I have a major bone to pick with the owner of Lake Harriet Pizza, Gary Johnson, for how he responded to a terrible bout of food poisoning caused by his restaurant's food.
tl;dr: He had the audacity to show up at our house at 8:40 PM the night before Thanksgiving and essentially accuse us of being liars, grifters, or both.
It all started last Saturday. My wife, friend, and I shared only one meal together that weekend -- take-out from Lake Harriet Pizza. Included on our two pizzas were veggies such as spinach and mushrooms and artichoke hearts.
28 hours after eating the pizza, just before midnight on Sunday, the diarrhea began. Then the violent vomiting. Then back to diarrhea, then vomiting ... you get the idea. Three hours after my lovely night began (during which I was unable to sleep, and spent most of the night in a bathtub), my friend woke up at 3:30 AM with his own delightful experience with bodily excretions. Four hours after that, on Monday morning, it was my wife's turn to puke and poop and puke again. She and I spent most of Monday in bed; forget work, forget taking care of our 7-month-old baby, we were sick as dogs. The three of us were the only people to eat the pizza, and the only ones among our family and friends who got sick. And, again, it was the ONLY meal all three of us shared that weekend. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots.
I called Lake Harriet Pizza to report the illness and then notified the Department of Health. The next day, my wife decided to call and request a refund -- after all, it's not fun to spend $40 in order to get violently ill. Although he questioned my wife's claim that the pizza was the cause of our shared symptoms, the owner agreed to a refund. But rather than put the money back on our credit card, he said someone would be by that night with cash. Strange, but okay.
Here's where the story takes a turn. At 8:40 PM the night before Thanksgiving, Gary Johnson, owner and operator of Lake Harriet Pizza, showed up at my house. The first thing he said was: "How strange that no one else complained about getting sick. Only you."
Um, okay, I guess not everyone reports food poisoning? This is relevant why? Unless -- he couldn't possibly be insinuating we were making it all up, could he?
Next, he asked (for the third time) what was on the pizzas we ordered, and I told him (for the third time) that they included spinach and mushrooms and artichoke hearts. His response: "so you ordered totally benign pizzas," even though leafy greens such as spinach are common carriers of food-borne illness.
He had been giving off a hostile vibe to this point -- he still hadn't offered us our refund -- and so I said, "yeah, that night of diarrhea and puking sure was fun!" He raised an eyebrow, and, with a smirk, said, "diarrhea, huh? You had diarrhea?" My wife, who was standing nearby, said "Yes, we both did, classic symptom of food poisoning." To this he cocked his head and, still smirking, said "Well -- not really."
Do a Google search, bud. Diarrhea is among the most common food poisoning symptoms.
Anyway, at this point I had had enough. The audacity of this man to show up at our doorstep late at night of a holiday weekend and insinuate we were either lying about being sick, or lying in order to get a refund, was simply outrageous. I told him to give us our money and leave. To his credit, he gave us the $40; but this was never really about the money. It was about the principle of not paying for the "privilege" of getting violently ill for 24 hours. Even if he were dubious that his restaurant caused the food poisoning (despite the fact it was literally the only meal the three of us ate together, and all three of us got sick within 7 hours of one another), then the professional response would have been to say "I have my doubts it was us, but I'm really sorry you got sick, that's never fun," and give the refund. Either that, or don't offer the refund in the first place.
What you SHOULD NEVER DO is show up to a customer's house and imply they are either liars or grifters, after they just recovered from being violently ill for 24 hours. This happened three days ago, and I'm still mad just thinking about it.
I've given the restaurant 2 stars because the sauce and cheese is good (though the crust is too bland), and we previously liked to order from this local establishment. But after this experience, I will never order from Lake Harriet Pizza again. read more