Dirty Dining: Live roaches crawling on pizza pans shut down Bruno's for second time in 13 months

TAMPA - John enjoyed a slice of pizza at a picnic table adjacent to Bruno's Pizza #2's drive-thru restaurant on West Waters Avenue in Tampa recently.

"I use to work down the road about a year and a half ago. So I thought I'd stop in to get a slice," John said.

"How was the food?" asked ABC Action News anchor Wendy Ryan.

"Tasted good to me," John commented.

But that picnic table where John sat shouldn't be there, based on Bruno's licensing agreement as a non-seated eatery.  So state inspectors documented the critical violation on May 22, 2012.

They also shut down Bruno's for more than 24 hours that day after inspectors found over 50 live roaches crawling on pizza pans, all around the pizza station, prep area, and near the reach-in cooler. And it's not the first time Bruno's has been in trouble with the state.

In May of 2011, Bruno's business consultant, Eric Grismer spoke to us on the behalf of the owner, Claudio Scipione, after inspectors closed the pizza joint for 24 hours for roach activity.

"He's put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in this business and it's concerning to him.  He's going to be on top of making sure that everything is taken care of in the future," Grismer told us last year.

After hearing that, we were surprised to see 26 new critical violations since our last visit, so we went back to find out what happened.

"We've talked to Claudio Scipione before," Ryan said to a Bruno's employee, behind the pick up window.

"He's not here," the employee responded and said there was no manager on duty either.

"Is there anyone we can speak to? Is there a phone number you can give me because you guys were shut down and we were here a year ago," Ryan asked.

"Sorry," the employee responded, as she closed the window.

John is sorry too that Bruno's has not been keeping their kitchen up to code.

"Not a good thing. They've got to clean up their act," John said.

"Are you going to come back?" Ryan asked.

"No," John responded.