A popular Uptown restaurant has been temporarily shuttered by Public Health - Seattle and King County after several customers fell ill after eating there earlier this month.
Six out of seven people from the same party at Toulouse Petit Kitchen & Lounge (601 Queen Anne Ave. N.) on Sept. 10 came down with gastrointestinal symptoms — cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea — along with a fever and headache in the days that followed their meal at the restaurant. None of those people have required hospitalization.
The symptoms and their timing were consistent with a bacterial infection, such as Salmonellosis or Shiga Toxin-producing E. coli, and as of Friday testing was underway to determine the specific pathogen that caused the illnesses.
The food source that led to the illnesses is also still under investigation, but those that fell ill had consumed items that are known to increase the risk of foodborne illness, including raw beef and raw egg.
Public Health learned of the string of illnesses on Sept. 20, and an investigation of the restaurant performed two days later found several problems, including foods not protected from cross contamination, the improper cooling of potentially hazardous food, the inadequate facilities to control the temperature of those foods. That resulted in the temporary suspension of the restaurant’s permit. Once those issues are corrected, and Public Health is confident that the outbreak has ended, it will be allowed to reopen.
Toulouse Petit originally opened in November 2009.
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