KEY WEST, FL. State inspectors ordered Ocean Grill at 1075 Duval Street closed on August 25 after finding roach activity inside the kitchen, the fourth time in the restaurant's documented history that inspectors have pulled its license to operate.
The closure order gave the restaurant until August 28 to correct the conditions. Inspectors returned that day and cleared the facility to reopen at 1:10 p.m.
What Inspectors Found
Ocean Grill: Recent Inspection History
The closure on August 25 came with six high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. A follow-up inspection the next day found five high-severity violations and three intermediate violations still unresolved, meaning inspectors returned to a facility that had been ordered closed and found it still failing on five counts that regulators classify as the most serious category of food safety risk.
By August 28, the number had dropped to one high-severity and one intermediate violation. That remaining high-severity violation was the absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, a disclosure the state requires to be posted on menus wherever items like rare beef, raw oysters, or undercooked eggs are served.
The intermediate violation was inadequate ventilation and lighting. Inspectors noted that poor ventilation allows grease-laden vapors, carbon monoxide, smoke, and steam to accumulate in the kitchen.
What These Violations Mean
Roach activity is one of a small number of conditions that Florida law treats as grounds for immediate emergency closure, without warning and without a correction window. The reason is direct: cockroaches travel between sewage, garbage, and food preparation surfaces, carrying pathogens on their legs and bodies. A single roach in a kitchen is a contamination event, not a maintenance issue.
The consumer advisory violation found on August 28 carries its own distinct risk. When a restaurant serves raw or undercooked animal products and does not disclose that fact on the menu, customers who are elderly, pregnant, immunocompromised, or very young cannot make an informed decision about what they order. If someone in those groups eats a dish they did not know was served undercooked and becomes ill, there is no documented warning that would have allowed them to choose otherwise.
The ventilation citation compounds the pest problem. Grease accumulation in ductwork and on surfaces is a food source for insects. A kitchen with inadequate ventilation is, over time, a kitchen that becomes harder to keep clean.
The Longer Record
The August 25 closure was not the first time regulators have shut Ocean Grill down for pest activity, and it was not even the first time this year that inspectors found six high-severity violations in a single visit.
The most recent prior closure came on July 16, 2025, when inspectors documented rodent activity, roach activity, and fly activity simultaneously. The restaurant was cleared to reopen two days later, on July 18, 2025. A closure before that, in March 2017, was for rodent activity, and records do not confirm whether the restaurant was ever formally cleared to reopen from that shutdown.
Across 39 inspections on record, the facility has accumulated 526 total violations. That figure spans multiple inspection cycles and includes the four emergency closures now on record at the address.
The pattern in the recent inspection data is consistent. In February 2026, inspectors found six high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. In April 2026, they found four high-severity and one intermediate. In July 2025, three high-severity and three intermediate violations preceded the emergency closure that month. The August 25 closure arrived with the same count as February: six high-severity, three intermediate.
None of those interim inspections resulted in a closure. The August 25 shutdown came because roach activity, specifically, crossed the threshold that triggers immediate action under state rules.
The Pattern
Three of Ocean Grill's four documented emergency closures have involved pest activity, either roaches, rodents, or flies, or some combination. The July 2025 closure involved all three.
The interval between the July 2025 closure and the August 2026 closure was roughly thirteen months. In that span, inspectors visited the restaurant multiple times and cited high-severity violations on every visit for which records exist.
As of August 28, the restaurant had been cleared to operate. One high-severity violation, the missing consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, remained on the books at the time inspectors signed off on the reopening.
Whether that violation has since been corrected is not reflected in the available records.
