Dozens of diners report illnesses after eating at Boise-area restaurant in past two weeks

It's long been the Bartlett family's tradition to order food from Costa Vida before watching a Boise State football game together. They didn't know that following dinner and Boise State's win over San Diego State on Nov. 1, they would begin feeling violently ill.

That night, all six family members who had eaten food from the Costa Vida on South Innovation Lane in Meridian began to experience intense vomiting, abdominal cramping and diarrhea within three hours of one another, according to Jennifer Bartlett.

The two who picked up food from a different Costa Vida location were the only ones who felt fine.

"I'm a nurse, so I've dealt with a lot," Bartlett, 50, told the Idaho Statesman by phone. "I honestly have never in my life seen anything so violent. It hit so fast. There was really no warning that you were getting sick."

Customers report symptoms after eating at Costa Vida Between Nov. 2 and Nov. 13, food safety tracking platform iwaspoisoned.com received 54 reports of people experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms shortly after eating at the South Innovation location. The website helps public health agencies and food brands discover potential food-poisoning clusters. Some users reported having to go to the ER for gastrointestinal issues within 24 hours.

"State or local epidemiology (if they choose to investigate) will have the final say on what the exact issue is," Patrick Quade, the website's founder and CEO, said by email. "It can't be explained away as a seasonal bug in the area. We would see a broad rise for data in the area, not a singular spike associated with one facility."

Central District Health said it received 14 reports of food poisoning between Nov. 3 and Nov. 13, with some reports including multiple people. The government health district, which includes Ada, Boise, Elmore, and Valley counties, said it's uncommon to see that many reports for a restaurant in the area.

"This number of reports is unusually high, which is why we acted right away," Maria Ortega, communications manager at Central District Health, said. "We are not aware of any other large clusters of suspected foodborne illnesses."

The district is investigating whether the illnesses were caused by food poisoning and has sent inspectors out several times since Nov. 3, Ortega said.

Ortega said the district did not receive any reports for other Costa Vida locations and has not seen a general increase in food-poisoning reports elsewhere in the area. There were no previous reports of foodborne illnesses at this location, according to the district.

Restaurant owner says he is working to ensure food safety Founded in Utah in 2003, Costa Vida has more than 90 locations nationwide. The fast-casual restaurants specialize in Mexican food with made-to-order items like tortillas, burritos, tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, salads and nachos.

Gayle Menlove visited the South Innovation Costa Vida with her three adult daughters on Nov. 4. The next day, all three who ordered a salad began feeling sick, with fevers, stomach cramping and "a lot of turmoil in the digestive tract," Menlove said.

"I won't describe anything, but the word violent did come up," Menlove said. "It was just a horrific kind of reaction."

Her daughters' husbands wanted to take them to an emergency room, but they didn't feel able to get out of bed or be away from a bathroom that long, according to Menlove.

"I crawled into bed, and I just didn't eat a thing all day, not a single crumb," Menlove said. "I only could tolerate a couple of sips of water."

Despite the experience, she said she'll eat there again.

"Restaurants do their best," Menlove said. "I know they don't want to make anyone sick."

Locally, all six Treasure Valley Costa Vidas are owned by two brothers and their father. The South Innovation Lane location held its grand opening Sept. 19.

Owner Chase Wagstaff said he has been making sure "no stone is left unturned" to ensure the best food-safety practices are followed at the new Meridian location. The restaurant's food-safety procedures include a signed employee agreement not to work while sick, wearing gloves, handwashing and sanitizing, Wagstaff said. He said Costa Vida restaurants do a complete inventory turnover every two days.

"We had a couple employees that came to work not feeling well, but they were sent home pretty quickly," Wagstaff said by phone. "We're doing everything that we can to make sure that we are not the culprit."

Wagstaff said neither the restaurant nor health inspectors were able to immediately identify anything that could be causing sickness. He wondered if people were inaccurately attributing a seasonal stomach bug to eating at Costa Vida. Whatever the case, Wagstaff said he is trying to ensure all health precautions are taken.

The company sent an additional message to employees asking them to report if they feel ill.

"We've been running restaurants for a very long time," said Wagstaff, who opened the Treasure Valley's first Costa Vida in 2012. "This is the first time we've had anything close to this happen. It's not confirmed, but with those very small handful of reports around the same time, it's not something that you can take lightly, even if there's nothing obvious that could be the culprit in our restaurant."