In Jacksonville Beach, Florida, a restaurant was caught trying to cover up a health inspector’s sign after it was shut down for a roach problem, according to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Inspectors forced Jaxon Social in Jacksonville Beach to close on July eighteenth after they found twenty-three live roaches and thirty-five dead roaches in the kitchen.
“It’s eat up with roaches,” said former cook at Jaxon Social Brian Lee.
A former employee later sent ActionNewsJax.com a photo that had shown a handwritten sign plastered on the restaurant’s door. It covered the orange health notice left by inspectors.
The sign, written by hand, claimed that the business was “Closed for technical difficulties.”
Officials said a health inspector found the covered sign during a recent follow-up inspection. Kathleen Keenan, deputy director of communications for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, said a division inspector spoke to the operator of the restaurant and the health notice has since been properly displayed and the handwritten sign removed.
The restaurant has undergone at least seven inspections since it was closed down, and an inspector has determined as recently as Wednesday that there were too many live roaches to re-open the building.
“If you open one of the refrigerator doors and pop the seal open, they fall out like,” Lee said. “It’s like you’ve torn the corner off of a bag of Skittles. It’s disgusting.
The restaurant’s owner said exterminators were brought into the building Wednesday and that it should reopen after inspection Friday. He also said that the restaurant may be re-branded before opening again, but according to the Department of State records, the restaurant is still licensed as KC Crave, LLC.
