LAKE WORTH, FL. State inspectors ordered Marco's Pizza #8477 on Hypoluxo Road closed on June 18 after documenting rodent and fly activity at the Lake Worth location, according to Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation records. The closure was the franchise's second emergency shutdown on record.
The restaurant, at 8955 Hypoluxo Rd B3, was ordered vacated by June 19. It reopened the same day at 9:00 a.m., records show.
What Inspectors Found
Marco's Pizza #8477: Inspection History
The June 18 inspection that triggered the closure resulted in one high-severity violation and two intermediate violations. Inspectors documented both rodent and fly activity inside the facility, findings serious enough to warrant an immediate emergency shutdown order.
The follow-up inspection on June 19 cleared the rodent and fly issues but still found one high-severity violation: food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized. That finding is what allowed the restaurant to reopen, with the remaining violation on record.
What These Violations Mean
Rodent activity inside a food service facility is one of the fastest triggers for an emergency closure under Florida law, and for specific reasons. Rodents contaminate surfaces, packaging and food directly through droppings, urine and hair, and they carry bacteria including salmonella and leptospira. A customer eating food that has contacted a contaminated surface would have no way of knowing.
Fly activity compounds that risk. Flies move between waste, drains and food preparation surfaces within seconds, transferring bacteria on contact. When inspectors document flies in a kitchen alongside rodent activity, the two findings together indicate a breakdown in multiple layers of sanitation and pest control simultaneously.
The high-severity violation that remained after reopening adds a separate concern. Improperly cleaned or sanitized food contact surfaces, including cutting boards, prep tables and equipment that touches food directly, are a primary vehicle for bacterial transfer between raw and ready-to-eat items. That violation was present on both the closure date and the follow-up inspection the next morning.
The Longer Record
Seven inspections are on record for this location since it first appeared in state records in September 2023. For the first year and a half, the record looked unremarkable. The September 2023 and April 2024 inspections produced zero violations each. A February 2024 visit found one intermediate violation.
The pattern shifted in 2025 and accelerated in 2026. The March 2025 inspection found two intermediate violations. The April 2026 inspection produced a high-severity violation with no intermediate violations alongside it. Then came June 18.
What the record shows is a location that passed its earliest inspections cleanly and has accumulated its most serious findings in the most recent 15 months. The June 2026 closure is the second emergency shutdown this location has on record, which means state inspectors have now twice determined conditions there posed an immediate threat to public health.
Thirteen total violations are documented across seven inspections. Three of those inspections produced high-severity findings, all of them within the last 14 months.
The restaurant reopened June 19 with a high-severity violation still unresolved on the inspection report.