Pizza Shop on 8th Street SE Reopens After Reported Vermin Infestation

The Pizza Boli’s on Barracks Row is now open after a food safety and hygiene inspector reported a “heavy infestation of vermin,” according to the D.C. Department of Health.

The pizza shop at 417 8th St. SE reopened today after the DOH inspector closed it Monday. The Pizza Boli’s passed a follow-up DOH inspection, allowing it to resume business.

The DOH official on Monday found a “gross insanitary occurrence or condition that may endanger public health including but not limited to heavy infestation of vermin,” according to the agency. But DOH has yet to elaborate.

Pizza Boli’s spokeswoman Maroula Giannaros said earlier this week that the shop wouldn’t reopen “until it meets our corporate standards of quality and safety.”

Banana Cafe at 500 8th St. SE and Capitol Hill Tandoor & Grill at 419 8th St. SE, which neighbors Pizza Boli’s, were closed temporarily last week due to reported vermin infestations.

Capitol Hill Tandoor & Grill had live roaches and “fresh and old rat feces, gnaw marks on walls, [and] holes in walls and floor [and] wall junctures,” according to a DOH report. Banana Cafe had rodent droppings, a live roach and fruit flies, the agency said.