Rosa Pizza at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center is exactly the kind of local institution Queens does well: a buzzy, busy pizzeria with lines out the door, an extensive slice menu that includes grandma, Sicilian, and the family's signature upside-down pie, and a history that traces back to 1975 when eight Troia brothers opened the original Rosa's in Maspeth. The Bay Terrace location, which opened to a ribbon-cutting that drew a city councilwoman and a state senator, currently displays a Grade A in its window. But the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene inspection record leading up to that A is worth reading in full.
A Year of Recurring Findings
According to records in the NYC DOHMH ABCEats inspection database, the Bay Terrace location has been inspected five times since May 2025, and only once — the most recent visit on March 25, 2026 — has it scored within the A-grade range without additional flags worth noting.
The 11-point March 25 inspection is what currently drives the Grade A designation. In New York's scoring system, where lower is better and anything under 14 earns an A, 11 points qualifies. What's on those 11 points: evidence of mice or live mice in food or non-food areas, and establishment conditions conducive to rodent harborage. Those same two violations appeared at the August 22, 2025 inspection, which also scored 12 points — also technically an A. Finding mice evidence on two separate inspections, seven months apart, is a pattern worth paying attention to, whatever the letter grade says.
The inspections in between were rougher. A February 3, 2026 visit yielded 25 points — well into B-grade territory — with cold TCS food held above 41°F, no Food Protection Certificate held by management, and food contact surfaces not properly sanitized. The July 10, 2025 inspection was the worst of the bunch at 48 points: hot TCS food not held at proper temperature, filth flies in food and non-food areas, food contact surfaces problems, harborage conditions, and a drainage or sewage issue. The May 7, 2025 visit produced 26 points and included an "adulterated or misbranded food" citation — one of the more serious findings in the entire record — along with both hot and cold holding failures and a second drainage violation.
What the Grade A Doesn't Capture
NYC's letter-grade system is designed to give consumers a quick at-a-glance read on a restaurant's current inspection standing. It does that reasonably well. What it doesn't do is surface the longitudinal pattern — the fact that mice evidence has appeared on the two most recent inspections, that the restaurant has scored 25 or above on three of its last five visits, or that flies, temperature failures, and sewage issues have all come up in the past year. A diner walking in to order an upside-down slice sees the A and reasonably concludes things are fine. The fuller record suggests the kitchen has had persistent pest and food safety issues it has not fully resolved.
About Rosa Pizza
The Troia family's Rosa's Pizza operation is a genuine Queens success story, and the Bay Terrace location is one of the newer chapters in it. The family has been making the upside-down Sicilian — cheese on the bottom, sauce on top — since the original Maspeth shop opened in 1975, per Pizza Today. The brand has grown to multiple locations across Queens and Brooklyn and marked its 50th anniversary last year. The Bay Terrace location, at 212-49 26th Avenue inside the Bay Terrace Shopping Center, opened in 2022 and was described at the time by the shopping center's management as filling "a missing piece" for the complex, per QNS.
Inspection records for the location can be checked at the NYC DOHMH ABCEats database (permit 50129911). The restaurant can be reached at (347) 502-7061.
