TOWN N COUNTRY, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Pizzitalias on Memorial Highway and documented that the restaurant was serving food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means customers had no way to know whether what they were eating had ever passed a federal safety inspection.
That was one of nine high-severity violations recorded on April 6, 2026. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The April 6 inspection produced a list that covered nearly every layer of food safety, from sourcing to handling to serving. Inspectors cited the restaurant for food in poor condition or adulterated, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and inadequate shell stock identification records, meaning shellfish on the premises could not be traced back to a certified supplier.
Three of the nine high-severity violations centered on illness and hygiene. Inspectors found no written employee health policy, documented that employees were not reporting symptoms of illness, and cited improper handwashing technique. All three failures existed at the same time, in the same kitchen.
The person in charge was either not present or not performing their duties. Inspectors also noted that the restaurant lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, a required notice that warns vulnerable customers, including pregnant women, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems, about the risks of eating items like undercooked shellfish or eggs.
Two intermediate violations rounded out the inspection: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
The food sourcing violation is among the most consequential on the April 6 list. When a restaurant buys food from unapproved or unknown suppliers, that food has bypassed USDA and FDA inspection systems entirely. If a customer becomes ill, there is no supply chain to trace, no lot number to pull, no distributor to contact. Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli can all enter a kitchen through uninspected product, and no one would know where to start looking.
The three illness-related violations, no health policy, no symptom reporting, and improper handwashing, form a chain. A sick employee with no policy requiring them to report symptoms, who then washes their hands incorrectly, is the most direct route for Norovirus to move from a worker to a plate. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are a primary transmission vector.
The shell stock traceability violation adds a specific shellfish risk. Oysters, clams, and mussels are often consumed raw or lightly cooked, and they are among the highest-risk foods for Vibrio and hepatitis A. Without proper identification tags and records, there is no way to verify that shellfish served at Pizzitalias in April 2026 came from a certified, tested harvest area.
Food contact surfaces that are not properly cleaned or sanitized create a secondary contamination route even when the original ingredients are safe. Bacteria transferred from a contaminated cutting board or prep surface to food that will not be cooked again before serving can cause illness regardless of how the raw ingredients were sourced.
The Longer Record
The April 6 inspection did not happen in isolation. State records show Pizzitalias has accumulated 352 violations across 41 inspections on record, and has been emergency-closed twice, both times for roach activity.
The first emergency closure came in August 2021. Inspectors found roach activity significant enough to shut the restaurant down, and it reopened two days later. The second closure came in October 2023, again for roaches, with a one-day shutdown before the restaurant was cleared to reopen. The inspection immediately following that October 2023 closure documented three high-severity and four intermediate violations.
The pattern in the inspection record since then has not improved. In April 2024, inspectors visited three times in eight days, finding four high-severity violations on April 1, four more on April 4, and one on April 8. By August 2024, the count was back up to eight high-severity violations in a single inspection. January 2025 brought six high-severity violations. The April 6, 2026 inspection, with nine, was the highest single-day count in the recent record.
The day after the April 6 inspection, on April 7, 2026, inspectors returned and found three high-severity violations and one intermediate violation still present.
Still Open
State inspectors documented nine high-severity violations at Pizzitalias on April 6, 2026, including food from unapproved sources, no illness reporting system, improper handwashing, and untracked shellfish. The restaurant had been emergency-closed twice before for roach infestations. It had accumulated 352 violations across four decades of inspections.
On April 6, 2026, with all of that on record, it remained open.