Bob Chinn's Reopens After Food Poisoning Scare

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jan 12, 2012 11:20PM

A suburban restaurant institution is back in business a day after a food poisoning scare forced it to temporarily close down. Bob Chinn's Crab House shut down Tuesday afternoon, the first time in 30 years the Wheeling restaurant shut its doors due to illness.

General manager Deno Roumanidakis told the Daily Herald he made the decision to close after receiving numerous calls from customers saying they felt ill after eating at the restaurant. “Our protocol here is, if we get two phone calls the same day, we call the health inspector,” Roumanidakis said.

Apparently Roumanidakis received more than two phone calls. At least 50 reported cases of sickness were reported. Since Bob Chinn's serves close to 800,000 people a year, that's a pretty significant number for one day. Cook County Department of Public Health spokeswoman Amy Poore could only confirm seven cases of gastrointestinal illness as of Wednesday morning. Investigations are still ongoing and food-borne illness hasn't been ruled out.