Florida is carrying 66,821 active restaurant licenses in the current DBPR license file. In July 2026, the application side added 491 new-facility approvals, the closure-status side added 84 inactive or expired restaurant records, and the ownership file added 431 change-of-owner approvals.
Month over month, the flow cooled: openings moved from 617 to 491, closures moved from 702 to 84, and ownership changes moved from 800 to 431. The year-over-year inspection comparison is available from the 11-year inspection corpus: 12,288 inspections in July 2026 versus 13,493 in the same calendar month one year earlier.
What Changed This Month
491 new-facility approvals in July 2026, down 20.4% from 617 in the prior month. Named approvals include CAFE BOUTIQUE & SWEETS in Ocala, and SNO FLAMINGO in Wewahitchka.
84 DBPR delinquent/inactive (status 45/46) license records in July 2026, down 88.0% from 702 in the prior month. A delinquent license is a public-record regulatory state, not confirmed proof the business has closed. Named records include KONOS in Hialeah, and PINA COLADA Y ALGO MAS in Jacksonville.
431 ownership-change approvals in July 2026, down 46.1% from 800 in the prior month. Named filings include FORT MYERS DINNER THEATRE LLC in Fort Myers, and EL CHARRO RESTAURANT AUTHENTIC MEXICAN GRILL in Ocala.
Walton County added 2 closure-status records versus 2 in the prior month, a move of +0.
Mexican led named cuisine closure-status counts with 13 records; examples include TIJUANA FLATS in Royal Palm Beach, and TIJUANA FLATS BURRITO CO in Brandon.
Five monthly shifts
| Opening pace | 491 new-facility approvals in July 2026, down 20.4% from 617 in the prior month. Named approvals include CAFE BOUTIQUE & SWEETS in Ocala, and SNO FLAMINGO in Wewahitchka. |
| Delinquent-license flow | 84 DBPR delinquent/inactive (status 45/46) license records in July 2026, down 88.0% from 702 in the prior month. A delinquent license is a public-record regulatory state, not confirmed proof the business has closed. Named records include KONOS in Hialeah, and PINA COLADA Y ALGO MAS in Jacksonville. |
| Ownership-change filings | 431 ownership-change approvals in July 2026, down 46.1% from 800 in the prior month. Named filings include FORT MYERS DINNER THEATRE LLC in Fort Myers, and EL CHARRO RESTAURANT AUTHENTIC MEXICAN GRILL in Ocala. |
| County pressure move | Walton County added 2 closure-status records versus 2 in the prior month, a move of +0. |
| Cuisine count leader | Mexican led named cuisine closure-status counts with 13 records; examples include TIJUANA FLATS in Royal Palm Beach, and TIJUANA FLATS BURRITO CO in Brandon. |
Per-Metro Mini-Tables
Miami: 9,385 active licenses, 85 new approvals, 5 closure-status records, and 63 ownership-change filings in July 2026. The monthly closure-status rate is 0.1% of the active base.
Fort Lauderdale: 5,612 active licenses, 30 new approvals, 4 closure-status records, and 31 ownership-change filings in July 2026. The monthly closure-status rate is 0.1% of the active base.
West Palm Beach: 4,248 active licenses, 17 new approvals, 3 closure-status records, and 16 ownership-change filings in July 2026. The monthly closure-status rate is 0.1% of the active base.
Port St. Lucie: 1,925 active licenses, 18 new approvals, 2 closure-status records, and 14 ownership-change filings in July 2026. The monthly closure-status rate is 0.1% of the active base.
Key West: 806 active licenses, 3 new approvals, 0 closure-status records, and 3 ownership-change filings in July 2026. The monthly closure-status rate is 0.0% of the active base.
Tampa: 10,044 active licenses, 76 new approvals, 11 closure-status records, and 66 ownership-change filings in July 2026. The monthly closure-status rate is 0.1% of the active base.
Per-metro FRII metrics
| Miami | 9385 | 85 | 5 | 63 | 0.1% |
| Fort Lauderdale | 5612 | 30 | 4 | 31 | 0.1% |
| West Palm Beach | 4248 | 17 | 3 | 16 | 0.1% |
| Port St. Lucie | 1925 | 18 | 2 | 14 | 0.1% |
| Key West | 806 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0.0% |
| Tampa | 10044 | 76 | 11 | 66 | 0.1% |
| Orlando | 14859 | 107 | 21 | 99 | 0.1% |
| Jacksonville | 5088 | 52 | 23 | 34 | 0.5% |
| Fort Myers | 7754 | 47 | 3 | 60 | 0.0% |
| Tallahassee | 6970 | 56 | 12 | 44 | 0.2% |
Raw counts mislead -- Putnam County losing 4 places is different from Miami losing 4. Use the rate or per-capita column for defensible comparisons. Methodology details linked above.
The Industry-Wide Number
The industry-wide read is 4.1%: 2,748 current closure-status licenses against 66,821 active licenses. That number is not a monthly failure rate; it is the standing inactive-license load the active market is carrying in the current file.
The useful monthly proxy is the flow difference. In July 2026, DBPR new-facility approvals outnumbered closure-status records by 407. That is expansion on paper, but it is expansion with churn underneath it: 431 ownership-change filings mean many restaurants changed hands without changing the sign on the building.
How To Read The Month
The clean headline is that new approvals exceeded closure-status records by 407 in July 2026. The more useful read is that the month had three different speeds at once: new approvals were only down 20.4%, closure-status records fell much faster at down 88.0%, and ownership changes barely loosened at down 46.1%. A market can look healthier in the opening column while still feeling unstable to operators because ownership churn keeps moving underneath the visible consumer-facing brand.
Metro geography explains why a statewide number can feel wrong at street level. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa Bay, and Jacksonville all sit inside the same Florida ledger, but each carries a different mix of active-license density, tourist traffic, landlord exposure, and chain concentration. That is why the metro table is not decoration: it keeps 66,821 active statewide licenses from flattening local reads that should stay local.
The named rows are the check against abstraction. TOOTSIE'S ORCHID LOUNGE in Panama City and EL SABOR VENEZOLANO in Kissimmee anchor the opening side; TIJUANA FLATS BURRITO CO in Jacksonville and EL PATIO DEL CHEF in Hollywood anchor the closure-status side; TIJUANA FLATS in Coral Springs and COUNTRY INN in Lake Worth anchor the ownership-change side. FRII is strongest when those names and the statewide arithmetic are read together.
The final caution is timing. This brief uses July 2026 because it is the last complete month available at render time, while the page itself was generated on 2026-08-31. That prevents five early-May days from being compared against full March and April months. The result is less dramatic, but more useful: one complete monthly ledger, one prior-month comparison, and one year-over-year inspection-volume anchor.
Methodology
Methodology: FRII uses current DBPR license records for the active base and closure-status inventory, DBPR new-facility approvals for openings, DBPR change-of-owner approvals for ownership churn, and DBPR inspections for year-over-year inspection-volume context. Monthly rows use the last complete calendar month available at render time.
Forward context: the Phase 2 ORSM baseline currently scores 4,151 licenses in the elevated or high risk bands. The semiannual Outlook Brief (<a href="/fri/briefs/orsm-semiannual.html">/fri/briefs/orsm-semiannual.html</a>) provides the full per-license risk analysis and six-month scenario rollup.
Data sources: Inspection data. Built from DBPR public inspection records, Florida Sunbiz business filings, and Foursquare/OSS location data. All counts are derived from public records — no estimates or projections unless labeled as forecast.