ORLANDO, FL. Live roach activity inside the sandwich prep area forced state inspectors to emergency-close a Jersey Mike's Subs on Orlando's Conroy Road on August 7, ordering the restaurant vacated by the following morning.
The location at 6700 Conroy Rd Ste 100A passed a follow-up inspection the next day and reopened at 8:43 a.m. on August 8. But the closure was not an isolated event. State records show this is the second emergency shutdown at that address.
What Inspectors Found
Jersey Mike's Conroy Rd: Recent Inspection Severity
The August 7 inspection that triggered the closure recorded one intermediate violation alongside the roach activity that prompted the shutdown order. The follow-up inspection on August 8 recorded zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations, clearing the restaurant to reopen.
The roach finding alone was enough for inspectors to pull the plug. Under Florida's emergency closure authority, a facility can be ordered shut immediately when inspectors determine that conditions pose an imminent public health hazard. Active pest activity in a food preparation environment meets that threshold.
What This Violation Means
Roaches in a food service environment are not a housekeeping problem. They are a direct contamination risk. Cockroaches carry pathogens including Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria on their bodies and legs, and they deposit those pathogens on every surface they cross, including prep surfaces, bread, and sandwich ingredients.
At a sub shop, the exposure risk is immediate. Ingredients that go directly onto sandwiches without further cooking have no heat-kill step to eliminate contamination picked up from a roach-traveled surface. A customer eating a cold-cut sub has no protection against whatever a roach walked across before the meat was sliced or the bread was set down.
That is why Florida law gives inspectors authority to close a restaurant on the spot when live roach activity is observed, without waiting for a follow-up or a warning. The risk is not theoretical. It is present in real time, in the food being assembled for the next customer in line.
The fact that the August 8 follow-up found zero violations across all severity levels suggests the roach activity was addressed overnight. But a clean follow-up inspection does not mean the underlying conditions that allowed roaches to appear have been permanently resolved. It means the restaurant met minimum standards on that specific morning.
The Longer Record
Twenty inspections over the life of this location have produced 132 total violations on record. That volume places this Jersey Mike's well above what would be expected for a franchise sandwich shop operating in a strip mall environment with standardized corporate procedures.
The inspection on July 21, 2025 stands out. Inspectors cited eight high-severity violations and five intermediate violations in a single visit, the most serious single inspection in the location's recorded history. High-severity violations are the category reserved for findings that pose the most direct risk of foodborne illness, including temperature failures, contamination, and improper food handling. Eight in one visit is a significant finding for any restaurant, and for a national sandwich chain operating under corporate food safety guidelines, it is a notable departure.
The pattern going back further is consistent. The February 2022 inspection produced five high-severity violations. The August 2021 inspection produced three. The November 2022 inspection produced two. There has not been a stretch in the inspection record where this location sustained a prolonged run of clean or near-clean visits.
This is also not the first time the Conroy Road location has been emergency-closed. Records show one prior emergency closure before August 2026, making the August 7 shutdown the second time state inspectors have determined conditions at this address posed an imminent enough hazard to order the doors shut.
The Pattern
Two emergency closures at the same address is a specific fact that the inspection record supports. The question the record raises is whether the corrective actions taken after each closure addressed the conditions that led to it, or whether they addressed only the immediate finding visible to inspectors on the follow-up day.
The July 2025 inspection, coming roughly a year before the August 2026 closure, produced the worst violation count in the location's history. That inspection did not result in an emergency closure. The August 2026 inspection, which produced fewer total violations but included active roach activity, did.
The restaurant reopened the morning of August 8 with a clean inspection. Whether the conditions that allowed roaches to be present on August 7 have been fully corrected, or whether they surface again in a future routine inspection, will show up in the next visit to this address.
