Now toddler is served SANGRIA at Olive Garden restaurant

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 05:28 EST, 13 April 2011


A furious mum is planning legal action against a popular restaurant chain after her two-year-old son got drunk... when staff served him a cup of sangria!

Jill Van Heest, from central Florida, took her little boy Nikolai to dinner at the Olive Garden on Highway 98 in Lakeland on March 31st.

Sobered up: Two-year-old Nikolai Van Heest snuggles up to mum Jill after being served boozy sangria at the Olive Garden restaurant

Sober: Two-year-old Nikolai Van Heest snuggles up to mum Jill after being served boozy sangria at the Olive Garden restaurant

She claims he ordered orange juice and was brought a drink in a plastic cup. He drank most of it and minutes began behaving rowdily - clambering about on the furniture and being noisy.

Not for kids: Tropical sangria contains a generous measure of white wine

Not for kids: Tropical sangria contains a generous measure of white wine

At first Jill thought he was just behaving badly but then the waiter and the restaurant manager came over to their table and admitted they had served the youngster booze by mistake.

She explained the waiter grabbed her son's cup and scurried away, saying they needed to get him a new one.

And when she asked him what was in the cup the waiter admitted it was a tropical sangria - a combination of orange juice, pineapple juice and white wine.

She told ABC Action News: 'How disorganized can your bar be that you serve something with alcohol to a child in a cup - with a lid nonetheless - and not recognize it for half an hour?

'I kinda started to tell him, 'You can't be loud, we're at a restaurant,' and trying to tell him how a good two-year-old should act.

'But I couldn't discipline him because he wasn't acting out... he was drunk!'

Niko was rushed to the Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where Jill, who is pregnant, had to explain to doctors that her son was drunk. He was put on an IV drip and has made a full recovery.

Jill added: 'It took them a while to get a blood draw from him and it took them a while to get an IV in his tiny hand.'

Serious mistake: The Olive Garden Restaurant in Lakeland, Florida

Serious mistake: The Olive Garden Restaurant in Lakeland, Florida

Olive Garden spokesman Rich Jeffers admitted a serious mistake had been made.

He said: 'This was an extremely regrettable accident caused by the failure of an employee to follow our strict operating procedures. We have absolutely no tolerance for failure to follow our operating procedures and we took swift, appropriate action to deal with this situation.

'We take the responsibility that comes with serving alcohol seriously.

'We offer our sincerest apologies to the family of the child, and to all of our guests, whose trust we work so hard to earn. We recognize that trust has been jeopardized by this isolated event, and we are focused on ensuring our guests experience the high standards of service that they’ve come to expect from us.'


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