GREECE, N.Y. -- A mother and her son are filing suit against a Greece restaurant following a Thanksgiving dinner that caused them and hundreds of other people to fall sick.
The suit was filed Thursday in State Supreme Court on behalf of Webster residents Natalie Woods and her adult son, Connor Wynn, against owners of the Golden Ponds Restaurant and Party House.
For the second year in a row, Woods said she and her family were hoping for a nice Thanksgiving dinner there last year.
“I went for turkey, and I got the last piece in the foil pan,” Woods said. “I went to get the gravy and I remember scraping it off the bottom of it thinking ‘I can’t believe they’re almost out of gravy, that’s the best part of the meal.’”
However, she said what came early the next morning was unexpected: cramping and bloody diarrhea. She compared the pain to having a child.
“I know women are going to say ‘oh whoa, whoa, whoa,’ it was,” Woods said. “I won’t lie to you. The sharp pain that I had when you were trying to, you know, it was awful.”
For weeks, Woods says she was sick. Doctors diagnosed her with an inflamed and infected colon and prescribed her antibiotics. She missed three days of work.
She wasn’t the only one however. The Monroe County Health Department said it believes bacteria in the gravy likely caused 260 people to get sick, including Wynn. The suit said four people were hospitalized.
“Clostridium perfringens, this bacterium is a serious bacterium,” said Paul Nunes, Underberg & Kessler partner. “The same thing happened in San Francisco only a month ago and three people died. We are very lucky that no one died in this food-borne illness outbreak.”
Upon inspection, the complaint said the health department found, among other violations, heavy deposits of food spills, mold on the walk-in refrigerator, a damaged gasket preventing the walk-in freezer door from closing tightly, an ice maker with mildew growing inside, and food held at an unsafe room temperature.
Another inspection in December found more violations, including “bio-slime” beginning to grow in ice sinks and chiller plates in the bar.
Weeks before the outbreak, the health department said it found eighteen non-critical violations which included mouse droppings in the kitchen and spilled and leaking food containers.
Woods and Nunes said they just want the owner to be held accountable for what happened.
“I want people to realize that this is not acceptable,” Wood said. “What if it had been your mom, or your infant, or someone who has some kind of health issue?”
“The point is, this should not happen again and if there are no consequences, it does happen again,” Nunes said.
Nunes said this could become a class-action lawsuit. He said he is screening and interviewing others who got sick from the gravy as well.
Restaurant owner Ralph Rinauto said he was contacting his attorney after learning of the lawsuit from Time Warner Cable News. In the past, he’s said they’ve worked to improve standards, monitoring food temperature and quality, as well as replacing buffet trays more often.
The restaurant did reopen December 27 after receiving a clean bill of health.
Golden Ponds has been open for 33 years.
The lawsuit filed is available in its entirety below: