TAMPA, FL. Back in February 2026, state inspectors walked into Marco's Pizza 8012 on W. Gandy Boulevard and found enough evidence of rodent activity to order the restaurant shut down on the spot.
The closure was ordered February 24. Inspectors gave the location until February 26 to correct conditions before any reinspection. The restaurant did reopen, records show, clearing a follow-up inspection later that same day.
But the February closure was not the end of the story.
What Inspectors Found
Marco's Pizza 8012: Recent Inspection Record
The February emergency closure was triggered by rodent activity, the specific finding inspectors documented to justify ordering the restaurant vacated. Records do not specify the exact number of rodents or droppings found, but the finding was serious enough to warrant an emergency shutdown rather than a standard warning or citation.
Two days of follow-up inspections followed. On February 25, one intermediate violation remained. By February 26, the location cleared inspection entirely, with zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations on record.
The restaurant reopened at 2:57 p.m. that day.
Then April Happened
Two months after the closure, inspectors returned for a routine visit on April 27, 2026. They cited one high-severity violation: no approved potable water supply.
That is a different category of problem from rodent activity entirely.
The citation means inspectors found the restaurant operating without access to water that met state standards for use in a food establishment. State records classify this under water contamination risk, with potential exposure to E. coli, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Legionella.
No intermediate violations were cited during the April visit. Just the one high-severity finding, standing on its own.
What These Violations Mean
Rodent activity in a food establishment is an emergency-level finding because rodents do not stay in one place. They move through walls, across prep surfaces, into stored food and packaging. Their droppings and urine contaminate surfaces that workers and customers may never see. A single confirmed rodent presence can mean widespread contamination of areas that look clean.
That is why Florida law allows inspectors to order an immediate closure rather than schedule a return visit. The risk is not theoretical. It is present and ongoing until the source is eliminated and the facility is sanitized.
The April finding, no approved potable water supply, carries a different but equally serious set of risks. Water is used in nearly every step of food preparation at a pizza restaurant: dough mixing, sauce preparation, handwashing, equipment cleaning, dish sanitization. Water that has not been verified as potable can carry E. coli, which causes severe gastrointestinal illness. It can carry Cryptosporidium and Giardia, both of which are resistant to some standard disinfection methods. Legionella, associated with water systems, causes a form of pneumonia.
A restaurant operating without an approved potable water supply is, in practical terms, operating without a verified safe foundation for any of the food it serves.
The Longer Record
The February 2026 closure was not Marco's Pizza 8012's first. State records show the W. Gandy Boulevard location has one prior emergency closure on record before February 2026, meaning this location has now been emergency-closed at least twice in its operating history.
Across 20 total inspections on record, the facility has accumulated 74 total violations. That averages to 3.7 violations per inspection visit, though the distribution has not been even.
The two years immediately before the February closure showed a pattern of recurring high-severity findings. Inspectors cited one high-severity violation in January 2024 and again in July 2024. The February 2026 closure came roughly seven months after that July visit.
The July 2025 inspection, roughly midway between the 2024 findings and the February closure, showed only one intermediate violation, no high-severity citations. That relatively clean visit did not hold.
The April 2026 high-severity finding for no approved potable water supply adds a new violation category to the location's record. Prior high-severity citations from 2024 are not detailed in the available data, but the April finding represents the first documented water supply violation in the recent inspection history.
Twenty inspections. Seventy-four violations. Two emergency closures. And a high-severity citation two months after the most recent shutdown.
The April 27 inspection record does not indicate whether a follow-up visit was required or scheduled. Whether the water supply violation was corrected, and when, is not confirmed in the available data.