WEST PALM BEACH, FL. Back in March 2026, state inspectors walked into Red Crab - Juicy Seafood on N Military Trail and found what they had found there before: roaches. And this time, flies too.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation ordered the restaurant at 1837 N Military Trail Unit B closed on March 2, 2026, citing roach and fly activity. The facility was ordered vacated by March 3. It would not be the last closure that month.
Red Crab - Juicy Seafood: Emergency Closure History
What Inspectors Found
The March 2 inspection that triggered the closure produced five high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. Pest activity, roaches and flies observed inside an active food service kitchen, is among the most direct grounds for an emergency shutdown under Florida law.
Three days later, on March 5, inspectors returned and found roach activity again. The restaurant was emergency-closed a second time within the same week, reopening on March 6 only after a follow-up inspection that day showed zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations remaining.
The most recent inspection on record, conducted May 4, 2026, found three high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. That inspection documented improper hand and arm washing technique, inadequate shellfish identification records, and food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Inspectors also noted single-use items being reused and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The pest violations that triggered the March closures represent one of the most acute risks in a food service kitchen. Roaches and flies are mechanical carriers of pathogens, moving bacteria from drains, garbage, and waste directly onto food preparation surfaces, utensils, and exposed food. An active infestation is not a maintenance lapse. It is a direct contamination pathway to every plate leaving the kitchen.
The shellfish traceability violation documented in May carries a different but serious risk. Shellfish such as oysters, clams, and mussels are high-risk foods, often consumed raw or barely cooked. Without proper shell stock identification tags and records, there is no way to trace a batch back to its harvest source if customers become ill. That traceability gap is the difference between a contained outbreak and an unresolved one.
Improper handwashing technique, also cited in May, compounds the problem. An employee who attempts to wash their hands but does so incorrectly still transfers pathogens to every surface they touch afterward. The violation is not about skipping handwashing entirely. It is about handwashing that looks compliant but isn't.
Food contact surfaces that are not properly cleaned and sanitized are a primary vehicle for cross-contamination. Cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that carry residue from one food item to the next can transfer bacteria including salmonella and listeria across an entire menu. At a seafood restaurant where raw shellfish and cooked items share prep space, that risk is amplified.
The Longer Record
The March 2026 closures did not come without warning. State records show 26 inspections on file for this location, with 154 total violations accumulated across that history. The facility has now been emergency-closed four times, including the two closures in March 2026 and a prior closure in March 2022 for roach and rodent activity.
The 2022 closure is worth noting alongside the 2026 pattern. Four years separated the two events, but the triggering violation was the same category both times: pest activity. The 2022 closure involved both roaches and rodents. The March 2 closure involved roaches and flies. The March 5 closure, three days later, involved roaches again.
Inspections between the major closures show a facility that has never been consistently clean. The September 2025 inspection found two high-severity and two intermediate violations. The March 2025 inspection found one high-severity and two intermediate violations. Neither triggered a closure, but both documented ongoing problems months before the facility was shut down twice in a single week.
The May 2026 inspection, the most recent on record, found three high-severity violations despite the restaurant having passed its post-closure follow-up just two months earlier. A facility that clears an emergency closure inspection with zero violations and then returns three high-severity citations at the next routine visit is a facility where compliance is not holding between inspections.
Across 26 inspections and 154 documented violations, the record at this address does not describe a restaurant occasionally falling short. It describes one that has cycled through closures, corrections, and renewed violations with enough regularity that pest activity and food safety failures have become a recurring chapter in its inspection file.
The May 4, 2026, inspection left three high-severity violations unresolved at the time it was conducted.