Applebee's restaurants around the country have been forced to retrain their staff and enforce new beverage policies after a 15-month-old child was mistakenly served a margarita instead of apple juice. And now it looks like Olive Garden will have to do the same. A Florida mom (video below) says that her two-year-old son was mistakenly served "Tropical sangria," a mixture of juices and white wine, instead of orange juice while the two were dining at the restaurant in March. Now we just need TGI Friday's to pull the same stunt and we'll have a trend! Oh screw it, let's call it a trend anyway.
Jill Van Heest says her son, Nikolai, had already drank most of the "juice" when a waiter came by and told them there had been a "mistake," grabbed the cup and walked away. When he told her what had been in the cup she said, "He was very sympathetic, very apologetic, but no real explanation as to how it happened, just that it was a mistake." Nikolai was visibly drunk, and Van Heest took him to the hospital.
An Olive Garden spokesman said, "This was an extremely regrettable accident caused by the failure of an employee to follow our strict operating procedures. We take this situation very seriously, and we are especially grateful that the child involved was not seriously harmed....We are also taking immediate steps to reinforce our standards." Like reading the signs marked "juice" and "alcohol" on the kitchen beverage vats.
