SANTA ROSA COUNTY, FL. A small fast-food stand on Baymeadows Road in Jacksonville has now been emergency-closed by state inspectors three times on record, the most of any restaurant in a wave of eight shutdowns that swept across the city between July 20 and August 2, 2026.
Seven of those eight closures were triggered by pest activity, a concentration that stands out even by summer standards in Florida, when heat and humidity push roach and rodent pressure into commercial kitchens. The eighth closure had nothing to do with pests at all.
The Repeat Offender
Tunis Fresh N Fast at 5201 Baymeadows Rd was ordered closed on July 27 after inspectors documented rodent activity, roach activity, and fly activity simultaneously. That combination of all three pest types in a single inspection is what state records call a basis for immediate closure, and for this location, it was not the first time inspectors had seen enough to pull the license.
The facility has two prior closures on record before this one, making July 27 its third documented emergency shutdown. It reopened the following morning at 8:22 a.m., the earliest reopening of any facility in this two-week stretch.
Chains, Bars, and a Seafood Counter
The two-week period opened with Twin Peaks Restaurant at 11892 Atlantic Blvd, the sports bar and grill chain known for its mountain-lodge theme, shut down on July 21 for rodent and fly activity. Inspectors cleared it and the restaurant reopened at 9:36 a.m.
Hooters at 8938 San Jose Blvd followed on July 28, also closed for a combination of rodent and fly activity. It reopened the same day at 10:32 a.m., the latest morning reopening among the facilities that cleared inspections quickly.
Captain D's #3380 at 2062 N Main St was also closed on July 28, this time for rodent activity alone. The seafood chain cleared state standards and reopened at 10:08 a.m.
Beirut Restaurant and Spirit at 3928 Baymeadows Rd #101 was closed on July 27, the same day as Tunis Fresh N Fast, for fly activity. It reopened the next morning at 9:18 a.m.
Two more closures came on July 31. Mod Pizza at 12547 Bartram Park Blvd Ste 201 was shuttered for fly activity and cleared the same day, reopening at 9:14 a.m. Cruz Mexican Grille at 13423 Beach Blvd was closed for roach activity on the same date. No reopening time appears in state records for Cruz Mexican Grille.
The Outlier: No Running Water
The one closure in this period that had nothing to do with pests stands apart from the rest. Soul Bowl Bistro at 6132 Merrill Rd Ste 6 was ordered closed on July 30 because inspectors found no potable water available at the facility.
A restaurant without access to clean running water cannot safely prepare food, wash hands, or sanitize surfaces and equipment. Soul Bowl Bistro resolved the issue and reopened at 9:48 a.m. the following day.
What These Violations Mean
Pest activity is the most common emergency-closure trigger in Florida, and the reason is direct. Rodents travel through walls, sewage lines, and trash areas before moving across food prep surfaces. A single rodent can contaminate far more food than it consumes, leaving behind droppings, urine, and hair on surfaces that may not be visible to staff between inspections. The closures at Twin Peaks, Hooters, Captain D's, and Tunis Fresh N Fast all involved rodent activity, meaning inspectors observed evidence that rodents had accessed or were actively present in food-handling areas.
Roach activity, documented at Cruz Mexican Grille and as part of the multi-pest finding at Tunis Fresh N Fast, carries a specific transmission risk. Cockroaches move between sewage, garbage, and food contact surfaces, and they are documented carriers of pathogens including Salmonella and E. coli. A roach sighting during a routine inspection is a warning citation. A roach presence severe enough to trigger an emergency closure means inspectors found activity at a level they judged to be an immediate public health threat.
Fly activity alone triggered closures at Mod Pizza and Beirut Restaurant and Spirit, and contributed to the findings at Twin Peaks, Hooters, and Tunis Fresh N Fast. Flies are a direct contamination vector: they land on waste and then on food or food-contact surfaces, transferring bacteria with each contact. An infestation serious enough to close a restaurant means the fly presence was not incidental.
The no-potable-water finding at Soul Bowl Bistro is a different category of risk but no less serious. Without clean water, handwashing stops. Sanitizing solutions cannot be properly mixed. Equipment that contacts raw food cannot be safely cleaned between uses. State code treats a loss of potable water as an immediate closure condition for exactly these reasons.
The Longer Record
Most of the facilities in this roundup resolved their violations quickly, reopening within hours of the original closure. That speed suggests the problems inspectors found, while serious enough to close the restaurants, were addressed through cleaning and pest treatment rather than structural failures.
Tunis Fresh N Fast is the exception that the record makes impossible to overlook. Two prior closures before July 27 mean this location has now been through the emergency-closure-and-reopen cycle at least three documented times. The July 27 finding covered all three pest categories simultaneously, rodents, roaches, and flies, which is a broader scope of infestation than any other single closure in this two-week period.
The rapid reopening at 8:22 a.m. on July 28 means the facility cleared state standards overnight. What the record does not show is whether the underlying conditions that have produced three closures at the same address have been durably corrected, or whether inspectors will return to find the same pressures reasserting themselves.
Cruz Mexican Grille at 13423 Beach Blvd remains the one open question in this period. Every other facility in this roundup has a documented reopening time in state records. Cruz Mexican Grille does not. Its closure status as of the close of this reporting period is unknown.
