Two Year Old Served Alcohol at Colorado Springs Restaurant

Last week, the Montoyas were enjoying family dinner — along with children ages 2 to 8 in tow — at Joe's Crab Shack in Colorado Springs, KKTV reported. The kids got the Shark Nibble as their drink, one of the offerings on the kids menu. Turns out the shark-decorated beverage was laced with alcohol. No notice was given to the family for a good 30 minutes, in which time a two year old girl downed her drink dry.

The guests remember that a waitress came back, took the drinks, and said they were made with the wrong ingredients. A manager followed up with a new order of child-friendly drinks and the message that alcohol had accidentally been poured into the previous batch of the kids' drinks. Paramedics were called as one of the kids complained that she did not feel well. Everyone was sent home safely.

Joe's Crab Shack's corporate office released this statement:

"Joe's Crab Shack is aware of this incident at the Colorado Springs Location, and we are investigating this matter internally. We do not condone underage service of any kind. Our guests can rest assured that our processes are continuously examined so that incidents like this are avoided."

The liquor team of the Police in Colorado Springs is reviewing the incident.

UPDATE: It appears that the employee responsible for the alcohol in the beverages served to the children has been fired. Joe's Crab Shack released the statement below to Eater.

Joe's Crab Shack has taken the incident at our Colorado Springs location very seriously and are working with the ABC to prevent a recurrence. We learned through an internal investigation that an employee at the restaurant had not been following procedure; their employment has since been terminated. Additionally, we dispatched a senior management team to retrain all Colorado Springs team members on proper beverage service and standards. We are doing everything we can to ensure that an incident like this does not happen again in the future.