Olive Garden in Fla. serves toddler sangria; shades of Mich. Applebee's

By: Barry Leibowitz
Topics: Daily Blotter

(Credit: AP)

(CBS/WKMG) LAKELAND, Fla. - A Lakeland mother knew her son was behaving strangely at an Olive Garden late last month. She was stunned to learn that her 2-year-old may have been drunk.

Jill VanHeest said her toddler was accidentally given a sippy cup full of sangria instead of orange juice, reports CBS affiliate WKMG.

"He was acting up, misbehaving. His eyes were bloodshot," VanHeest said. The boy consumed virtually the entire child-sized cup which contained a mixture of orange and pineapple juices with white wine, WKMG reports.

"How can you be so disorganized that alcoholic beverages can even get into a kid's cup?" VanHeest asked.

The incident comes close on the heels of a Michigan child being served a margarita at an Applebee's restaurant.

Oliver Garden spokesman Rich Jeffers said, "It was an extremely regrettable accident," adding, "We took swift, appropriate action to deal with this situation," Jeffers said.

He declined to say if any restaurant employees were fired.

VanHeest said once her son Nikolai began acting strangely, it took restaurant employees 30 minutes to figure out the mistake. VanHeest said a manager told her the child was given sangria instead of juice. Nikolai was taken to the hospital, treated with IV fluids, and released a few hours later with no apparent aftereffects, the station reported.

VanHeest does have an attorney, but hasn't decided whether she will sue Olive Garden. Her attorney made the incident public after the report of a child who may have consumed alcohol at an Applebee's.

Olive Garden, meanwhile, announced that it will no longer make batches of sangria in advance. "It will be prepared from scratch when ordered, as is the case with all other alcoholic beverages," Jeffers said.

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by mattp919 April 15, 2011 2:36 PM EDT: First of all mixing orange juice and pineapple juice with white wine is NOT sangria that is a very Americanized "sangria" at a supposed "Italian restaurant". Sangria is usually made with RED wine and typically orange juice and sangria is ALWAYS red. Now it makes sense how they mixed up the orange juice and the sangria because their "sangria" is made with white wine I was wondering when this story came out how do you confuse orange juice (which is orange) and sangria (which is red) now that makes a whole lot more sense. Ya know if they made sangria the RIGHT way with red wine this wouldn't have happened.; Reply to this comment