Brown's Chicken Cited After Reports Of Illness At Family Party

FRANKFORT, IL — Following a birthday party on Dec. 2, 20 people, including a 13-month-old toddler and seven small children, reportedly became ill and the family is pointing the finger at Brown’s Chicken & Pasta, 21120 S. LaGrange Road, which catered the party. Valerie Acosta contacted the Will County Health Department after several family and friends complained to Acosta. The health department investigated the Brown's location and noted several violations within the restaurant, but none that warranted shutting down the location.

"It was my son's first birthday party," Acosta said. "Everything went fine the day of. ... Then as the week progressed, more people were saying they had gotten sick, including myself."

Acosta, who teaches Food Safety and Sanitation at Rich Central High School, contacted the location. She said the location's management "was not very nice," and that she told management she would be contacting the health department during follow up phone call. She added that she reached out to the Brown's corporate offices as well, who said they had also contacted the location's owner.

"I called corporate, and they said they couldn't make that manager or that owner do anything," Acosta said. "They had contacted him and suggested maybe he do a couple things, but that he pretty much ignored them."

Violations found by the health department included Brown’s staff not using hair restraints, the absence of sanitizer buckets, bleach being used as sanitizer in the location, fryer oil that needed to be replaced and pasta cooling water that needed to be changed.

A note in the health department report, dated Dec. 12, states that an additional complaint was received about the same Brown’s Chicken location. The report adds that the state health department was notified about both complaints.

None of the individuals involved in the complaints sought medical attention after becoming ill, according to the report. Acosta said that everyone who complained of becoming ill was sick for only 24 hours. Each of the parties listed in the original report cited diarrhea as the main symptom, along with nausea, vomiting and fever.

A phone call to the Brown's Chicken location was answered by an employee who told Patch that the owner and management were not available and that no message could be left for them.

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