KEY WEST, FL. Roach activity inside Tin Cup Chalice at 2001 S Roosevelt Blvd triggered an emergency closure order on August 25, the bar's third forced shutdown in state inspection records and the second tied to pest activity at the same address.
State inspectors documented nine high-severity violations and three intermediate violations during the August 25 visit. The roach finding was severe enough that the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation ordered the establishment vacated by August 26.
The bar did reopen that same day, at 10:15 a.m., after a follow-up inspection found conditions had been brought to a single remaining high-severity violation with no intermediate violations outstanding.
What Inspectors Found
Tin Cup Chalice: Recent Inspection Severity
The August 25 inspection also cited a missing consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, a high-severity violation that stands on its own as a direct risk to customers. That violation remained on the books even after the bar reopened on August 26.
A consumer advisory is the notice, printed on menus or posted visibly, that tells customers when food is served raw or undercooked and what the associated health risks are. Without it, customers have no way of knowing they are eating something that has not been fully cooked.
What This Means
Live roaches in a food service establishment are not a paperwork problem. Cockroaches carry bacteria including salmonella and E. coli on their bodies and legs, and they deposit those pathogens on every surface they cross, including food-prep counters, utensils, and food itself. A customer eating at Tin Cup Chalice on August 25 had no way of knowing the infestation inspectors documented was present.
The consumer advisory violation adds a separate layer of risk. Florida law requires establishments serving raw or undercooked animal products, including items like rare burgers, raw oysters, or undercooked eggs, to disclose that fact in writing to customers. The people most at risk when that disclosure is missing are those who would choose differently if they knew: pregnant women, elderly customers, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system. Those are the populations a consumer advisory exists to protect.
Nine high-severity violations in a single inspection is not a marginal result. High-severity violations are those the state has determined pose a direct risk of foodborne illness or injury to customers. Finding nine in one visit, alongside confirmed roach activity, is what Florida's emergency closure authority is designed to address.
The Longer Record
The August 25 closure did not arrive without warning. Tin Cup Chalice has accumulated 281 violations across 29 inspections on record, a total that spans years of documented problems at this address on S Roosevelt Blvd.
This was the establishment's third emergency closure, and the second specifically tied to pest or rodent activity. The first pest-related shutdown came on September 11, 2019, when inspectors ordered the bar closed for rodent activity. It reopened the following day. Seven years later, the same category of violation, live roaches this time, produced the same result.
The inspection record between those two closures is not a story of a facility that corrected course. In the twelve months before the August 2026 closure, inspectors visited Tin Cup Chalice multiple times and found serious problems each time. A July 2025 inspection turned up eight high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. An April 2026 inspection found five high-severity violations. There was one clean visit, in May 2025, with zero high-severity or intermediate violations recorded. That visit stands alone in the recent record.
The pattern that emerges across 29 inspections is a facility that can pass when it needs to and deteriorates in between. The August 25 visit, with nine high-severity violations and a roach-triggered closure order, came less than five months after April's five-violation inspection. The single remaining high-severity violation documented on the August 26 follow-up, the missing consumer advisory, was still unresolved when the bar was cleared to reopen.
The Unresolved Finding
Tin Cup Chalice reopened at 10:15 a.m. on August 26. The roach activity that triggered the closure was addressed quickly enough to satisfy inspectors and lift the shutdown order within hours of the vacate deadline.
The consumer advisory violation, a high-severity citation, was still on record as of the follow-up inspection. Whether that disclosure now appears on menus or posted in the bar is not confirmed in the inspection record.
Customers who ate at Tin Cup Chalice on August 25, before the closure order was posted, had no notice from the establishment that any of this was happening inside.
