PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL. Nissen's Catering in Lake Worth was shut down September 9 for what state inspectors documented as a simultaneous infestation of rodents, roaches, and flies, one of the most layered pest citations issued in the county during a two-week stretch that saw 11 restaurants ordered closed between September 9 and September 22, 2026.
Five of those 11 closures were at locations with prior emergency closures on record. One restaurant had been shut down four times before this one.
The Worst of the Pest Closures
Nissen's Catering, at 7495 Park Lane Rd, had no URL on file with the state inspection database and no prior closure count listed, making this the only closure in the period where the full inspection history is not immediately available. The facility reopened the same morning, records show, at 7:27 a.m.
Deck 84 at 840 E Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach was closed September 17 for roach and rodent activity. This was the waterfront restaurant's third emergency closure on record. It reopened later that afternoon at 2:52 p.m.
Shanghai 818 at 7860 Glades Rd in Boca Raton was also closed September 16 for a combination of roach and rodent activity, its third closure on record. The restaurant reopened the same day at 3:18 p.m.
Thirsty Turtle Jensen at 1897 NE Jensen Beach Blvd was shut down September 9 for roach activity. Records show no prior closures at this location. It reopened at 4:18 p.m. that same day.
Pizzapiez at 614 SE 10th St in Deerfield Beach was closed September 15 for rodent activity and cleared by midday, reopening at 12:32 p.m.
The Non-Pest Closures
Not every closure this period involved pests. Two were ordered for infrastructure failures that inspectors treated as immediate threats to public safety.
IHOP at 1503 Belvedere Rd in West Palm Beach was closed September 10 after inspectors documented a sewage backup on the premises. The restaurant, which has two prior closures on record, was allowed to reopen later that afternoon at 3:57 p.m.
Rivales Taqueria and Craft Bar at 106 N Olive Ave in West Palm Beach was ordered closed September 14 because the facility had no warewashing facilities available. That citation, which means dishes, utensils, and food-contact surfaces could not be sanitized, was resolved by the following morning. The restaurant reopened at 9:20 a.m. The location has two prior closures on record.
The Outliers in the Data
Two closures in the dataset fall outside Palm Beach County's geographic boundaries, which is unusual for a county-level roundup. Oodle Ramen and More, listed at 5812 Conroy Rd in Orlando, was closed September 15 for fly activity and reopened that afternoon at 2:31 p.m. Au Bon Gout Take Out Restaurant at 5273 N Dixie Hwy in Pompano Beach, in Broward County, was closed the same day for rodent activity and reopened at 12:08 p.m.
Au Bon Gout carries the heaviest closure history of any facility in this dataset: four prior closures on record before this one, making the September 15 action its fifth documented emergency closure.
Lake Worth accounted for three closures in the period, more than any other city. The Pub and the Fountains Country Club Main Dining Room, both at 4476 Fountains Dr, were closed the same morning, September 17, for rodent activity. The Fountains Country Club Main Dining Room reopened first, at 8:52 a.m. The Pub at the same address followed at 9:10 a.m. Both appear to share a physical location within the Fountains Country Club complex, and both were cleared within the same morning.
What These Violations Mean
Nine of the 11 closures were triggered by pest activity, and that category carries specific public health consequences that go beyond the presence of an unwanted animal in a kitchen.
Rodent droppings and rodent contact with food surfaces are a direct transmission route for salmonella, leptospirosis, and hantavirus. When inspectors close a facility for rodent activity, it means they have observed evidence, whether droppings, gnaw marks, or live animals, that rodents have had access to the food preparation environment. Anyone who ate at Deck 84, Shanghai 818, Nissen's Catering, the Fountains Country Club, the Pub at Fountains, Pizzapiez, or Au Bon Gout in the days before these closures was eating in a kitchen where that access existed.
Cockroach infestations carry a different but overlapping risk. Roaches spread bacteria including E. coli and salmonella by moving between waste and food surfaces. The closures at Deck 84, Shanghai 818, Thirsty Turtle Jensen, and Nissen's Catering all included roach citations. Nissen's, as a catering operation, presents a compounded concern: food prepared in an infested facility does not stay in that facility. It travels to events, offices, and private gatherings where the contamination source is invisible to the people eating the food.
The sewage backup at IHOP on Belvedere Road is a different category of risk entirely. Sewage in a food service environment introduces fecal contamination to surfaces, air, and potentially food. State inspectors treat it as an immediate closure trigger because the contamination is not localized to a storage area or a corner of a kitchen. It can spread rapidly.
The missing warewashing facilities at Rivales Taqueria mean that plates, cutting boards, and utensils were being used without the ability to sanitize them between uses. Cross-contamination between raw proteins and ready-to-eat food is the mechanism behind some of the most common foodborne illness outbreaks.
The Longer Record
Five of the 11 closures in this period were at locations that had been emergency-closed before, and that pattern is what distinguishes a bad week from a documented problem.
Deck 84 in Delray Beach and Shanghai 818 in Boca Raton each carry two prior closures before this period's action, making the September citations their third. Both were closed for pest combinations involving roaches and rodents, the same category that triggered their earlier shutdowns. A facility closed three times for the same class of violation has not resolved the underlying condition.
IHOP on Belvedere Road and Rivales Taqueria on North Olive Avenue each have two prior closures on record. The IHOP closure for sewage backup is a different category from typical pest citations, but it is the location's third emergency action.
Au Bon Gout in Pompano Beach is the starkest case in the dataset. Four prior closures, all for rodent activity, and a fifth closure in this period for the same reason. That is a five-closure history at a single address, all in the same violation category.
Nissen's Catering in Lake Worth closed for the most severe pest combination documented in this period: rodents, roaches, and flies simultaneously. It is the only facility in the dataset with no prior closure count listed in state records, meaning either this was the first closure at that address or the history was not available at the time of publication. For a catering company serving food off-site to clients who have no way to inspect the kitchen themselves, that open question is the most unresolved fact in this two-week record.
