GAINESVILLE, FL. Back in February 2026, state inspectors ordered La Pasadita on NW 6th Street closed after documenting rodent activity at the restaurant, triggering the facility's fourth emergency shutdown on record and its third for the same reason in less than five months.
The closure order came on February 18. Inspectors found nine high-severity violations and six intermediate violations that day, the same volume of serious citations the restaurant had accumulated during its previous emergency closure in October 2025.
What Inspectors Found
La Pasadita Emergency Closures, 2019–2026
The February 18 inspection produced a list that extended well beyond the rodent finding. Inspectors cited the restaurant for food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, a violation that flags cutting boards, prep surfaces, and equipment as potential vehicles for bacterial transfer from one food item to the next.
Inspectors also documented improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning employees were attempting to wash their hands but doing so incorrectly, leaving pathogens behind. That is a distinct finding from failing to wash hands at all.
Two additional high-severity violations rounded out the closure-day record: toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. The chemical storage citation carries a direct risk of acute poisoning if improperly labeled or positioned containers contaminate food or food surfaces.
The intermediate violations included improper sewage or waste water disposal and the reuse of single-use items. Both are categorized below the high-severity threshold but carry documented contamination risks.
A follow-up inspection on February 19 found nine high-severity violations and five intermediate violations still present. By February 20, the count had dropped to four high-severity and two intermediate violations, and the restaurant was cleared to reopen at 8:59 a.m. that day.
What These Violations Mean
Rodent activity is one of the conditions Florida regulators treat as grounds for immediate closure without warning. The reason is direct: rodents move through a facility continuously, contaminating surfaces, food, and equipment with urine, droppings, and fur. Unlike a temperature violation that affects a specific container of food, an active rodent presence means the contamination is effectively facility-wide and ongoing.
The hand-washing technique violation documented at La Pasadita on February 18 is worth separating from a simple failure to wash. When an inspector cites improper technique, it means the handwashing motion was observed but performed incorrectly, not long enough, not covering all surfaces, or missing critical contact points. The result is the same as not washing: pathogens from raw meat, waste, or other sources remain on hands that then touch food, utensils, and prep surfaces.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces compound that risk. Cutting boards and prep tables that carry residue from prior use become transfer points for bacteria between proteins, between raw and ready-to-eat foods, and between preparation sessions. Combined with a rodent-active environment, those surfaces represent multiple simultaneous contamination pathways.
The sewage disposal violation is the most acute of the intermediate citations. Improper handling of wastewater creates fecal contamination risk across the facility, and in a kitchen already cited for surface sanitation failures, that exposure is not contained.
The Longer Record
La Pasadita's inspection history at the NW 6th Street address spans 48 inspections and 397 total violations. That volume alone places it among the more heavily documented facilities in Alachua County, but the pattern within those inspections tells a more specific story.
The restaurant was first emergency-closed in December 2019, that time for roach activity. It took nearly six years before the next closure, but then three arrived in rapid succession: July 2025, October 2025, and February 2026, all for rodent activity.
What makes the July-to-October-to-February sequence notable is the inspection record bracketing each closure. After the July 2025 shutdown, a follow-up inspection on July 22 found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations, a clean bill that allowed reopening. The same outcome followed the October closure: zero violations on October 21. And after February's closure, the restaurant cleared inspection on February 20 with a reduced but not eliminated violation count.
The pattern is consistent across all three 2025-2026 closures: a high-violation emergency inspection, a rapid remediation sufficient to reopen, and then, months later, another emergency closure for the same underlying condition.
The October 2025 inspection before that month's closure found seven high-severity and seven intermediate violations. The July 2025 pre-closure inspection found ten high-severity and five intermediate violations. Both were the worst inspection results of their respective quarters, and both were followed by a clean follow-up the next day.
The Reopening
The facility was licensed for permanent food service and was cleared to reopen on the morning of February 20, 2026, roughly 36 hours after the closure order. The February 20 follow-up still carried four high-severity violations and two intermediate violations at the time of clearance.
Whether those remaining violations were resolved in a subsequent inspection is not reflected in the data on record. La Pasadita had accumulated 397 documented violations across 48 inspections before this closure. The February 2026 shutdown was its fourth.