MASON – Outback Steakhouses have stopped serving alcoholic drink samples to customers waiting for tables, after a Michigan woman complained that three children, including a 4-year-old, were served liquor at an Outback here last month.
Kim Ehrhart, 38, of Camden, Mich., told The Enquirer on Thursday that her children, 15 and 13, and her 4-year-old niece were served sample-size portions of a slushy fruit drink containing vodka and peach schnapps while they waited for a table at the restaurant off Interstate 71.
Ehrhart and restaurant officials gave differing accounts of how the snafu happened. This appears to be the first known local case of a restaurant accidentally giving youngsters alcohol, but similar incidents have recently struck at other chain restaurants in states such as Michigan and Florida.
Ehrhart said she and her relatives had driven from their Michigan homes to Greater Cincinnati a couple days before the Aug. 27 incident. On that day, they left Kings Island amusement park for a late lunch at the Australian-themed steakhouse.
Ehrhart said she specifically asked a young female whether drink samples she was offering had contained alcohol, and the young lady assured her they were alcohol-free.
Stephanie Amberg, vice president of public relations for OSI Restaurant Partners of Tampa, Fla., said in an email that the drinks were handed out by a trained bar server who knew the drinks contained alcohol.
Ehrhart said people in her party grabbed the samples off of a tray that the server was holding.
But Joseph Kadow, executive vice president of the restaurant chain, said the server gave samples of specialty cocktails to adults only -- and "a member of the family then gave the sample to two of their children," while the server was not present.
EhrhartÂ’s sister, Kelly Kerwin, 33, of Garden City, Mich., said, "ThatÂ’s not how it went down."
Kadow conceded: "Regardless, we should have informed the adults that the samples contained alcohol."
"We sincerely regret this mistake and apologize to (the family)," he said. "We have terminated the serverÂ’s employment and will no longer serve samples of alcoholic beverages."
Ehrhart said the problem went undiscovered until the family sat down at a table and the samples were served again. This time, Ehrhart said she finally tasted one.
“I drank mine and I was like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute! These have alcohol in them!’” Ehrhart recalled Thursday.
Kerwin, who is the 4-year-oldÂ’s mother, flagged down a manager and asked if the drinks contained alcohol.
“The manager said, ‘Yes, they do,’” Ehrhart said. “And he started grabbing them off the table real quick, all the little cups. He just started swooping them up off the table real fast. He called the owner and the owner said to give us his business card. He wanted us to contact him and pay for our meal while we were there.”
The family ate dinner; the restaurant picked up their tab. Then they returned to Kings Island. None of the children appeared to be intoxicated or sick and did not require medical attention, Ehrhart said.
The family returned to Michigan on Sunday and called the owner of the restaurant Monday.
“He said he couldn’t sleep, he was worried sick about it,” Ehrhart said. “He seemed like a really nice guy. He said, ‘What can I do for you guys, is there anything I can do?’”
Ehrhart asked him to donate to the familyÂ’s church food pantry. She said he agreed.
“Our local food pantry is running real low,” she said. “I just figured everybody wins this way. It was a lesson learned. I am sure they are not going to serve alcohol again. I was so excited. You know the times. Lots of families come through this pantry.”
She said she never considered filing a lawsuit against Outback Steakhouse – and still doesn’t.
“We are not sue-happy people,” she said. “We just want them to do the right thing and that was all.”
But then the family was asked to contact the restaurant franchiseÂ’s legal department in Florida. ThatÂ’s where they were told the server had been fired, their meal had been comped, so the company felt there was no need for the donation.
That outraged the family even more.
“They went back on their promise,” Ehrhart said. “I think that is so shady. I am just pretty disappointed right now because here I am trying to teach my kids alcohol is not good. I am still kind of blown away by it all.”
Amberg, the Outback spokeswoman, said the Mason restaurant considered making a donation to the food bank.
“As reported on a local newscast, our local manager did say he would consider a donation to a church as requested by a member of the family,” Amberg said,
“However, upon receiving a request for an additional donation to a second church in exchange for not ‘going public,’ we determined we would not follow that path," she said.
Ehrhart said she thinks the company misunderstood their request to split its intended donation between her church and her sisterÂ’s church.
“Outback is not trying to cast the Kerwins in a bad light and suspect they did not realize that companies cannot be put in a position of ‘buying silence,’” Amberg’s statement said.
Amberg said the company is investigating whether or not the incident needs to be reported to the Ohio Liquor Control Commission.
Customers waiting for tables can still purchase drinks. There are 778 Outback restaurants in the U.S., 29 in Ohio, the company said.
Other restaurant chains affected by similar mixups include ApplebeeÂ’s, in Madison Heights, Mich., where the restaurant chain changed how it serves juice after a 15-month-old was accidentally given alcohol mixed with apple juice in April.
In March, a 2-year-old was served alcoholic sangria instead of orange juice at an Olive Garden in Lakeland, Fla.
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