East County regulars who count on Black Bear Diner for their all-day pancakes and chicken fried steak got some unwelcome news this week: the Fletcher Parkway location was ordered closed on March 23, 2026, after a routine inspection turned up vermin and improper food holding temperatures, according to records from the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality. The closure came despite the diner still holding a 90 score and an "A" grade — a quirk of county inspection rules that allows a facility to be shuttered even while technically maintaining passing marks, when major violations pose an immediate health risk.
What the March 23 Inspection Found
The routine inspection that triggered the closure flagged four violations, according to SD Food Info: a major violation for vermin, a major violation for improper holding temperatures, and out-of-compliance findings for both thawing methods and floors, walls, and ceilings. Under San Diego County's grading system, a single major violation is sufficient to trigger a closure order when it poses an imminent health hazard — which vermin infestations routinely do. In a separate site investigation conducted the same day, inspectors found no violations, though that assessment did not override the closure stemming from the routine inspection.
The El Cajon closure is actually the second time this location has been ordered shut in less than 17 months. On November 5, 2024, a sewage disposal major violation found during a routine inspection — on the same day the diner scored a 98 and earned an "A" — led to an immediate closure. Inspectors returned the same day and approved it to reopen once the sewage issue was resolved. That turnaround was swift; whether this week's closure resolves as quickly remains to be seen.
A Longer Pattern Worth Noting
A look at the full inspection history suggests the El Cajon location has been playing a recurring game of Whac-A-Mole with some of its violations. The April 2024 routine inspection flagged a minor vermin violation, and cited issues with non-food contact surfaces, ventilation and lighting, and premises and exclusion measures — exactly the kind of structural and environmental conditions that can allow pest problems to cycle back. The September 2025 inspection found a major sewage disposal violation again, along with toilet facilities out of compliance. And a February 2023 routine inspection hit a 90 score with major violations in both holding temperatures and food contact surfaces, per SD Food Info.
None of these individual incidents is catastrophic on its own, and the diner has cleared clean reinspections every time issues were cited. But the pattern of recurrence — holding temperatures flagged at nearly every inspection, vermin appearing at multiple intervals, structural maintenance issues popping up again and again — describes a facility where conditions are consistently borderline rather than consistently resolved.
Context: A County-Wide Surge in Vermin Closures
El Cajon's Black Bear isn't swimming against the tide alone. Vermin-related closures have been dominating San Diego County's health enforcement landscape. According to SanDiegoVille, more than 300 food facilities were ordered closed or downgraded in 2025, with vermin violations accounting for the overwhelming majority. In a separate investigation, SanDiegoVille pointed to California's AB 2552 — the Poison-Free Wildlife Act, which took effect January 1, 2025 and banned nearly all anticoagulant rodenticides — as a likely contributing factor, with restaurateurs reporting that the loss of second-generation rodenticides has made it significantly harder to control infestations in commercial settings. Even the week of March 13-19, 2026 alone, as tracked by SanDiegoVille, saw more than a dozen closures and downgrades across the county — from Coronado to Carlsbad to Rancho Bernardo.
About the El Cajon Location
The Fletcher Parkway Black Bear Diner opened in 2019, taking over the 7,000-square-foot space previously occupied by a Coco's Bakery — itself a piece of El Cajon dining history — as reported by SanDiegoVille at the time of opening. It was the first San Diego County location for the chain, which was founded in 1995 in Mt. Shasta by Bruce Dean and Bob and Laurie Manley. According to Wikipedia, the chain now operates 166 locations across 14 states as of August 2025, with ambitions to grow coast to coast.
The El Cajon franchise is independently owned and operated by Karan Gogri and Sanjiv Patel of National Restaurant Inc., who signed a multi-unit development agreement with Black Bear years before this location opened, per SanDiegoVille. The diner's official website continues to advertise its All-You-Can-Eat Fish Fry Fridays, which returned for 2026, per blackbeardiner.com. Whether the location was back up and running in time for the Friday crowd is unclear.
Diners can check the current inspection status of the El Cajon location — and any San Diego County food facility — directly at SDFoodInfo.org.
