PASCO COUNTY, FL. A Tampa buffet restaurant with three prior emergency closures on record was ordered shut again in late June, this time for fly activity, making it one of the most repeatedly closed food establishments in the region over the past several years.
The two-week stretch from June 23 to July 6, 2026 produced two emergency closures in the Pasco County area, both triggered by pest activity. No temperature or food-handling emergencies drove either closure. Both involved insects. One facility reopened within hours. The other has no confirmed reopening date on record.
The Violations
STATUS UNKNOWN
REOPENED
China Buffet at 1245 E Fowler Ave in Tampa was ordered closed on June 26 after inspectors documented fly activity inside the restaurant. The closure marked the fourth time state records show the buffet has been shut down for a public health emergency.
Fly activity in a food service environment is not a minor housekeeping complaint. Flies move between waste, raw food, and ready-to-eat surfaces in minutes, and a buffet layout, where food sits uncovered and accessible at room temperature for extended periods, creates conditions where that cross-contamination happens continuously and invisibly to customers.
Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza at 1912 W Brandon Blvd in Brandon was closed on June 29 after inspectors found roach activity on the premises. The closure was resolved quickly. State records show the restaurant was cleared to reopen the same morning at 10:15 a.m.
The rapid turnaround at Anthony's suggests inspectors were satisfied that the roach activity had been addressed and that no other conditions warranted keeping the restaurant closed. No prior closures are on record for that location.
What These Violations Mean
Pest-related emergency closures are not issued for a single insect spotted near a back door. State inspectors order an emergency shutdown when pest activity reaches a level that presents an imminent hazard to public health, meaning the infestation is active, widespread enough to affect food preparation or storage areas, and not something that can be corrected during a standard inspection.
Roaches are particularly dangerous in a kitchen environment because they carry pathogens including Salmonella and E. coli on their bodies and legs, depositing those organisms on food contact surfaces, prep counters, and stored ingredients as they move through a facility at night. At Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza on Brandon Boulevard, customers who dined in the days before the June 29 closure may have eaten food prepared on surfaces that roaches had traveled across, without any visible sign of contamination.
Fly infestations at food service facilities carry a different but equally direct risk. Flies feed on decaying organic matter and human waste, then land on food, utensils, and prep surfaces. At a buffet like China Buffet on Fowler Avenue, where food is set out in open trays and replenished throughout service hours, flies landing on food are not a theoretical concern. They are a documented, recurring condition, given the facility's closure history.
The combination of open buffet service and a fourth pest-related closure at the same address raises a question that the inspection record alone cannot answer: how many customers ate there between inspections, and what was the fly activity level during those visits.
The Longer Record
The two closures this period tell very different stories when placed against their inspection histories.
Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza on Brandon Boulevard carries no prior closures on record. The June 29 shutdown appears to be the location's first emergency action, and the same-day reopening at 10:15 a.m. indicates the problem was contained. For a restaurant in a busy commercial corridor on West Brandon Boulevard, a first closure resolved within hours is a different category of finding than what inspectors have documented repeatedly on Fowler Avenue.
China Buffet at 1245 E Fowler Ave has three prior closures on record before the June 26 action. That makes the June 26 closure the fourth documented emergency shutdown at that address. Each prior closure represents a moment when a state inspector determined conditions were unsafe enough to lock the doors, post a public health notice, and bar customers from entering until the facility corrected whatever triggered the action.
Four closures at one address is not a streak of bad luck. It is a documented pattern. The question the record raises is whether each prior closure produced lasting correction or whether the facility cycled through pest remediation, passed a follow-up inspection, and returned to conditions that eventually triggered another shutdown.
What makes the China Buffet situation more difficult to assess is that its current reopening status is unknown. State records do not show a confirmed date when the facility was cleared to reopen after the June 26 closure. That means customers who drove to 1245 E Fowler Ave in the days after June 26 may have found the restaurant closed, or may have found it open, depending on when they arrived and whether a follow-up inspection had occurred.
What Comes Next
For Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza, the record as it stands suggests an isolated incident. The Brandon location reopened the same day it was closed, and no prior emergency actions appear in state records for that address. Whether the roach activity that triggered the June 29 closure was a new infestation or a condition that had been developing undetected is not something the inspection record can show.
China Buffet on Fowler Avenue is the case that remains open. Three prior closures, a fourth shutdown on June 26 for fly activity, and no confirmed reopening date in state records. The facility's history suggests that follow-up inspections have cleared it to reopen after each prior closure, since it has continued to operate long enough to accumulate four emergency actions. But the status of the June 26 closure is unresolved in the data available.
The most specific unresolved fact in this two-week period: as of the records reviewed, China Buffet at 1245 E Fowler Ave in Tampa has no confirmed reopening date following its fourth emergency closure.
