared environmental problem, a shared pest pressure from the surrounding commercial corridor, or independent failures at each location is not something the closure records alone can answer.
Rotis Indian Restaurant in Riverview had the week's latest reopening time, 4:08 p.m. on the day of closure, suggesting the remediation required was more involved than at locations that cleared inspections before 10 a.m. Apna Addaa in Jacksonville, by contrast, was cleared at 8:05 a.m., meaning inspectors arrived, verified corrections, and signed off before most restaurants had begun morning prep.
Yellow Tail Subs Grill in Homestead closed August 6 for roach and fly activity, and as of the data available for this report, no reopening time has been recorded in state records.
