JACKSONVILLE, FL. State inspectors ordered San Jose Co Club D R on San Jose Boulevard closed on September 15 after documenting active rodent activity inside the facility, a finding serious enough to require the restaurant vacate by the following day.
The closure was not the first. Records show this is the second time state regulators have issued an emergency shutdown order against the restaurant at 7529 San Jose Blvd in Duval County.
What Inspectors Found
San Jose Co Club D R: Recent Inspection Severity
The September 15 inspection produced 9 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations, the most serious single inspection the facility has faced in the period covered by recent records. Rodent activity was the finding that triggered the shutdown order, though the full citation list from that visit reflects a facility with multiple compounding problems on the same day.
Inspectors returned on September 16 for a follow-up. At that point, they documented 1 high-severity violation and 1 intermediate violation. The high-severity citation was for an employee not reporting symptoms of illness. The intermediate violation involved single-use items being improperly reused.
The facility was recorded as reopened at 8:16 a.m. on September 16.
What These Violations Mean
Rodent activity in a food service facility is one of the conditions Florida regulators treat as grounds for immediate closure without warning. Rodents contaminate food surfaces, equipment, and stored product with droppings, urine, and fur. Unlike a temperature violation that can be corrected by moving food to a working cooler, rodent activity signals an infestation that cannot be addressed in the time it takes to serve the next customer.
The violation that remained on the books during the September 16 follow-up inspection is also significant. An employee failing to report symptoms of illness is categorized by state health officials as an outbreak enabler. Food workers who continue working through symptoms of gastrointestinal illness are the documented primary transmission route for norovirus outbreaks in restaurant settings. The violation does not require that anyone actually got sick. It means the reporting system that is supposed to catch sick workers before they handle food was not functioning at this location.
The intermediate violation, improperly reused single-use items, compounds the contamination risk. Gloves, cups, and utensils designed for one use accumulate bacteria and cross-contamination pathogens when reused. On a day when inspectors were already documenting rodent activity, reused single-use items represent a second independent contamination pathway inside the same kitchen.
The Longer Record
Thirty-two inspections on record. Two hundred and twenty-six total violations. Two emergency closures.
That is the documented history of San Jose Co Club D R as of the September 2026 shutdown. The inspection record stretches back far enough to show that the September 15 closure was not a sudden finding at a previously clean facility.
Seven of the eight most recent inspections on record produced high-severity violations. The exception was a July 22, 2025 visit that showed zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations, a single clean inspection between a July 18 visit that produced 6 high-severity violations and a December 2025 visit that produced 6 more. The August 2024 inspection matched the severity of the closure-triggering September 2026 visit exactly, with 9 high-severity violations documented at that time as well.
The pattern across recent years is consistent. High-severity violation counts at this facility have not trended downward. The January 2025 inspection produced 7 high-severity violations. The April 2025 inspection produced 4. The July 2025 inspection produced 6. The December 2025 inspection produced 6. The September 2026 closure inspection produced 9.
What the record does not show is whether the prior emergency closure, the first of the two on file, involved rodent activity as well. The available data does not specify the grounds for that earlier shutdown. What it does show is that a facility with a prior forced closure, 226 cumulative violations, and a consistent pattern of high-severity citations across multiple inspection cycles arrived at September 2026 with rodent activity documented inside the building.
The facility reopened on the morning of September 16 with a high-severity violation still on the books.
