Even the most favored eateries are not immune to national trends. An investigation by NBC29 has revealed that The Tavern restaurant is the source of a salmonella outbreak that has affected at least a dozen people.
Of the nine confirmed cases and five others with probable salmonella symptoms, most are UVA students who savored the famous – or is that now infamous? – Tavern breakfast. According to the investigation, the restaurant owner voluntarily shut down last Friday to reeducate his employees about food safety, given that The Tavern is no stranger to health code violations.
The inspection by the Virginia Department of Health reports that many employees did not wash their hands after coming back from breaks or before handling and preparing food; some raw hamburger meat stored directly over ready-to-eat food at sometimes improper temperatures and cleaning staff did not sanitize pots and pans before reusing them.
The Health Department has not yet identified the single source of the outbreak, though senior epidemiologist Elizabeth Davies says the department is following some leads. This is the first case of a salmonella outbreak at the Tavern for more than 20 years.
The Tavern was open this morning for breakfast but the owner would give no comment to C-VILLE on this story.