How has the Fairview Heights restaurant tied to illnesses fared in health inspections?
The LongHorn Steakhouse in Fairview Heights remains closed amid an ongoing investigation into the cause of an infectious disease outbreak tied to the restaurant.
The St. Clair County Health Department announced on Oct. 2 that it was investigating an outbreak of shigellosis at the LongHorn Steakhouse at 6115 N. Illinois St.
The restaurant first opened its doors to diners at this location in July 1998, according to past BND coverage.
Shigellosis, also called shigella poisoning, is caused by shigella bacteria that affects the digestive system, according to the health department. Symptoms include a fever and diarrhea, which may become bloody.
According to the health department's most recent update last Friday, 24 people had positive shigella lab reports and an additional 44 people reported illness consistent with shigellosis after dining at the Fairview Heights' LongHorn Steakhouse between Sept. 20 and 30, with nine being hospitalized.
Throughout its investigation, the health department has said it will address emailed questions from the media in future updates.
It has not yet addressed BND questions about whether there are any violations in the restaurant's inspection history that it thinks are relevant to the outbreak and what steps the restaurant must take to safely re-open.
Restaurants in St. Clair County receive unannounced, routine inspections from the health department two to three times a year. The health department also sends inspectors to investigate complaints or to follow up on issues they identified during previous inspections.
Most of the findings at the LongHorn Steakhouse in Fairview Heights since 2020 were low-level violations that are not direclty tied to food safety, although there were a handful of more serious violations found.
Here is the full list of violations written since 2020:
Health inspectors use three rankings of violations :
Priority: This is the highest ranking that regulators give certain health code violations. Priority violations are considered the most serious because they directly affect the safety of the food at critical steps like cooking, reheating or cooling and hand-washing, all of which can make people sick if done incorrectly.
Priority foundation: This is the middle ranking that regulators give certain health code violations. Priority foundation violations involve issues with training, procedures, infrastructure or equipment that are needed for employees to cook, reheat or cool food and to wash their hands.
Core: This is the lowest ranking that regulators give certain health code violations. Core violations are less directly tied to the safety of the food. They can involve general cleanliness, maintenance and other issues.
The most common core violation at the restaurant was for non-food contact services not being clean, with grease and soil accumulation being found on equipment.
The two priority violations were for not having proper cold and hot-holding temperatures. In April 2024 health inspectors found that gravy and ribs were not held at a cold enough temperature, and in April 2022, they found that the shrimp lobster chowder was not held at a hot enough temperature.
