Tracy Schuhmacher

@RahChaChow

The Monroe County Department of Public Health has closed the Golden Ponds Restaurant and Party House, at 500 Long Pond Road in Greece. The restaurant was closed Friday after as many as 60 people reported being sick after eating at the restaurant on Thanksgiving Day, said John Ricci, spokesman for the Monroe County Health Department.

Ricci said the Health Department started getting calls about people experiencing severe diarrhea on Friday morning. While one or two calls about a given restaurant are not uncommon, "when you start to get multiple calls, similar time of day, all with the same story, that pretty quickly leads us to think something might be going on," he said. The department has talked to 25 to 30 people; as many as 60 people were reported as being ill.

Health Department inspectors visited Golden Ponds restaurant on Friday. They inspected the facility, interviewed the staff, reviewed records and collected samples of leftover food. Following the collection of samples, the inspectors ordered that the rest of the leftover food be destroyed, Ricci said.

"Having done all that and given what was seeming to turn out to be a pretty significant number of calls coming in, we thought it best to close them,” Ricci said. This is a relatively rare action, with fewer than three restaurants closed each year, he said.

The operators of Golden Ponds were cooperative, he said.

The Democrat and Chronicle called the restaurant for comment; the person who answered the phone said that the restaurant was not commenting at this time.

Since Friday, the department also has gathered stool samples from some of the sick people. The human samples and food samples have been sent to the New York state Department of Health for testing in their laboratory in Albany. The department could have answers in a few days, or the process may take a couple of weeks, he said. Until then, the restaurant will remain closed.

Ricci emphasized that there could have been other reasons for the transmission of illness, such as people hugging each other on Thanksgiving.

"We have to let the process play out and let the people who do their investigation do their work," he said.

Golden Ponds was previously inspected Nov. 1, 2016, according to the Democrat and Chronicle restaurant inspection database. It was given 18 noncritical violations for:

Food contact surfaces not washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any time of operations when contamination may have occurred.

Lighting and ventilation inadequate, fixtures not shielded, dirty ventilation hoods, duct work, filters, exhaust fans.

Non-food contact surfaces of equipment not clean.

Insects, rodents present.

Floors, walls, ceilings, not smooth, properly constructed, in disrepair, dirty surfaces.

Golden Ponds opened in March 1985.

TRACYS@Gannett.com