City closes Brady Street Qdoba » Urban Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Licenses Committee had some sharp remarks for Ron StokesPresident and COO of Roaring Fork Restaurant Group, at his last meeting.

The reason? A customer at the group’s Qdoba restaurant on Brady Street claims he found a razor blade in his food.

The incident, which occurred on November 1, 2023, cost the company ten business days due to a suspension imposed by the Milwaukee City Council on Tuesday.

Stokes, whose company is one of the largest operators of Qdoba franchises in the country, addressed the council before the final decision.

“It was a serious incident and someone could have been harmed, but closing this business for 10 days really does irreparable damage to our reputation,” he said. “Since this unfortunate incident, which we have taken very seriously, we have served 30,000 main courses without incident and without complaints.”

According to a police report, a customer purchased a burrito to go at the restaurant, located at 1348 E. Brady St. While reheating and cutting the burrito, the customer said he found a razor blade in the middle of the food.

A photo of the blade and a receipt for the transaction were given to the Milwaukee City Health Department, which sent a representative to inspect the store. Milwaukee police officers also attended the scene.

The report said the blade was “exactly identical” to a safety knife at the restaurant and was found to have slipped out of its plastic sheath and into the burrito.

But Stokes was not convinced by that story. During a license renewal hearing on May 29, he told committee members that none of the restaurant’s safety knives were missing blades.

“We never saw the razor blade,” Stokes said. “I believe there is some discrepancy as to whether it came from our facility. Our own internal investigation after the incident casts doubt on that, but I’m not sure we’re here to dispute the facts. We’ve taken steps to ensure that if this did indeed happen, it certainly won’t happen again.”

Stokes said the restaurant took “immediate action” to remove all safety knives from the establishment. “We acted as if it actually happened and took corrective action as a result of the report.”

alderman Jonathan BrostoffHowever, he criticized both the presence of the razor blade and the restaurant’s explanation of the incident.

“I don’t think that’s a very appropriate response given how serious this case is,” Brostoff said. “It could have been a lot worse and it certainly raises a lot of other questions for me personally.”

Although he initially questioned the police report, Stokes later testified that “there’s a very good chance that this actually happened.”

At the conclusion of the hearing, Brostoff recommended a 10-day suspension of Qdoba, noting that the closure was “appropriate to get things right and ensure that a situation like this never happens again.”

He also suggested that Stokes use the time to provide additional training for his employees.

alderman Scott Spiker made the motion. There were no objections.

The matter was brought before the full Council on Tuesday, June 11.

Stokes, who had submitted written objections to the committee’s recommendation, appeared in person at the meeting to appeal to council members.

In his brief remarks, Stokes called the suspension a “very extreme measure” that would cause “irreparable damage” to the restaurant’s reputation.

“We have behaved well in this community and on this street and we want to continue to do so. We take our job of providing food to the community very seriously.”

He further claimed that the restaurant, which opened in April 2017, had served 575,000 entrees and had “zero health, food safety, foodborne illness or other incidents.”

Despite Stokes’ statement, the full council stuck to the recommendation and voted unanimously for the 10-day suspension.

The suspension went into effect on Tuesday, June 11 and will last through June 20. The suspension only affects Brady Street Qdoba. Other locations will continue to operate as usual.

The Roaring Fork Restaurant Group operates about 60 Qdoba restaurants, 57 of which are in Wisconsin. The group also operates several locations for Dave’s Hot Chicken.