Food Poisoning at Restaurant - Water, St. Augustine Florida

173 Shipyard Way, St. Augustine, 32084 Florida, United States

I am writing to you first before I post information about our experience at your restaurant last night. My name is @@@@@ and my wife and brother in law were the ones that got sick at your restaurant last night on the patio. My brother in law was taken to Flagler Hospital. While at the hospital my brother in law had excessive diarrhea which supports the contamination issue.
I’m sharing this as no one cared enough at the restaurant to take our names or number to follow up on how we were doing after the experience. The chef kept asking if we were okay which was nice but of course we said we were fine, what else could we say, my wife just threw up and my brother in law was taken away by an ambulance to get checked out.
We had a party of 7 and 2 people had the same symptoms at the table and a third is sick this morning.
My wife had one margarita and my brother in law had 2 Coronas so it was not excessive drinking like it was suggested by the staff and EMT’s. Neither were out in the sun all day and water is something we drink when we wake up and all day. If you knew us you would know how healthy and careful we usually are with our intake of food and water.
We decided to try Otters and the experience was unfortunately terrible.
The waitress helped as much as she could, the chef showed concern but truly could do nothing. I was told the manager was out front with someone from our party to usher in the EMT’s but I never saw or spoke to them. After watching my brother in law get carted away and waiting to make sure my wife was okay we were given the full bill. This is when I think this place truly dropped the ball. I have never asked for anything like a free meal as I assume that most places would do the right thing. I paid my bill and was more focused on getting to the hospital and taking care of my wife. However as I look back now I realize they did not do the right thing by making us pay the whole bill. No one took our names and numbers to even know if we are alive. It’s highly unlikely that 2 people at the same table would have some medical issue occur at the same time with the same symptoms without something else causing it like cross contamination and/or bad food. I went to look at a report on line from February outlining issues that could contribute to what happened to us last night.
I am sad and disappointed that this happened. Can I say we know exactly what was the cause, no but the evidence leads to a food and/or cross contamination issue. I know that the chef asked what we all ate but I don’t know if anything else was discussed or done to figure out the issue. We may never know the cause but no one took the time to get our contact info as I said before to follow up with us. How many people do you have who are not drunk or dehydrated at your restaurant do you just allow to leave and also make them pay the full bill. I never got a managers name or contact.
It took a very long time for the food to even make it to the table and the quality was less than average at best.
Many of the drinks on your menu were unavailable due to a lack of supplies such as the infused jalapeño and later the frozen drinks.
I worked many years in the industry when I was younger so I understand and appreciate how difficult your business is but I also have a certain level of expectation and respect for good service and culinary skills. Unfortunately I think his place ultimately failed on all of these fronts. We were having a nice time with friends until the incident. I would love to hear your feedback and if you have any questions please let me know as I want to be fair but feel very upset on how this has all come about.  | Symptoms: Nausea, Diarrhea, Vomiting