FORT MYERS, FL. State inspectors ordered Nardette Take Out Restaurant on Fowler Street closed on September 17, 2026, after documenting active roach activity inside the facility, records show.
The closure order required the restaurant to vacate by September 18. It did not take that long. State records show Nardette Take Out Restaurant was cleared to reopen the same day, at 2:58 p.m.
What Inspectors Found
Active roach activity was the sole documented reason the state ordered Nardette Take Out Restaurant shut down on September 17, 2026.
The closure record lists a single cause: roach activity. State inspectors determined the infestation was serious enough to warrant an emergency shutdown rather than a standard citation and scheduled follow-up.
Emergency closures for pest activity are not issued for a single roach spotted near a door. When inspectors use this trigger, it reflects conditions they judge to pose an immediate risk to anyone eating at the facility.
The restaurant is licensed as a take-out operation, meaning food preparation was occurring on-site. Roach activity in a food prep environment is not a background nuisance. It is a direct contamination pathway.
What This Means
Cockroaches carry bacteria on their bodies and in their digestive tracts, including salmonella and E. coli. They move between sewage, trash, and food contact surfaces. Every surface they cross becomes a potential transfer point.
In a take-out kitchen, that risk is compressed. Food is prepared, packaged, and handed directly to customers. There is no table service, no intermediate step where contamination might be noticed. What comes out of the kitchen goes straight into someone's hands.
That is why Florida inspectors have authority to close a facility immediately when they observe live pest activity rather than issuing a warning and scheduling a return visit. The standard is not "could this eventually cause a problem." The standard is whether the condition poses a risk to the public right now.
Nardette Take Out was ordered vacated by September 18. The same-day reopening at 2:58 p.m. means inspectors returned, conducted a follow-up inspection, and determined the facility had addressed the roach activity to a level that met state standards. What specific remediation was completed in those hours is not detailed in the available records.
The Longer Record
The state inspection database shows zero prior inspections on record for Nardette Take Out Restaurant at 3082 Fowler Street. Zero prior violations. Zero prior emergency closures.
That is a notable gap. A facility with no inspection history is not the same as a facility with a clean inspection history. It means there is no documented baseline, no record of what inspectors have previously found or not found inside this kitchen.
The September 17 closure is, by the available record, the first time state inspectors formally documented conditions at this address. That the first documented inspection resulted in an emergency closure is the only data point the record currently provides.
Whether the roach activity was a sudden infestation or a long-standing condition that had never been inspected is a question the available records cannot answer.
The Reopening
The confirmed reopen time of 2:58 p.m. on September 17 is specific. It means inspectors returned to the Fowler Street location within hours of the morning closure and cleared the facility to resume operations.
A same-day reopening after an emergency roach closure requires that the immediate pest activity be addressed to the inspector's satisfaction. It does not necessarily mean a licensed pest control treatment was completed, only that the conditions that triggered the closure were no longer present at the time of the follow-up visit.
What the record does not show is what follow-up inspections, if any, are scheduled in the weeks ahead. A facility that earns an emergency closure on its first documented inspection, then reopens the same afternoon, enters a period where the inspection history that follows will matter considerably.
As of the most recent data available, Nardette Take Out Restaurant at 3082 Fowler Street had been open for less than a day after its first emergency closure. Whether the roach activity that triggered the shutdown has been fully resolved, or whether it resurfaces in a subsequent inspection, remains undocumented.
