A grand slam of cockroach-related issues made a Boca Raton Denny’s one of three Palm Beach County restaurants temporarily shut last week. Issues at the other establishments ranged from rodent droppings to clogged restrooms.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel typically highlights restaurant inspections conducted by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Broward and Palm Beach counties. We cull through inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for “high-priority violations,” such as improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches.

Sun Sentinel readers may browse full Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade county reports through our state inspection map, updated weekly (usually Mondays) with fresh data pulled from the Florida DBPR website.

Related Articles

• Restaurants, Food and Drink | Florida restaurant inspections: Search our database for recent health code violations

Any restaurant that fails a state inspection must stay closed until it passes a follow-up. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR. (But please don’t contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesn’t inspect restaurants.)

Casa Linda, Boynton Beach

701 N. Congress Ave.

Ordered shut: May 11; reopened May 12

Why: 11 violations (seven high-priority), including at least 47 rodent droppings found under a triple sink, on top of a dishwashing machine, “on top of sanitizer container under dish machine,” “under shelf in dry storage area” and “on the floor behind ice machine.”

The state also reported “rodent rub marks present along wall behind soda (syrup) containers” in the dry storage area and red-flagged “a black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin,” a “hole in wall next to dish machine” and “onions stored on floor,” which an employee later placed on a shelf.

The restaurant was ordered to stop selling and trash its refried beans because they were “not cooled” properly inside a walk-in cooler. Meanwhile, the inspection also caught one “bartender cutting lemons for customer drinks with bare hands.”

Casa Linda reopened the following day after the state’s second inspection revealed no new issues.

Denny’s, Boca Raton

1311 W. Palmetto Park Road

Ordered shut: May 9; reopened May 10

Why: One violation, but it was high priority, enough to warrant a shut-down. The inspection found about 16 live cockroaches “under server station next to dining room,” as well as “on cookline on floor under front counter.”

The restaurant reopened the next day without a single follow-up issue.

The all-day diner was last ordered shut twice in November 2020.

Jersey Mike’s Subs, West Palm Beach

931 Village Blvd., Suite 907

Ordered shut: May 8; reopened May 9

Why: Five violations (none high-priority), including four “onions on floor under shelf in walk-in cooler” and “soda bottles stored on floor” in the kitchen’s dry food storage area.

Despite the absence of any high-priority violation, the state ordered the sub franchise shut because, “as per employee, both restrooms are clogged,” and “a minimum of one bathroom facility is not available for public use.”

A next-day inspection found two basic and intermediate violations, including the same four “onions on floor” in the dry food storage area, but the restaurant was cleared to reopen.

This is the third time in 18 months that the sub chain’s West Palm Beach location has been ordered shut.