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Restaurant alters alcohol policy on samples

Tourists say steakhouse served alcohol to children

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By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer Updated 4:44 PM Thursday, September 8, 2011

MASON — A Michigan mom says she is upset that her two children and young niece were served alcohol, but more so that the restaurant did not make amends as suggested.

Kim Ehrhart of Camden, Mich., was visiting Kings Island the weekend before Labor Day when she, her son, Jimmy, 15, daughter Jessica, 13, her sister Kelly Kerwin and Kerwin's daughter Gracie, 4, took a break at the Outback on 2512 Kings Center Court, near the park.

As they were being seated, a server gave the family sample cups of fruit-flavored drinks, which Ehrhart said they were told did not contain alcohol.

But before long, Ehrhart and Kerwin asked the manager about the drinks, who confirmed they did contain alcohol and apologized to the family and said their meals were on the house. In addition, the family got a call from the steakhouse's owner, Sam Bonasso, who also apologized and asked what he could do to make amends.

Ehrhart said she suggested a donation to the New Hope Church in Camden, Mich., which especially needed food for its pantry, and that the matter seemed settled.

“I thought something bad happened and we could make something good out of it,” Ehrhart said.

However, that money wasn’t forthcoming. Bonasso referred comments to Outback’s legal department, which on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 7, sent a statement, signed by Executive Vice President Joseph Kadow, which read, in part:

“Our server gave samples only to the adults in the Kerwin party and was not present when the adults gave the samples to the children. Regardless, we should have informed the adults that the samples contained alcohol.

“We sincerely regret this mistake and apologize to the Kerwin family. We have terminated the server’s employment and will no longer serve samples of alcoholic beverages,” Kadow wrote.

Regarding the church donation, Kadow wrote in an email, “Our local manager did say he would consider a donation to a church as requested by a member of the family. However, upon receiving a request for an additional donation to a second church in exchange for not ‘going public,’ we determined we would not follow that path.”

Ehrhart was disappointed by the response.

“People don’t always keep up their end of the bargain,” she said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.

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