Health inspectors have shuttered a famous Manhattan pizzeria, a move some described as a crackdown by the Health Department after a KFC/Taco Bell franchise passed an inspection even though it was infested with rats.

John’s Pizzeria on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village was dark yesterday; health inspectors shut down the restaurant on Friday, a sign in the window said.

“It seems that due to the extensive media coverage of a certain fast food restaurant and the scandal surrounding the N.Y.C. department of health, they now are trying to save face and set examples,” the sign read. It went on to describe mandatory improvements the restaurant would make before reopening, such as installing sinks closer to the pizza-making area, placing proper lids on garbage cans in the restrooms, and sealing cracks in the basement floor.

The sign attracted a crowd yesterday outside the beloved restaurant, which was established in 1929. Famous for its thin-crust pizza, coal oven, long lines, and cash-only policy, the pizzeria has a cult following that includes celebrities whose photos grace the windows, such as Regis Philbin, Johnny Depp, and Harry Connick Jr.

“It’s preposterous. It’s our family tradition. We come every Sunday,” a man who said his first taste of New York City pizza was at John’s, Rob Wilson, said. “It never hurts to clean up your shop, but did they have to close it down?”

Restaurant owners in the area said the closure is part of a health department crackdown in the wake of the KFC/Taco Bell debacle on February 23, when several press outlets showed rats scurrying around a franchise on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village a day after a health inspector gave the restaurant a passing mark.

Several doors down from John’s, an Italian restaurant, Risotteria, was also shut down on Friday. In its window, a sign told patrons the restaurant had “fallen victim to the health department’s zeal to cover their tracks for past sins.”

“They’re coming really hard on all the business owners because they want to save face,” the owner of a food establishment near both closed restaurants said yesterday. The owner, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution from the health department, said an inspector nearly closed his store on Friday because the boiler wasn’t sufficiently heating the tap water. “That’s a super minor thing. I had to beg him to stay open,” he said.

Although the most recent inspection report for John’s was not made public yesterday, a spokesman for the health department said restaurant inspectors close about 500 establishments each year.

“Health Department inspectors are instructed to cite the violations that they see. Restaurants that have egregious violations — especially ones that cannot be corrected on the spot — will be closed until we can ensure that food is safe,” the spokesman, Andrew Tucker, said in an e-mail message yesterday. “That has always been our policy.”

In May, John’s received six violation points when an inspector observed evidence of mice at the restaurant.

Still, would-be diners promised they would return.

“We’ll be back as soon as they open up,” Mr. Wilson’s wife, Katie, told the couple’s three young daughters, who were sitting in the backseat of the family minivan looking unhappy.

The two older girls, ages 6 and 9, asked where they were going to eat. Then came a suggestion from the younger girl, named Millie. “Can we go to Patsy’s?” she asked.