ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FL. The Hooters at 8938 San Jose Blvd in Jacksonville was ordered closed after state inspectors documented both roach and rodent activity on the premises, and as of this writing, its status remains unknown. It was the restaurant's third emergency closure on record.
Six restaurants were shut down across St. Johns County between September 28 and October 11, 2026. Every single closure was pest-related. Three of the six locations had been closed before.
The Closures
Three closures landed on the same day, September 28. Pho Vinh at 657 N Primrose Dr in Orlando was shut down for roach activity and allowed to reopen at 10:44 a.m. after corrections were made.
Hong Kong Station at 7534 Beach Blvd, Bay 03 in Jacksonville was also closed September 28 for roach activity. Inspectors cleared it to reopen at 12:54 p.m. the same day.
El Primo Restaurant and Grocery at 6715 Powers Ave, Units 3 and 5 in Jacksonville was closed that same morning for roach activity and reopened at 11:15 a.m. It was the third emergency closure on record for that address.
The following day, September 29, inspectors arrived at Hooters on San Jose Boulevard. The inspection turned up both roach and rodent activity, a combination that state records show is relatively uncommon among single-closure events. That location has now been closed by the state three times.
Moe's Southwest Grill #759 at 9620 Applecross Rd, Suite 108 in Jacksonville was ordered closed September 30 for fly activity. It was cleared to reopen the next morning at 10:06 a.m.
Ya Habibi Slice and Spice at 6271 St Augustine Rd, Suites 28 and 29 in Jacksonville was closed October 1 for roach activity and reopened the following morning at 9:39 a.m.
What These Violations Mean
Roach activity is the violation type that triggered five of the six closures in this period. It is not a paperwork citation. When inspectors document live roaches in a food service environment, they are recording insects that travel between sewers, drains, and food prep surfaces, picking up and depositing bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli along the way. Anyone who ate at El Primo, Hong Kong Station, Pho Vinh, Ya Habibi, or Hooters in the days before these closures ate in a kitchen where that contact was actively occurring.
The Hooters closure introduced a second pest category: rodent activity. Rodent droppings and evidence of gnawing in food storage areas carry a distinct contamination risk because rodents move through walls and storage overnight, when no staff are present to observe or clean. The combination of roach and rodent activity documented at the San Jose Boulevard Hooters represents two simultaneous contamination pathways.
Fly activity, the basis for the Moe's Southwest Grill closure, is treated seriously under state code because flies feed on decaying organic matter and transfer bacteria directly onto food surfaces when they land. The presence of flies in a food prep or service area in sufficient numbers to trigger an emergency closure indicates a level of infestation that routine sanitation should have prevented.
All six of these violations carry the same regulatory weight: they are serious enough that state inspectors determined the facility could not remain open to the public.
The Longer Record
Three of the six closures this period were not first-time events at those addresses. El Primo Restaurant and Grocery, Pho Vinh, and Hooters on San Jose Boulevard each carried two prior closures on record before this month's inspections.
For El Primo and Pho Vinh, this most recent closure marks the third time state inspectors have determined conditions were unsafe enough to order the doors shut. A facility reaching a third emergency closure is not encountering an isolated lapse. It is a location where the underlying conditions that attract and sustain pest activity have not been resolved between closures.
Hooters at 8938 San Jose Blvd stands out not only for its third closure but for the nature of this one. The prior two closures are on record; this inspection added both roach and rodent activity to that history. That is a more complex infestation than either pest alone would suggest, and it is the only closure from this period for which a reopening time has not been recorded.
Hong Kong Station, Ya Habibi Slice and Spice, and Moe's Southwest Grill #759 do not carry prior closures in the data for this period. All three reopened within hours of their closures, which suggests corrections were made quickly. That is a meaningfully different profile from the three repeat locations.
What Remains Unresolved
Five of the six restaurants closed during this period have confirmed reopening times in state records. Pho Vinh reopened at 10:44 a.m. on September 28. El Primo reopened at 11:15 a.m. the same day. Hong Kong Station was cleared at 12:54 p.m. Moe's Southwest Grill reopened the morning of September 30 at 10:06 a.m. Ya Habibi Slice and Spice was back open by 9:39 a.m. on October 2.
Hooters at 8938 San Jose Blvd is the only closure from this period with no reopening time on record. The inspection that found roach and rodent activity took place September 29, and the facility's current operating status has not been confirmed in state records reviewed for this report.
