Rims of martini glasses dipped cleaning stuff?

Rims of the martini glasses were supposed to be dipped in sugar. Instead, they were mistakenly dipped in a caustic substance used to clean the restaurant’s fryer, restaurant owner Doug Goolsby said Monday.

A woman began spitting up blood and her sister and a friend suffered burns in their mouths after drinking martinis laced with a caustic cleaning substance Saturday night at a downtown Columbia restaurant.

Columbia police Sgt. Florence McCants said it appeared to be a “horrific accident” caused by a “breakdown of communication.” The investigation is continuing.

51-year-old Freddie Kelly of Lexington, initially went to Lexington Medical Center but left because it was too crowded. He said his lips, palate and tongue were burned but felt better after he swished his mouth with milk and spit it out.

Couillard said her sister spit up blood after her tongue started to peel.

“I woke up this morning with blood on my pillow,” Couillard said Monday, showing her cracked lips at her liquor store on Charleston Highway in Cayce. “I have no taste at all.”

Goolsby said investigators with city police and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control interviewed his employees and “realized it was a mistake.”

Goolsby said the incident occurred after a bartender who has worked at the restaurant about four months ran out of sugar. Not knowing where to find it, she asked a dishwasher for help.

The dishwasher, also a new employee who speaks mainly Spanish, gave her a box containing a white substance that looked like sugar. Goolsby said sugar is stored in a pantry. The bartender didn’t examine the box, which was labeled “Clean Force Fryer Cleaner,” and used a scoop to put the white substance into another container, Goolsby said.

The peach martini was a special drink offered at the restaurant that night. Goolsby said the cleaning substance, which is used once a week on the fryer, now is stored in the restaurant’s basement. Article here.