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Applebee's Retrains Staff After Toddler is Served Alcohol

By Adam Ramirez on April 14, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Applebee's parent company announced Monday it was immediately retraining its workers nationwide after a server at a suburban Detroit location accidentally served alcohol to a toddler.

In a move surely spurred by the in house team, the company, California-based DineEquity Inc, said it would also change the way it serves juice to youngsters to eliminate the chance of any mixups that could result in any more toddlers receiving mixed drinks.

Taylor Dill-Reese went to an Applebee's in Madison Heights, Michigan, where -- among other things -- she ordered her 15-month-old son Dominick an apple juice.

Instead of juice, though, the Applebee's staff served the young boy a margarita instead of the requested apple juice.

Taylor Dill-Reese and Dominic Wilson noticed that the toddler started exhibiting strange behavior.

Tasting his son's juice, Wilson was surprised to find that it was actually margarita mix, and that the child was drunk.

Turns out that the Applebee's alcohol incident was caused by a repurposed and mislabeled apple juice container.

Despite having a blood alcohol content level of .10, the Associated Press reports that the toddler did not suffer any severe injuries.

The parents have now sued.

Applebee's is already changing their policies--retraining servers on container identification and requiring all children's drinks to be poured from individual containers at the table. 

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