Props to Baxter Station

I have been the victim of food poisoning one time. It was at a "good" restaurant in Florida that specialized in South American food. I'm fairly sure I got some off shell-fish.

Will is correct....6 hours later I thought I was going to die and the symptoms lasted about 24-36 hours and were gone in an instant. While from a legal point of view you need an epidemiologist to "confirm" such cases, most ER, Primary Care MDs can make the diagnosis on clinical grounds in terms of diagnosis and treatment.

I wouldn't name names without very convincing evidence.

I got terrible food poisoning from some bad snails in France. I ate the meal the day before I left France for a week through Italy, and it hit the day I started my journey. Needless to say, I spent a good deal of time in Florence and Rome in bed. Ug. I lost almost 15 pounds in one week. Just terrible.

My point, it took close to 12-14 hours to show up. One or two hours later is suspect.

Joel, I agree that it's fine to post about bad experiences, and I think the other poster's verbal lashing was a bit strong. That being said, you might have included in your post about the possible food poisoning that you have also had many positive experiences there, have eaten there for many years, etc.

That's true, my bad. I only posted mainly because I thought -- and didn't feel alone in this, had heard the same from other friends around town -- that Baxter Station has bounced back positively from what seems like a not-great stretch last year.

And when I said I got sick, I didn't mean full-blown food poisoning. I won't go into details, it was certainly not anything serious, but not fun, either.

Just informational ( I know I was unaware until I went thru food safetry training):
the vast majority of food poisoning is like Brad described- reaction is much longer after the food in consumed ( it takes a while to get thru your system).

Here's some detail from Food Safety:
Types of Bacteria that Cause Food Poisoning
There are five major kinds of bacteria found in foods that can be dangerous to your health. Of these five bacteria, E. Coli and Hepatitis A can cause severe infections and lifelong damage to internal organs. Food poisoning can also be caused by Salmonella, Campy Lobacter, and Listeria.

E. Coli and Hepatitis A are spread by contamination of food. This is usually due to improper hygiene by the preparer; not washing hands. Always wash your hands with soap and hot water before preparing or serving food. E. Coli infections can be serious and symptoms generally appear 24-48 hours after consumption of contaminated food. As with most types of food poisoning symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and mild to severe stomach ache. E. Coli can be dangerous if left untreated and can lead to kidney problems and urinary tract infections.

Hepatitis A symptoms usually occur within 2-5 days after eating contaminated food. Food poisoning cause by Hepatitis A is most often accompanied by severe diarrhea and abdominal cramping. Hepatitis A not only infects your intestines but can infect your blood, for life. Hepatitis A can also cause liver disease and in serious cases liver failure. This may not occur for up to two months after eating contaminated food.

Salmonella can also be extremely dangerous if not treated right away and can cause death in severe cases. Salmonella poisoning is most often accompanied by fever and severe abdominal cramping as well as the typical food poisoning symptoms. Campy Lobacter is generally mild and the symptoms last about one week. Often the parasite Campy Lobacter is contracted by eating undercooked poultry.

Listeria generally finds its way into the body by consuming processed meats, cold cuts, and sausage. Always make sure cold cuts are served cold and processed meats and sausage are fully cooked before eating. Listeria can also be found in hot dogs so make sure they are hot through and through before eating.

Deb

Just wanted to give a little more praise to Baxter Station. I went there last night with a pretty large group (11 people). Originally we planned to go to El Mundo, and then the group swelled much too large. Our second choice was to Havana Rumba, but a phone call to them informed me that there would be almost an hour and a half wait from the time we arrived, and they would not put our name down until we showed up in person. This was kind of surprising, to be honest, considering I made the phone call at 8:00. I didn't see the issue in putting our name down, and us showing up 30 minutes later, considering we would still have to wait close to an hour, but they refused, and lost out on 11 big eaters and bigger drinkers.

Anyway, I called Baxter Station, and was told we could be seated in about 30 minutes. They were nice enough to call me back 15 minutes later and let me know that a large group that was already there was taking longer than expected, and that we should plan on arriving closer to 8:45.

In short, everyone had a great time and all enjoyed their food very much. Many of the people in our party had never been there, and all were impressed (especially with the $6.50 Pappy 15 year old). A few of us got the spicy linguine, and one diner's dish had a lot of oil pooling in the bottom, but the rest of us didn't have that problem. Unfortunately, our server (who was very very good overall), transferred that oil to the diner's take-out container. Other than that mis-cue, we all had a great evening.