MIAMI BEACH, FL. State inspectors ordered Licking South Beach on Washington Avenue closed on August 19 after documenting roach activity inside the restaurant, triggering the facility's second emergency closure in its recorded inspection history.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation issued an order vacating the premises by August 20. The restaurant cleared a follow-up inspection and was allowed to reopen at 10:52 a.m. that same day.
What Inspectors Found
Licking South Beach: Recent Inspection Severity
The August 19 inspection produced four high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. Roach activity was the finding that prompted the closure order, the most serious outcome available to state inspectors short of a criminal referral.
The follow-up inspection on August 20 showed significant improvement. Inspectors documented zero high-severity violations. One intermediate violation remained: single-use items being improperly reused.
That single remaining citation is worth noting. Single-use items, including gloves, cups, utensils, and foil, are designed to be discarded after one use. Reusing them transfers bacteria, allergens, and other contaminants from one food or surface to another, defeating the purpose of the item entirely.
What This Means
Roach activity is one of a small number of conditions that Florida law treats as grounds for immediate emergency closure without prior warning. The reason is direct: cockroaches carry pathogens including Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria on their bodies and in their waste. They travel between drains, garbage, and food preparation surfaces. A customer does not need to see a roach to be exposed to what it leaves behind.
Florida inspectors do not close restaurants for finding a single roach in a corner. An emergency closure for roach activity reflects a finding significant enough that continued operation posed an immediate threat to public health.
The intermediate violation that survived into the August 20 follow-up, the reuse of single-use items, carries its own contamination risk. A glove used on raw protein and then reused on a ready-to-eat item bypasses the entire purpose of the glove. Foil reused across multiple food contacts can transfer whatever it picked up on the first use. These are not paperwork violations. They are direct contamination pathways.
The Longer Record
The August 19 closure did not arrive without warning in the inspection record. Over 22 inspections on file, Licking South Beach has accumulated 190 total violations, an average of more than eight per inspection across its documented history.
Every inspection on record from the past two years has produced high-severity violations. The November 2024 inspection found six high-severity violations and three intermediate violations, the highest combined count in the recent history. The September 2025 inspection also found six high-severity violations. The January 2026 inspection found five.
This was not the facility's first emergency closure. State records show one prior emergency closure in the facility's history before August 19. The August 19 event is the second.
The pattern across the eight most recent inspections is consistent. High-severity violation counts ranged from three to six in every inspection between January 2025 and August 2026. There was no inspection in that stretch that produced zero high-severity findings, until the follow-up on August 20 after the closure had already been ordered.
After the Closure
Licking South Beach passed its follow-up inspection and reopened the morning of August 20. The single intermediate violation that remained, the improper reuse of single-use items, was not classified as a high-severity finding and did not prevent the reopening.
The restaurant has now been closed by state order twice in its 22-inspection history. Both closures are documented in state records. Whether the conditions that produced four high-severity violations on August 19 have been fully corrected, or whether the underlying patterns that generated 190 violations across the facility's history will persist, the inspection record does not yet answer.
The next routine inspection will.
