ST. PETERSBURG, FL. State inspectors emergency-closed Getaway on Gandy Boulevard on August 12, ordering the restaurant vacated after documenting rodent activity, roach activity, and fly activity on the premises at 13090 Gandy Blvd.
The closure was the third emergency shutdown at this location on record.
What Inspectors Found
The August 12 inspection documented three high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. The state ordered the facility vacated by August 13.
Inspectors returned the following morning. The follow-up inspection on August 13 found one remaining high-severity violation: the person in charge was not present or not performing their duties. The facility was cleared to reopen at 9:25 a.m.
What These Violations Mean
Rodent, roach, and fly activity in a food service environment is not a housekeeping problem. It is a direct contamination pathway. Rodents leave droppings and urine on food contact surfaces, in dry storage, and on equipment. Roaches carry pathogens including Salmonella and E. coli on their bodies and deposit them wherever they travel. Flies land on food and surfaces interchangeably, transferring bacteria from waste and decaying matter directly onto anything a customer might eat.
That combination, all three pest categories documented in a single inspection, is the kind of finding that warrants an immediate shutdown rather than a correction notice. The state's emergency closure authority exists precisely for situations where the risk cannot wait for a scheduled follow-up.
The violation documented on the reopening inspection adds a separate concern. When a person in charge is not present or not actively performing their duties, the facility has no one accountable for ensuring food handling procedures, temperatures, and hygiene standards are being followed in real time. CDC research shows that establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at roughly three times the rate of those with engaged oversight. Finding that violation the morning after an emergency closure, during the inspection that would determine whether the restaurant could reopen, raises a straightforward question about who was running the kitchen on the night the pests were found.
The Pattern
The August 12 closure was not a surprise in the context of this facility's record. Getaway has 52 inspections on file and 567 total violations documented over its history as a permanent food service establishment.
The two prior emergency closures are instructive. On April 6, 2021, the state shut the facility down for rodent and fly activity. It reopened the same day. On June 29, 2021, inspectors returned and found the same conditions: rodent and fly activity. The facility was closed and reopened again the same day.
Both 2021 closures cited the identical violation categories as the August 2026 closure. The pest problem that forced a third shutdown was documented in the same terms as the pest problems that forced the first two.
The Longer Record
The inspection history at Getaway shows a facility that has cycled between compliance and serious violations with regularity. The August 2025 inspection found six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. A follow-up in October 2025 showed zero violations at either level. By February 2026, the facility was back to three high-severity violations and two intermediate violations on February 11, then a single high-severity on February 24.
The June 2026 inspection found three more high-severity violations. The April 2026 inspection found none.
That alternating pattern, clean inspections followed by clusters of serious violations, runs through the facility's recent history. The August 2026 closure is the most severe outcome in that cycle, but it is not an outlier. It is the third time the cycle has ended in an emergency shutdown.
Getaway: Emergency Closures on Record
Getaway has 567 total violations across 52 inspections. That averages to nearly 11 violations per inspection over the life of the facility's record, though the distribution is uneven. Some inspections have found none. Others have found clusters of serious citations in the same categories, pest activity and management oversight, that appear again and again.
The facility reopened at 9:25 a.m. on August 13. The high-severity violation still on the books at that moment, no person in charge present or performing duties, was documented during the inspection that cleared it to resume service.
