Three separate incidents for a local restaurant in Cochrane have proven nothing will stop a local business owner and his wife from giving up on their dream.
Curry ‘N’ Fizz, a restaurant located on 519 1st St., faced two floods and an encounter with an Alberta Health Services (AHS) inspector, causing the entire business to be placed on hold throughout the summer and into November.
Saurabh Joshi and his wife Shewta Sethi, owners of Curry ‘N’ Fizz, opened the restaurant a year and a half ago amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Joshi said with the support of the town, the restaurant managed to survive the public health restrictions imposed on the industry at the time.
Despite surviving the difficult period, after restrictions finally lifted, their establishment encountered serious concerns around June 13, when the restaurant flooded.
“It was one of our off days on a Monday and it rained, so we were not there and it kept flooding for the whole day,” Joshi said.
The following morning when he showed up at the restaurant, Joshi said that everything in the restaurant was “floating” in the pool of water that had accumulated.
He and his wife quickly contacted a local plumbing company to determine what had caused the flooding.
“They figured out that the plumbing in the building had some illegal connections,” Joshi said. “The ceiling discharge was actually connected to the storm water piping, which is not allowed.
“…We check that goes on place before leaving, but what goes on beneath the floorboards and behind the walls, we don’t know.”
Due to the continuous rain, Joshi said clogging in the pipes – and possibly bad luck – had caused the storm water pipes to back-up water into the unit.
After starting the restoration process following the first flood, Joshi said Cochrane was soon hit with another deluge and the restaurant suffered a second flooding incident July 6.
This time, he said it came from the flooring.
“We got it inspected and we found out it was connected to the storm water discharge as well, which is connected to the parking lot of the plaza,” he said.
“When the rain filled the plaza up…it came into our restaurant again.”
Although Joshi was a tenant who was unaware of the piping issues in the building, he said he was nonetheless responsible for the repairs.
“They said we don’t know who did this because we lease out the space,” Joshi said. “Internal piping, etcetera, is done by the tenants who are in there.”
Joshi disagreed with the landlord, arguing they should be responsible for it as they own the building. Despite being aggressive at first, he argued the contamination of the storm water into the fresh water due to illegal plumbing connections would mean the property owners would face heavy fines.
Eventually, the owners had the illegal connections inspected and fixed. But according to Joshi, the internal damage from the flooding remained.
“As per our contract, it was not covered by the landlord so that cost was up to us,” he said.
In the months since the two floods, the restaurant has remained closed. Joshi said the damage was substantial, especially after the second flood.
“The insurance company said it was the building’s fault and they will not be paying for any of the damages due to the plumbing,” Joshi said. “So, the landowner says – ‘your insurance has to pay,’ but the insurance says, ‘the building owner has to pay.’
“So, we got caught in between.”
Although their restaurant faced heavy damage and costs, Joshi said his wife did not want to leave Cochrane or give up on their business, as it was built from the ground up.
Rather than looking to dispute the problems, Joshi and his wife decided to continue with their business venture.
“I thought it would be better to have the place fixed up and working again,” he noted.
But additional problems were on the horizon.
AHS inspection goes awry
Despite renovations completed for Curry ‘N’ Fizz, their opening was delayed from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4, after an incident involving an Alberta Health Services (AHS) inspector on Oct. 27.
“As part of our due diligence, we called in Alberta Health Services and asked them to do an inspection of the place and tell us everything is good and fit so we can open the place [to the] public,” Joshi said.
In anticipation of opening, Joshi received a large catering order from his friend’s company in Airdrie. He estimated that between 150 and 200 kilograms of food was prepared, and it was was cooling off in a refrigerator before being frozen.
“So Indian food is different from any other kind of food,” Joshi explained. “In the sense that it has a lot of spices and it is preserved in oil, so it doesn’t go bad if it is refrigerated. So I know that, and it was refrigerated at 3 C.”
Joshi said the food was left to cool in the walk-in refrigerator overnight, with plans to freeze it after it had cooled off in the morning.
“In the morning … the Alberta Health inspector, she came in, she looked at the food and she said, ‘Well it should have been frozen,’” Joshi said. “I said, ‘Yeah, of course, we will freeze it.’ That’s why we kept it fully covered and left it in the refrigerator for a few hours.”
According to Joshi, the AHS inspector outlined that was improper procedure. Joshi tried to explain to the inspector that due to the preparation of the food, it needed to be handled accordingly.
The inspector claimed AHS would not let the restaurant feed the food to the public.
“She would not have any of it, and in front of [my wife Shweta’s] eyes, she took a container and poured two litres of bleach in the food,” Joshi said.
(Although Joshi was not at the restaurant at the time, he said his wife was present to handle the ordeal).
“My wife was there and she was scared,” Joshi said. “She kept on pleading with her, and she said, ‘Give us proof that the food is not edible or there is a problem with it.’”
His wife continued to argue with the inspector, asking for proof of her claims that the food was unfit for consumption.
“And then she had the audacity to take out one of our ladels, sat down, and mixed the bleach completely into all five buckets of food,” Joshi said. “And after making [the food] poisonous, …she said, ‘Oh, make sure no one eats,’ it and she just left.”
The actions of the inspector left Joshi and his wife unable to open the restaurant on Oct. 28, and unable to fulfill the large catering order he had been asked to prepare.
“First, the party that ordered food from us is ruined because we cannot make [more food] that quickly,” Joshi said. “Second, we have missed our opening date [and] third, it’s the end of the month and I have to pay a lot of people, and I can’t now.”
After the inspection mishap, Joshi said he contacted the public health agency to ask why the inspector did what she did. He added the response was that the inspector had received orders from her supervisor.
Joshi said this is the first time he has ever experienced an incident like this. He added he is unhappy about the inspector’s actions.
“If inspectors are unhappy, they can order us to dump it or put a sticker on the place, but I’ve never heard of anyone adding poison to food,” he said.
The Eagle contacted AHS regarding the incident. In an emailed response, a media relations communications professional stated the food had to be disposed of, as it was deemed to have been left out in unsafe conditions.
“In this case, food was not stored at proper temperatures for several hours, allowing for the growth of pathogenic microorganisms and production of toxins,” communications representative from AHS, James Wood, wrote.
He later confirmed bleach was poured into the food and explained why it was necessary.
“Bleach was poured into the product to ensure it would be discarded and no attempt to recover it would be made,” Wood explained. “This is commonly done to ensure discarded food is not recovered and served. It is a step that protects the public.”
Additional comments from AHS stated the health agency supported the actions of the inspector.
“The inspector identified a critical hazard and took steps to protect public health and prevent food borne illness,” Wood said.
Moving Forward
Having already faced many hardships in the last year, Joshi is unsure about the future of his restaurant. But he knows the community in Cochrane has proved that they are willing to support the business he started with his wife.
“As I said, we opened during the pandemic and the town just helped us,” he said. “People kept coming in and they liked our food and I’m thankful for the support.”
Joshi said that although there was very little he could do in regards to all the incidents that have occurred in the last year, he will do everything he can to try to re-open Curry ‘N’ Fizz.
“We’ll just hope for the townsfolk to come back and start supporting us again,” the business owner said. “And the only thing we can do right now is stand on our own.”
Curry ‘N’ Fizz is scheduled to re-open on Nov. 4.
