14 DAY TRIAL // Gone are the days when, while out in town with the old folks, the best a kid could ever hope to get was a toy. These days, kids whose parents have them accompany them to a restaurant get booze, and the really good kind, for that matter. Just as long as the restaurant is in Colorado, that is.
Not to beat about the bush, it was not too long ago that a Joe's Crab Shack in this corner of the US served alcoholic beverages to a group of kids who were out enjoying a quiet meal with their parents.
More precisely, the kids' parents, identified as the Montoyas, argue that staff at this establishment served their children a cocktail whose recipe includes several different spirits.
Before restaurant employees and the children’s parents figured out that something was off, the kids had already drank a hefty amount of their cocktails. Besides, word has it that the family's two-year-old girl had finished hers.
It was all just a big misunderstanding, really
As mentioned, this incident occurred at a Joe's Crab Shack restaurant in Colorado, US. The kids' parents say that, shortly after arriving at this establishment, they asked their waitress to bring each of the kids a Shark Nibble, which they describe as a sweet blue drink.
Unfortunately, what each of the Montoya's children got was an alcoholic cocktail dubbed Shark Bite. As detailed by Business Insider, this beverage is made with rum, vodka and curaçao. Otherwise put, it is by no means suited for children.
The family says that, while they were busy enjoying their drinks, the waitress approached them and told them that she had to collect the glasses because the beverages had been made with the wrong ingredients. It was the restaurant's manager who told them that their kids had just been served alcohol.
“Then the managers actually came back with the tray of drinks and then let us know that they had accidentally poured alcohol into our kids' beverages,” father Omar Montoya detailed this most peculiar incident in a recent interview with the press.
Soon enough, paramedics arrived at the restaurants, and the children, of whom the youngest is 2 and the oldest is 8, were all closely examined. Since neither was showing signs of feeling ill, they were given permission to return home with their family.
It is understood that these kids ended up being served alcoholic beverages because the Shark Nibble drink that their parents ordered for them and the Shark Bite cocktail that they were served look very much alike. The only difference is that the latter packs quite a lot of alcohol.
Back to business as usual at Joe's Crab Shack
Although the incident is currently under investigation, it's back to business as usual at this Joe's Crash Shack restaurant in Colorado, US. Still, it appears that an employee believed to have caused the mess was fired shortly after the kids were found to have consumed alcohol without their parents' knowing anything about it.
In a recent statement, the folks in charge of running the establishment stress that Joe's Crab Shack does not in any way approve of the sale of alcoholic beverages to children and argue that they will do their best to prevent any future such incidents.
As they put it, “Joe’s Crab Shack is aware of this incident at the Colorado Springs Location, and we are investigating this matter internally. We do not condone underage service of any kind. Our guests can rest assured that our processes are continuously examined so that incidents like this are avoided.”
