ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FL. State inspectors emergency-closed seven restaurants across Jacksonville and Orlando between September 24 and October 7, 2026, and three of those closures landed at locations that had already been through this before.
The most serious case by the record is Hooters at 8938 San Jose Blvd in Jacksonville, which was shuttered on September 29 for both roach activity and rodent activity documented in the same inspection. That combination, two distinct pest types found simultaneously, is relatively uncommon in a single closure order. It was also the third emergency closure on record at that address. No confirmed reopening time appears in the state record for this location.
What Inspectors Found
Six of the seven closures were triggered by pest activity. Five of those six involved roaches specifically.
El Primo Restaurant and Grocery at 6715 Powers Ave in Jacksonville was closed September 28 for roach activity and reopened the same morning at 11:15 a.m. It was the third emergency closure on record at that address.
Pho Vinh at 657 N Primrose Dr in Orlando was also closed September 28 for roach activity. It reopened at 10:44 a.m. Like El Primo and Hooters, it carried two prior closures on record before this one, making this its third.
Ya Habibi Slice and Spice at 6271 St Augustine Rd in Jacksonville was closed October 1 for roach activity and cleared for reopening at 9:39 a.m. the same day.
Hong Kong Station at 7534 Beach Blvd in Jacksonville was closed September 28 for roach activity. Inspectors cleared it to reopen at 12:54 p.m., the latest same-day reopening among the roach-related closures that week.
Moe's Southwest Grill #759 at 9620 Applecross Rd in Jacksonville was closed September 30 for fly activity and reopened the following morning at 10:06 a.m. It is the only closure in this period tied to flies rather than roaches or rodents, and no prior closures appear on record at that address.
The seventh closure was different in kind. Hot Dog Guy at 929 W Michigan St in Orlando was shut down September 24 for having no potable water, a condition that makes basic food preparation and handwashing impossible. It reopened at 12:17 p.m. the same day.
The Pattern
Three of the seven locations closed during this period had each been through at least two emergency shutdowns before inspectors arrived this fall. That is not a coincidence of timing. It is a documented pattern at specific addresses.
El Primo on Powers Avenue and Pho Vinh on N Primrose Drive both share the same profile: roach-related closures, multiple prior shutdowns, and same-day reopenings that suggest the immediate problem was addressed while the inspection record continued to accumulate. Whether the underlying conditions that allow roach activity to persist have been corrected is a question the prior closure count raises but cannot answer.
Hooters on San Jose Boulevard stands apart. Its closure involved both roaches and rodents, and its reopening status remains unconfirmed in the state record.
What These Violations Mean
Roach activity is the violation type that drove six of the seven closures in this period, and it matters for a specific reason: cockroaches are not simply a nuisance. They carry and spread bacteria including Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria on their bodies and legs, depositing those pathogens on food surfaces, prep equipment, and stored ingredients as they move through a kitchen. A customer who ate at any of these five Jacksonville locations or at Pho Vinh in Orlando before inspectors arrived had no way to know roaches had been documented in the facility.
The combination at Hooters, roaches and rodents found in the same inspection, compounds that risk. Rodent droppings and urine carry their own contamination pathways, including the bacteria that cause leptospirosis and the viral particles linked to hantavirus. When both pest types are present simultaneously, it typically indicates conditions in the facility, open entry points, food debris, inadequate storage, that support multiple infestations at once.
The no-potable-water closure at Hot Dog Guy on W Michigan Street in Orlando represents a different category of risk. Without access to clean running water, employees cannot wash their hands, cannot rinse produce, and cannot sanitize equipment between uses. Florida's food safety code treats the absence of potable water as an immediate threat to public health, which is why it carries the same emergency closure authority as pest activity.
Fly activity, the violation that closed Moe's Southwest Grill on Applecross Road, is treated as a high-priority concern because flies feed on waste and then land directly on food and prep surfaces, transferring bacteria in the process. An inspector documenting fly activity sufficient to trigger an emergency closure is not describing a single fly near a window.
The Longer Record
The three repeat-closure locations in this period, Hooters on San Jose Boulevard, El Primo on Powers Avenue, and Pho Vinh on N Primrose Drive, each carry two prior closures on record before the September and October findings. That means inspectors have now ordered emergency shutdowns at each of those addresses at least three times.
For Pho Vinh and El Primo, both of which reopened the same day they were closed, the same-day turnaround shows the immediate trigger was resolved quickly. But the prior closure counts show this is not the first time those conditions were found. A facility that has been closed for roach activity three times is not a facility where roach activity was discovered once and corrected.
Moe's Southwest Grill, Ya Habibi Slice and Spice, Hong Kong Station, and Hot Dog Guy do not carry prior closures in this data set. For those locations, the September and October closures represent the first emergency action on record.
Hooters at 8938 San Jose Blvd was closed September 29 for roach and rodent activity. It has been emergency-closed at least twice before. As of the data available for this period, its reopening remains unconfirmed.
