TARPON SPRINGS, FL. Back in February 2026, state inspectors walked into Greeks of Tarpon Springs on North Pinellas Avenue and found enough roach activity to pull the plug on the restaurant by the end of the day.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation ordered the Tarpon Springs eatery at 128 N Pinellas Ave Ste B vacated on February 12, 2026. Records show the restaurant was allowed to reopen later that same afternoon, at 3:54 p.m.
It was the restaurant's fourth emergency closure on record.
What Inspectors Found
Greeks of Tarpon Springs: Emergency Closure History
The February closure was triggered by roach activity, the same finding that had forced the restaurant to close in May 2025. Inspection records from February 12 show inspectors visited the location multiple times that day, logging violations across four separate inspection entries before clearing the restaurant to reopen.
The day-of inspection that preceded the closure documented three high-severity violations. Those included roach activity serious enough to meet the threshold for an emergency shutdown order.
A follow-up inspection the same afternoon recorded no high-severity violations and one intermediate violation, which is what cleared the restaurant to resume service.
The Violations
The February 12 closure was not the only concern the records surface. A prior inspection on February 11 had already flagged four high-severity violations and one intermediate violation at the same location, the day before inspectors returned and ordered it closed.
The most recent inspection on record, from May 6, 2026, shows the pattern continuing. Inspectors documented four high-severity violations and two intermediate violations in one visit that day, and one additional high-severity violation in a separate entry. That inspection also triggered an emergency closure, again for roach activity. It was the third roach-related closure in roughly twelve months.
The May 2026 high-severity violations included a person in charge not present or not performing duties, an employee not reporting symptoms of illness, time as a public health control not properly used, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. Intermediate violations included multi-use utensils not properly cleaned and single-use items being improperly reused.
What These Violations Mean
Roach activity alone is enough under Florida law to warrant an emergency closure, and for good reason. Cockroaches carry bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli on their bodies and legs, depositing those pathogens on food surfaces, prep equipment, and stored ingredients as they move through a kitchen. A single inspection finding of roach activity does not tell you how long the infestation existed before inspectors arrived.
The May 2026 violations add a separate layer of concern. When no person in charge is actively supervising a kitchen, inspectors and public health researchers have documented that critical violations accumulate at a higher rate across the board. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that establishments without active managerial control generate roughly three times as many critical violations as those with engaged supervision.
The employee illness reporting violation is among the most acutely dangerous findings in any inspection report. Food workers who do not report symptoms are the documented primary transmission route for norovirus and other pathogens that cause multi-victim outbreaks. At Greeks of Tarpon Springs, that violation appeared alongside a failure to properly use time as a public health control, meaning food was held in the temperature danger zone between 41 and 135 degrees without adequate safeguards.
Improperly cleaned multi-use utensils, cited as an intermediate violation, carry their own compounding risk. Bacterial biofilms can establish on utensil surfaces within 24 hours of inadequate cleaning and become increasingly resistant to standard sanitizing procedures over time.
The Longer Record
Greeks of Tarpon Springs has 15 inspections on record and 67 total violations documented across those visits. That works out to an average of more than four violations per inspection.
The facility has been emergency-closed four times. Three of those four closures were attributed to roach activity. The May 2025 closure required an overnight correction before the restaurant was cleared to reopen. The February 2026 closure was resolved the same afternoon. The May 2026 closure was also resolved the same day.
The December 2025 inspection is the single most violation-heavy visit in the available record. Inspectors documented eight high-severity violations and one intermediate violation in that visit alone. That inspection came roughly two months before the February 2026 closure.
The pattern across 2025 and into 2026 is one of recurring high-severity findings, repeated closures for the same cause, and same-day or next-day resolutions that clear the restaurant to reopen. Whether those rapid resolutions reflect lasting correction or temporary remediation is a question the May 2026 closure, the fourth on record, leaves open.