VENICE, FL. Back in March 2026, state inspectors ordered T J Carney's at 231 W Venice Ave closed after finding rodent activity inside the restaurant, a finding serious enough that the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation required the facility to vacate by March 24.
It was not the first time. It was the third.
What Inspectors Found
T J Carney's Emergency Closures, 2016–2026
The March 23 inspection that triggered the shutdown recorded eight high-severity violations and five intermediate violations. That is among the heaviest single-visit tallies in the facility's recent history, matching an eight-high-severity inspection from January 2024.
The closure-triggering violation was rodent activity, documented by inspectors inside the restaurant. State records do not specify the exact location or count of rodent evidence found that day, but the finding alone was sufficient for an emergency shutdown order under Florida law.
The follow-up inspection on March 24 found one remaining high-severity violation, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, along with two intermediate violations: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned and inadequate ventilation and lighting. Inspectors cleared the restaurant to reopen at 11:09 a.m. that day.
What These Violations Mean
Rodent activity inside a food service establishment is treated as an immediate public health threat, not a maintenance issue. Rodents move through walls, drains, and storage areas continuously, depositing urine and droppings on surfaces where food is prepared and stored. Unlike roaches, which tend to concentrate near moisture and grease, rodents can contaminate a wide area of a kitchen in a single night.
The high-severity violation that remained on the follow-up inspection, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, carries its own serious risk. Cutting boards, prep tables, and other surfaces that touch food directly are the primary pathway for bacterial transfer from one food to another. When those surfaces are not properly sanitized between uses, bacteria from raw proteins can move to ready-to-eat foods without any visible sign.
The intermediate violations documented on March 24 compound that picture. Multi-use utensils that are not properly cleaned develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours. Those biofilms are not removed by rinsing alone and can persist through casual cleaning. Inadequate ventilation, the third violation cited that day, allows grease-laden vapors and moisture to accumulate, creating conditions that accelerate the growth of mold and bacteria on surfaces throughout the kitchen.
Together, the violations documented across both inspection days described a facility that, even after a night of remediation, still had unresolved sanitation problems on the surfaces and tools used to prepare food.
The Pattern
The March 2026 closure did not come out of nowhere. T J Carney's has accumulated 311 violations across 27 inspections on record, a rate of more than 11 violations per inspection visit on average.
The four months before the March closure showed strain. An inspection on November 7, 2025 found four high-severity and one intermediate violation. A clean inspection followed on November 18, 2025, with no high-severity or intermediate violations recorded. But the March 23, 2026 visit found eight high-severity violations, the same count documented in January 2024.
That January 2024 inspection is worth noting. Eight high-severity violations and three intermediate violations were recorded on January 22, 2024. A follow-up the next day, January 23, cleared all but one intermediate violation. The pattern from 2024 repeated almost exactly in March 2026: a heavy violation count on the closure inspection, a partial clearance on the follow-up, and a reopening within 24 hours.
The Longer Record
Three emergency closures over ten years at a single address is an uncommon record in Florida's food service inspection data. The first closure, in January 2016, was for roach activity. The facility reopened the following day. The second, in May 2022, was for roach and fly activity, and again the facility reopened within 24 hours.
The March 2026 closure was the first at this location to be triggered by rodent activity specifically, a distinction that matters. Roach infestations are often localized and respond to targeted treatment. Rodent activity suggests entry points, harborage, and food access that require structural remediation in addition to pest control.
The facility has 27 inspections on record spanning multiple years, which means inspectors have visited this address frequently enough to build a detailed compliance history. That history shows a facility capable of passing inspections, including a clean November 2025 visit, but also one that has returned to high-severity violation counts repeatedly, including in December 2024 and July 2024, both of which recorded multiple high-severity findings.
Whether the March 24 reopening resolved the underlying rodent issue is not something the inspection record from that single follow-up visit can confirm.