Five people were burned on and around their mouths after margaritas served at a Chili’s restaurant in Forest City, North Carolina, were rimmed with a granulated substance that had been mistaken for sugar. Three customers and two employees were affected, according to a health official cited by The New York Times.
The substance was a degreaser, a cleaning chemical, rather than the sugar that staff intended to use for the salted or sugared rims that are common on margarita glasses. The mix-up left diners with chemical burns on their lips and the skin around their mouths. The people affected were injured after the drinks were served, and the burns were visible to others in the restaurant, which is what drew attention to the incident.
NBC News reported that customers suffered burns after sipping margaritas that had been mistakenly prepared with the cleaning product, and ABC News carried video coverage of five people at the North Carolina location suffering burns after what it described as a margarita mix-up. Taken together, the accounts describe the same event at the same restaurant, and they agree on the core facts: the injuries were caused by a chemical that was not an ingredient customers would expect in a drink, and the people hurt included both guests and staff.
The incident raises questions about how cleaning products and food ingredients are stored and labeled in restaurant kitchens and bars, particularly when rimming salt and sugar are kept in containers close to cleaning supplies. None of the published reporting describes how the substance came to be used or whether it was stored in a container that resembled the sugar. The reports also do not say what corrective steps the restaurant has taken, and they include no statement from the chain itself.
Chili’s is a casual dining chain with locations across the United States, and the Forest City restaurant is one of its outlets in North Carolina. Forest City is a small town in Rutherford County, in the western part of the state. The published accounts do not give the ages of the injured people, the severity of their burns, or whether any of them required hospital treatment beyond what the health official described.
The reporting so far establishes the basic sequence: a cleaning chemical was used on margarita rims in place of sugar, drinks were served, and five people were burned. Follow-up from state or local authorities, including any inspection of the restaurant or findings about the cause, had not been reported in the sources available at the time of publication.