Will Pars Cove survive?

After so many were sickened at Taste, do you think these guys will survive? Probably many will file lawsuits against them. I feel bad for the owners. I hope they can get this settled.

I hope so. I have certainly had a number of nice meals there over the years. For their sake, and that of Taste of Chicago, I am sure that they must have been required to carry some sort of liability insurance. I hope that it covers whatever claims may arise.

Over 200 reads, yet only one has an opinion? Kinda funny since the topic line was the same as the post. lol.

HI,

I have no opinion about the place. I never heard of it until this, though it is an issue now of public perception, too. When was the last time you had dinner there?

Indirectly I was involved in a food poisoning incident of approximately 35 people via a hotel banquet facility. Normally I would have attended, but last minute had to decline. The final outcome financially wasn't overwhelming expensive: host organization netted ~$2000 and anyone who filed a claim netted $200. The attorney received 30% approximately. So less than $15,000 in overall cash payout after two years of low key discussions.

This wasn't a widely broadcast event, so the establishment probably had a minor hit, if any. The host organization actually suffered a drop in membership, which always bewildered me.

I don't recall the name, there was a popular caterer some years ago who went out of business over a food poisoning incident. So yes, it can be very damaging. Especially as this caterer's travails were as widely covered as this restaurant.

Regards,

grant wrote:Over 200 reads, yet only one has an opinion? Kinda funny since the topic line was the same as the post. lol.

1) Generally, the forum does not talk much about food poisoning cases even advertised ones.

2) Most people on the forum have not eaten at the place. To be honest, i never had even heard of the place.

3) As I said on a Taste of Chicago thread, the logistics at an outdoor food event are completely unlike the usual operations of a normal restaurants.

I've eaten at Pars Cove many times and I've always enjoyed it. If I were in the neighborhood again, I'd return without question. I hope they survive. But, I'm not a fortune-teller and I have no idea if they will or not.

Best,
Michael

Grant, I think the reason you had 200 views and one reply is that most people are like Michael:

eatchicago wrote:But, I'm not a fortune-teller and I have no idea if they will or not.

I had never heard of the place until their name came out on the news regarding the food poisoning incident.

I wont be going there now that I know about them..

The incident happening at the Taste vs at their restaurant makes no difference to me. They are ultimately responsible for the food they produce, how it is handled, and stored.

Not that this has any bearing on the above discussion, but it's pretty amazing that they, in theory, served at least 529 portions of that one dish.

jimswside wrote:They are ultimately responsible for the food they produce, how it is handled, and stored.

If the poisoning came from tahini that they got from an outside supplier (that was already infected), then there really isn't a whole lot they could have done about it.

I'm rooting for them. I like the restaurant and the owner is a really nice guy. This doesn't seem to be a case of negligence to me, maybe just bad luck.

shouldnt they be making their own tahini?

I dont think they will survive this, perhaps they can re-open under a new name.

I would venture a guess that very few restaurants make their own tahini. Not that it can't be done, of course. But given how many different things need to be prepared in a restaurant, some things won't be made from scratch and tahini is likely to be among the first things that are outsourced.

Have you ever made tahini? It's basically peanut butter made from hulled, toasted sesame seeds.

It's a bit of a pain to make, especially in large quantities. Considerably worse than peanut butter, and I doubt you'd suggest a place like Potbelly should be making their own peanut butter.

who mentioned Potbelly I have never even eaten there)??, Thats a chain isnt it? Big difference.

But a small restaurant that cares about quality should try and make as much as they can from scratch, or at least thats how it worked at the places I worked back in the day.

just my humble opinion.

My point is that I don't think it would ever occur to you to be outraged that an independent restaurant isn't making their own peanut butter, and that the two ingredients are very similar and equally susceptible to salmonella contamination.

I think your chances of finding a Mediterranean restaurant that finds tahini from scratch are about the same as finding a Chinese restaurant that makes soy sauce from scratch.

Possible, but highly unlikely.

Interesting debate on tahini, either way I wouldnt eat there now.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

jimswside wrote:Interesting debate on tahini, either way I wouldnt eat there now.

If this is enough to make you avoid Pars Cove, I'd strongly suggest avoiding all middle eastern restaurants and halting your consumption of peanut butter, cashew butter, almond butter, etc and anything that contains them.

Again, this is all assuming the epidemiologists finally determine it was the tahini.

the only thing that would make me avoid this place, or any other place in a similar situation is the ammount of people they got sick. Nothing more.

I've never eaten at Pars Cove, the restaurant or at the Taste, but the food poisoning issue wouldn't prevent me from doing so. I think they could survive - it depends a lot on who their customers are. If it's a destination restaurant and people put a lot of thought into going there, the incident may have a big effect on them. If it's more of a neighborhood place where people stop in to get a bite, they're not likely to stop going there unless they had a personal bad experience. I think that most people realize that serving at the Taste is quite different than serving at a restaurant (not that that absolves them of all responsibility, but it doesn't necessarily reflect on the product they serve everyday).

I'm with the camp that truly doubts Pars Cove makes their own tahini. I'm a caterer who cares a lot about the ingredients I use and make many things from scratch, but tahini isn't one of them.

I've never eaten at Pars Cove but have known the name for a long time. It sucks that this happened to a small business owner, not a corporate place. I just wonder how many will jump on the bandwagon on this one.
Thanks for the replies!

grant wrote:It sucks that this happened to a small business owner, not a corporate place.

It's unpleasant when it happens to any entity.

Regards,

jimswside wrote:the only thing that would make me avoid this place, or any other place in a similar situation is the ammount of people they got sick. Nothing more.

Well, you could look at it that way, but germs are right little bastards which generally invisibly infiltrate the entire contents of a composed dish. If only one person eats that dish, only one person gets sick. If 529 people happen to be around and choose that dish...