NEW PORT RICHEY, FL. State inspectors ordered Pit Boss Bar B Que and Pub on Little Road closed on August 24 after finding evidence of rodent activity inside the restaurant, the second emergency shutdown at the same location in 17 days for the same reason.
The closure order required the restaurant to vacate by August 25. Inspectors returned the following morning and cleared the facility, allowing it to reopen at 10:06 a.m. But the speed of that turnaround does little to soften what the records show: a restaurant that was emergency-closed for rodent and fly activity on August 7, reopened the next day, and then triggered another emergency closure for rodent activity before the month was out.
What Inspectors Found
Pit Boss Bar B Que: Recent Inspection Pattern
The August 24 inspection produced three high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. That visit came just 16 days after inspectors had already documented rodent and fly activity severe enough to close the restaurant on August 7, a closure that generated seven high-severity violations and three intermediate violations in a single inspection.
The August 7 closure was resolved within one day. Inspectors returned August 8 and cleared the facility for reopening, though that follow-up inspection still noted one high-severity violation and two intermediate violations. A restaurant with active rodent evidence on August 7 had fresh rodent evidence again by August 24.
What This Means
Rodent activity in a food service establishment is classified as a high-severity violation because it poses a direct contamination risk to food, food-contact surfaces, and food preparation equipment. Rodents carry bacteria including Salmonella and Leptospira, and their droppings, urine, and hair can contaminate surfaces that staff and customers never see.
The danger is compounded in a barbecue kitchen, where meat is handled and stored at multiple stages of preparation. A customer eating a plate of food prepared in a kitchen with active rodent presence has no way of knowing what those animals touched overnight, or which surfaces were wiped down and which were not.
An emergency closure for rodent activity is not issued for a single dropping in a corner. State inspectors use that authority when the evidence of infestation is sufficient to determine that the facility cannot safely operate. Pit Boss received that determination twice in the same month.
The fact that the restaurant passed its August 25 follow-up inspection does not mean the underlying infestation was resolved. It means that on the morning inspectors returned, the conditions no longer met the threshold for closure. Whether the rodent activity that produced two shutdowns in 17 days has been structurally addressed is a question the inspection record cannot yet answer.
The Longer Record
This month's closures are the third and fourth times state inspectors have emergency-closed Pit Boss Bar B Que and Pub. The facility has accumulated 215 violations across 35 inspections on record, a rate that works out to more than six violations per inspection visit on average.
The violation record stretches back well before this summer. A December 2025 inspection produced three high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. A June 2025 routine inspection found two high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. A March 2026 inspection added one more high-severity violation.
None of those earlier inspections resulted in closure orders. But they document a facility that has consistently generated high-severity findings across multiple inspection cycles, not a restaurant with a clean record that suddenly developed a pest problem in August.
The two prior emergency closures on record both preceded this month's pair. The August 7 closure for rodent and fly activity was the most recent before August 24. The inspection record does not indicate this is a facility that has struggled to maintain compliance in one isolated category. Rodent activity, high-severity food safety violations, and emergency closures have appeared repeatedly across the documented history of this address.
Where Things Stand
The restaurant passed its August 25 follow-up inspection and was cleared to reopen at 10:06 a.m. that morning. Under state rules, a facility that meets standards at a follow-up inspection is permitted to resume operations regardless of what triggered the closure the day before.
Pit Boss Bar B Que and Pub has now been emergency-closed and reopened twice in August 2026, both times for rodent activity, both times cleared within 24 hours. The inspection record shows 35 visits, 215 violations, and a summer that produced some of the most serious findings in the facility's documented history.
Whether a second rodent-related closure in 17 days prompts a longer investigation or additional scrutiny from the state is not reflected in the data available as of this report.
