Two women were served a cleaning solution instead of a cocktail at a Nebraska movie theater because, “For some unknown reason, the toxic chemical was inside the alcohol bottle behind the bar.”
Two women who drank a cleaning solution instead of a cocktail are home recovering, but concerned they may have continued health problems.
Sarah G. Baker and Dorothy Felker stopped in the Alamo Drafthouse Tuesday for lunch.
They said they wanted to try a new drink the bar created to go along with a movie playing at the theater.
"I grabbed mine and she grabbed hers and we clinked like, 'Hey, fun girls afternoon. Cheers," said Baker.
But cheers quickly turned to tears.
"It was 15 minutes of vomiting, taking a breath, vomiting," Baker described.
"I took a big drink and I was like,'Oh My God. My mouth was on fire," said Felker.
Felker's voice is still strained and her throat sore from the booze blunder.
"It tastes like something rotten died in it," she said. Baker said the skin on her lips came off.
Alamo Drafthouse said the bartender accidentally served the women a chemical cleaning solution instead of the alcohol. For some unknown reason, the toxic chemical was inside the alcohol bottle behind the bar.
"They said, 'We put it in glass because it's corrosive and would eat through plastic' and that's what we drank-- something that would eat through plastic," Baker said.
The liquor that should have been in the women's drink is called, Pama, for pomegranate, which is purple. The women said they had never had Pama before and didn't know it shouldn't be a vibrant blue.
"When we questioned the color of the drink, he said, 'That's the Pama.' We're like,"OK because neither she or I knew what it was,'" Baker.
Because of the chemicals involved, La Vista police evacuated the theater and restaurant Tuesday. Felker wondered if they were going to die.
But the women are trying to keep a sense of humor and said if they go out again they'll order-- "Cans and bottles."
After leaving the emergency room Tuesday, the women both saw their doctors Wednesday. They each took X-rays to see if the chemicals caused permanent damage. But they won't know what, if any, health problems they could have.
The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission is investigating the incident. If it finds a violation, the Alamo Drafthouse could have its liquor license revoked, suspended or canceled.
Alama Drafthouse sent us this statement:
On Tuesday January 28, 2020, two guests and a staff member were accidentally served a cleaning solution in their drinks. This is a truly awful situation and we have made contact with the guests so we can do everything we can to make this right. We are sincerely sorry and have already put in place a thorough review to ensure that this was an isolated incident and we firmly believe it was. Our company's health and safety procedures were clearly not followed, and the employee responsible has been terminated. We have initiated a full staff retraining to ensure that it does not happen again.
