DAYTONA BEACH, FL. State inspectors ordered Ichi Ni San at 246 S Beach Street closed on May 27 after finding evidence of rodent activity inside the restaurant, triggering an emergency shutdown that marked the facility's third forced closure since 2019.
Inspectors documented the rodent activity during a visit that also produced nine high-severity violations and four intermediate violations in a single inspection. A second inspection the same day found four additional high-severity violations and two more intermediate ones. By the time inspectors returned on May 28, the violation count had dropped to one high-severity and two intermediate, and the restaurant was cleared to reopen at 4:41 p.m.
What Inspectors Found
Ichi Ni San: Recent Inspection Severity
The closure-triggering violation was rodent activity, a finding that state inspectors treat as an immediate public health threat requiring the facility to stop serving customers. Alongside the rodent finding, the May 28 follow-up inspection that cleared the restaurant for reopening still documented a high-severity violation for toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, along with two intermediate violations: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
The chemical storage citation was still present after the shutdown. Inspectors documented that toxic chemicals were stored or labeled in a way that created a contamination risk near food.
The Violations That Remained
Improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals represent a distinct hazard from the rodent problem that triggered the closure. The utensil cleaning citation, classified intermediate, pointed to a separate ongoing maintenance issue in the kitchen.
Even after a day of corrective work sufficient to satisfy inspectors on the rodent problem, three violations remained at the time of reopening. The restaurant was permitted to resume operations with those issues still on the books.
What These Violations Mean
Rodent activity is one of a short list of findings that automatically justify an emergency closure under Florida food safety rules, because rodents carry pathogens that spread directly to food surfaces, preparation equipment, and stored ingredients. Unlike a temperature violation that can be corrected by adjusting a cooler, rodent activity signals that the facility's physical barriers, sanitation practices, and pest control protocols have all failed at once. Customers eating at a restaurant with active rodent presence have no way of knowing which surfaces, utensils, or ingredients have been contaminated.
The improperly stored chemicals citation documented on May 28 carries a separate and acute risk. Chemicals stored near food, or stored in unlabeled containers, can cause direct poisoning if they contact food or are mistaken for food-safe products. That violation was present after the restaurant had already spent time correcting the conditions that caused the closure.
Improperly cleaned multi-use utensils, the intermediate violation also noted on May 28, allow bacterial biofilms to develop on surfaces that touch food repeatedly throughout a service. Those biofilms are resistant to standard cleaning once established, meaning the problem compounds over time rather than resolving between shifts.
The Longer Record
The May 27 closure was not the first time state inspectors have shut down this address for pest activity. On August 15, 2019, inspectors ordered Ichi Ni San closed for roach and rodent activity. The restaurant reopened the same day. That closure came seven years before this one, and the category of violation, rodent presence, was identical.
Across 28 inspections on record, the facility has accumulated 276 total violations. That volume, spread over the inspection history, averages nearly 10 violations per visit. The most recent eight inspections before the May 2026 closure each produced at least three high-severity violations, and four of those eight visits documented nine or more high-severity violations in a single inspection.
The October 2025 inspection found 11 high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The December 2024 inspection found 11 high-severity and five intermediate violations. The April 2024 inspection found nine high-severity and four intermediate violations. In none of those visits did the violation count drop below three high-severity citations.
This is the restaurant's third emergency closure overall. The first was in 2019 for roaches and rodents. The second and third both occurred in 2026, with the most recent closure on May 27 again attributed to rodent activity. The pattern across those three closures is consistent: pest activity, same-day or next-day reopening, and a return to high violation counts at subsequent inspections.
The May 28 inspection that allowed the restaurant to reopen still found one high-severity violation on the books. Whether inspectors will return to verify that the chemical storage issue and the utensil cleaning citation have been resolved is not reflected in the available records.