VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A mix-up at a Virginia restaurant led to a child being served alcohol, and while the restaurant said they've apologized and changed their protocol, the mother said that's not enough.
FishTails, located inside the Ramada Inn at the Oceanfront restaurant, hosted a Harry Potter-themed event with "potions" you mix into a cauldron to drink, with alcoholic and mocktail versions.
Last Friday night, Grace Dowell went there for her 7-year-old daughter’s birthday, and they ordered two non-alcoholic potion-making kits. Dowell said her daughter picked up a vial to smell and started gagging.
"She handed it to my husband and he smelled it and said, 'I think this is liquor,'" Dowell said.
Dowell said the server was very apologetic. Rutvi Patel, the owner of FishTails, said the server rushed to rectify the mistake.
"The manager was like, 'No if there isn't a sticker on it, no it's not non-alcoholic,'" Patel said. "And she was like, 'Oh, shoot,' and she immediately put it back and gave them another non-alcoholic bottle."
Patel said the server must have mistakenly grabbed the wrong vial. He said the server was distraught after discovering the mistake. They offered a 20% discount on the meal, but Dowell asked to see the manager.
"He did not react the way you would expect someone to react,” Dowell said, adding that he did not seem sympathetic enough.
However, Patel claims when the manager got to the table, he was cut off by an angry response.
"He was essentially like, ‘Hi, can I know what the problem is?’ and that's all he got to say before someone at the table started screaming about how 'I'm not paying a bloody dime of this and blah, blah, blah,'" Patel said.
Said Dowell: "He mostly just kept saying, 'I don't know how this happened, I don't understand how this happened,' but no sincere apology."
The server offered to pay the $70 tab, which included the two potion kits and drinks for the adults. The next morning, Patel also refunded the Dowells their $25 reservation fee.
Dowell said the fact that her daughter was served alcohol violates ABC Board rules and she has contacted them about the situation. Meanwhile, FishTails is making sure this doesn't happen again. (They plan to hold the event again this weekend.)
"We're going to have them pre-portioned and in food storage bags," Patel said. "We're going to seal them and have them stored. That way, when a non-alcoholic potion gets ordered, all they do is break the bag open, they put it on the tray and then they take it out."
Patel told Nexstar's WAVY that the restaurant has also been in contact with their ABC agent.
