PASCO COUNTY, FL. A Tampa bar and restaurant with five prior emergency closures on record was shut down again in late September, this time for roach activity, making it the most documented repeat offender in a two-week stretch that saw five Pasco County restaurants closed for live pest infestations.
The Closures
Pisco Bar and Restaurant on North Armenia Avenue in Tampa was ordered closed on September 28 after inspectors documented roach activity. The restaurant reopened the same morning, at 10:43 a.m., after addressing the violations.
That rapid turnaround is not new for this address. State records show five prior emergency closures at the North Armenia Avenue location before this one, making the September 28 shutdown the sixth time inspectors have ordered it off limits to customers.
Tavern at Cheval on Cheval Boulevard in Lutz was shut down September 24, the same day the two-week period began, after inspectors found both roach and fly activity inside the restaurant. It reopened at 9:45 a.m. that morning. State records list three prior closures at that address before this one.
The Lutz closure is notable for its setting. Tavern at Cheval sits inside the Cheval golf and residential community, a gated development in the northwestern edge of the county. The combination of roach and fly activity in a single inspection put it among the more serious findings of the period.
Pepo's Café on Northdale Boulevard in Tampa was closed October 1 for roach activity and reopened the same afternoon at 2:42 p.m.
Perry's BBQ Asian Grill, located inside the Citrus Park Town Center Mall food court at 8015 Citrus Park Town Center Mall FC-3 in Tampa, was shut down September 30 for roach activity and cleared to reopen at 2:43 p.m. that day. No prior closure record was provided for that location.
Sonic #5080 on Gall Boulevard in Zephyrhills was closed September 24 after inspectors found both roach and rodent activity, the only closure in this period to involve rodents alongside roaches. It reopened at 3:14 p.m. that afternoon, the latest reopening time of any facility in this stretch.
What These Violations Mean
Every closure in this two-week period was triggered by live pest activity, either roaches, rodents, or both. That distinction matters. Live pests inside a food preparation or service environment are not a maintenance nuisance. They are a direct contamination pathway.
Cockroaches carry bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli on their bodies and legs. They move between drains, trash, and food contact surfaces without any visible sign of their route. A customer eating at a facility where live roaches are active during an inspection has no way of knowing whether the surfaces, utensils, or food items involved in their meal were part of that route.
Rodent activity introduces a separate and in some ways more serious risk. Rodent droppings and urine can carry pathogens including Salmonella and, in some regions, Hantavirus. The Sonic #5080 closure in Zephyrhills was the only one in this period to involve both categories simultaneously, meaning inspectors documented two distinct pest problems at one location on the same visit.
The fly activity cited at Tavern at Cheval compounds the roach finding there. Flies move freely between waste and food, and their presence alongside roaches in a single inspection indicates conditions that attracted multiple pest types at the same time. That is a more complex sanitation failure than a single pest sighting.
The Longer Record
Two of the five closures this period were not surprises in any statistical sense. Pisco Bar and Restaurant and Tavern at Cheval both had documented closure histories before inspectors arrived in late September.
Pisco Bar's record is the most extensive of any facility in this roundup. Five prior emergency closures before September 28 means this location has now been ordered shut by state inspectors six times in its documented history. Each prior closure represents a finding serious enough to require customers be turned away until conditions were corrected. The pattern at that North Armenia Avenue address is not a single bad inspection.
Tavern at Cheval's three prior closures before September 24 place it in the same category of documented repeat problems. Four total emergency closures at a single address is a record that goes beyond isolated incidents.
Perry's BBQ Asian Grill, operating out of the Citrus Park Town Center Mall food court, and Pepo's Café on Northdale Boulevard had no prior closure data provided in state records for this period. For both, the September and October closures represent the first documented emergency shutdown at those addresses, though that reflects only the closure record, not the full inspection history.
Sonic #5080 in Zephyrhills also carried no prior closure record in the data. The combination of roach and rodent activity on a first closure is an unusually layered finding for a facility without a prior documented shutdown.
The Pattern
All five closures in this two-week window were pest-related. Not one involved temperature violations or food sourcing problems. That concentration is significant because pest activity, unlike a one-time temperature lapse, reflects conditions that develop and persist over time. Inspectors do not typically find live roaches or rodents in a facility that has never had them.
Three of the five closures were in Tampa, clustered within the same two-week window. Pepo's Café on Northdale Boulevard and Perry's BBQ Asian Grill at Citrus Park Town Center are both in the northwestern Tampa corridor, a few miles from each other. Pisco Bar on North Armenia Avenue is further south in the city.
Every facility in this period reopened the same day it was closed. Reopening times ranged from 9:45 a.m. at Tavern at Cheval to 3:14 p.m. at Sonic #5080 in Zephyrhills. Same-day reopenings require a follow-up inspection confirming the immediate conditions have been addressed, but they do not resolve the underlying question of how the infestations developed in the first place.
Pisco Bar and Restaurant on North Armenia Avenue has now been emergency-closed six times. It reopened within hours on September 28. What the state records do not show is whether anything changed between the fifth closure and the sixth.
