PERRY, FL. Back in March 2026, state inspectors ordered Old Mexico Mexican Restaurant on South Byron Butler Parkway closed to the public after finding roach activity on the premises, the specific condition that triggered an emergency shutdown order on March 27.
The closure gave the restaurant less than 24 hours to address the problem. Inspectors returned the following morning and cleared the facility to reopen at 10:27 a.m. on March 28.
What Inspectors Found
Old Mexico: Recent Inspection Severity
The closure on March 27 came one day after inspectors had already documented 10 high-severity violations and 7 intermediate violations during a March 26 visit. That single inspection represents one of the heaviest violation loads in the restaurant's recent record.
The roach activity finding on March 27 was enough on its own to justify the emergency order. Inspectors returned to the facility the same day and recorded a separate inspection noting one intermediate violation, suggesting the situation was still being assessed as the closure order took effect.
By the morning of March 28, a follow-up inspection found zero high-severity violations and zero intermediate violations, clearing the path to reopen.
What This Means
Roach activity in a food service environment is treated by state inspectors as an immediate public health threat, not a paperwork violation. Cockroaches carry bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli on their bodies and legs, and they contaminate food surfaces, utensils, and food itself as they move through a kitchen. A customer eating at a restaurant with active roach activity has no way of knowing that the food or the surfaces it touched have been exposed.
The reason inspectors can order an emergency closure for pest activity, without waiting for a scheduled follow-up, is that the risk is ongoing for every customer who walks through the door while the infestation remains. Unlike a temperature violation that can be corrected in the moment, roach activity typically reflects a sustained infestation that does not resolve itself overnight.
The fact that Old Mexico passed its March 28 inspection does not mean the underlying conditions that allowed roach activity to develop were fully resolved. It means inspectors found the immediate trigger had been addressed well enough to allow the restaurant to reopen. Whether the deeper pest control problem was eliminated is a question the subsequent inspection record would answer over time.
The Longer Record
The March 2026 closure was not the first time Old Mexico had been ordered shut. State records show the restaurant had at least one prior emergency closure before this one, making the March 2026 incident its second documented emergency shutdown.
Across 25 inspections on record, the restaurant has accumulated 181 total violations. That is an average of more than seven violations per inspection visit, a figure that reflects persistent and recurring problems rather than isolated incidents.
The inspection history leading up to the March closure tells a consistent story. The April 2024 inspection produced 6 high-severity violations. The December 2024 visit found 3 more. By May 2025, inspectors were back with another 3 high-severity violations. The September 2025 inspection found 6 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate ones.
Then came the March 26, 2026 inspection with 10 high-severity violations and 7 intermediate violations, followed the next day by the roach activity finding that closed the restaurant.
That sequence, six inspections in roughly two years each producing multiple high-severity violations, does not describe a restaurant that had a bad week in March. It describes a facility that inspectors had been flagging for serious violations on nearly every visit for at least two years before the second emergency closure.
The Pattern
What the record shows is a facility that has been through this before. A prior emergency closure. Repeated high-severity violations across consecutive inspection cycles. A two-day sequence in late March 2026 in which inspectors first documented 17 violations of varying severity, then returned the next day and found the specific condition that warranted shutting the doors.
The one-day turnaround from closure to reopening is not unusual. Inspectors in Florida can and do allow facilities to reopen once the immediate trigger for an emergency order has been addressed. What is unusual is arriving at a second emergency closure after 25 inspections and 181 documented violations.
Old Mexico was licensed for permanent food service at the time of the closure. The restaurant reopened on the morning of March 28, 2026. Whether the inspection record in the months following that reopening showed any change in the pattern documented across the prior two years is a question the data does not yet answer.