A sister location of the Chicago-area steakhouse the place a Marine Corps veteran obtained significantly sick from allegedly contaminated oysters has been beforehand cited for mishandling the shellfish delicacy earlier than — and has a dismal meals security inspection report, The Put up has realized.
Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse’s downtown Chicago franchise both failed or narrowly handed one-third of its annual meals security inspections and has been hit with quite a few meals code violations since 2010, Chicago Division of Public Well being information present.
A number of cases had been for protecting “probably hazardous meals” at unsafe temperatures.
Gibsons’ Oak Brook location, about 20 miles away, was slapped with a lawsuit this week by the fiancée of Illinois firefighter Joe Belgio, 44, who allegedly went into cardiac arrest and suffered everlasting mind harm after consuming there in 2025.
Whereas the Oak Brook eatery has a clear report with the Chicago DPH, its Chicago franchise has a checkered previous.
Out of 24 inspections or reinspections carried out by the well being division since 2010, Gibsons Chicago failed twice in 2012, and “handed with situations” six instances, together with as not too long ago as February 2024.
Seven of the inspections had been prompted by complaints, in keeping with information.
Its two failed inspections — marked as happening on concurrent days in December 2012 — had been chalked as much as a dishwasher not being scorching sufficient to correctly disinfect dirty cookware, and an uncovered ice bin within the bar space.
However among the extra alarming findings had been famous on events when the eatery handed with situations.
This features a “crucial violation” throughout a December 2013 inspection, by which the visiting metropolis well being official famous that “amenities don’t preserve correct temperature.”
That day, the inspector measured a meals prep cooler on the second flooring that saved “probably hazardous meals comparable to blue cheese crumbles and cheese” at 60 levels Fahrenheit.
The identical inspection discovered different probably hazardous meals being saved at unsafe temperatures, together with hamburgers at 51.9 levels, beef filets at 51.9 levels, cheese at 54.5 levels and steaks at 54.6 — properly above the well being division’s most allowable temperature of 40 levels for such meals.
A follow-up inspection that very same month was marked “cross” by the division with no further feedback left.
In March 2023, the restaurant handed with situations once more, with the inspector noting they’d noticed a meals server holding a baguette with naked palms whereas slicing it, and located a number of containers of various sorts of oysters in a prep cooler with out the right identification tags — 4 kilos of which needed to be discarded.
Barely a 12 months prior in December 2021, Gibsons was referred to as out for 10 pints of milk being saved in a cooler saved at 58.5 levels, and one other cooler used to retailer “unknown” Time Temperature Management for Security (TCS) meals, which embrace shellfish, at a balmy 62.4 levels.
That very same inspection once more discovered a dishwasher that didn’t attain the required 180 levels wanted for correct sterilization, however the equipment was fastened and the milk was discarded by the point the division official accomplished their work.
Belgio’s fiancée, Melanie Stayer, described the ill-fated evening out as an event to “have fun life along with his household,” the couple having simply welcomed their five-month-old daughter, Carmela on the time.
Belgio then went into cardiac arrest three days after consuming the oysters, and “misplaced consciousness and oxygen for no less than eight minutes,” his lawyer, Scott O’Sullivan, informed the outlet.
Within the household’s lawsuit, which names Gibsons in addition to two of their seafood suppliers, his attorneys allege Belgio contracted two harmful micro organism from the oysters — Enteropathogenic E. coli, generally known as EPEC, and Plesiomonas shigelloides, CBS Information reported.
The 44-year-old spent months in a coma after falling sick and has since been confined to a hospital mattress — requiring around-the-clock care, and can probably be bedridden for the remainder of his life.
“The impression of Mr. Belgio’s cardiac occasion is tragic. We acknowledge the seriousness of what he’s going through and want him a full restoration,” a Gibsons spokesperson stated. “We take meals security extraordinarily significantly, and offering a superior and protected eating expertise is all the time our major focus.
“There have been no different reported instances of sickness. Primarily based on the info and our inner investigation, there isn’t a proof to counsel that our institution induced his well being situation. We’re assured {that a} truthful and thorough authorized course of will agree with this conclusion.”
