Tracy Schuhmacher, and Steve Orr

Democrat and Chronicle

More than 260 people have been sickened by a Thanksgiving dinner at a popular Greece restaurant and party house, which is quite likely the largest recent outbreak of foodborne illness in Monroe County.

Health Department inspectors closed Golden Ponds Restaurant and Party House restaurant at 500 Long Pond Road in Greece on Nov. 25 after many people reported becoming ill after eating Thanksgiving dinner there. The department is now awaiting the results of laboratory tests on both stool and food samples that were sent to the New York State Department of Health for testing in its laboratory in Albany.

More than 80 people have spoken to the Monroe County Health Department about becoming ill after eating at Golden Ponds on Thanksgiving, said spokesman John Ricci. Those people reported the illnesses of others within their party, bringing the total to more than 260.

"The vast, vast majority, without prompting, report nearly identical symptoms,” Ricci said. The timing of those symptoms also are the same, he said.

"Here we are three weeks in and we don’t really have the smoking gun yet," Ricci said. "We’re going to have to be patient a bit longer.”

But even without definitive answer from the lab tests, the number of people with the same symptoms and the timing of those symptoms makes it evident that “something went wrong in one or more of the processes" at Golden Ponds, Ricci said.

While the public tends to focus on cleanliness, the factors much more likely to make people ill are related to food handling, such as cross contamination, safe cooking temperatures, proper storage, the health of the staff and hand washing, Ricci said.

The number of people sickened is unusually high for Monroe County, he said. The smaller numbers in Monroe County may be in part because it is one of only a handful of counties in New York State that requires a staff member on the premises at all times who has passed a food safety certification course.

Golden Ponds served between 800 and 1,100 meals on Thanksgiving, Ricci said.

Recent foodborne illness outbreaks

June 1982: About 50 people fell ill of suspected salmonellosis after eating at Lake Shore Golf Center in Greece.

April 1994: A total of at least 78 cases of hepatitis A viral illness (50 in Monroe County residents and 28 in residents of surrounding counties), all from baked goods sold at the BJ’s Wholesale Club in Henrietta.

September 1994: About 20 cases of E. coli bacterial illness from meat products served at the Irondequoit Oktoberfest.

July 1995: About 120 people developed salmonella poisoning from pita sandwiches served by a vendor at the Time Warner American MusicFest in Rochester.

June 1998: At least 46 patrons of a restaurant in Newark, Wayne County fell ill with salmonellosis.

June and July 2002: At least 97 cases of salmonella bacterial illness were found among people who attended a party at Brook-Lea Country Club in Chili. A month later, at least 9 people at a golf tournament there developed salmonellosis.

November and December 2015: Employees at two restaurants in Waterloo, Seneca County were diagnosed with hepatitis A, an infectious virus. No patrons immediately reported sickness, but hundreds were vaccinated as a precaution.

Paul Vincent Nunes, a partner in Underberg and Kessler in Rochester, is working on a class action suit against the McDonald's in Waterloo for the 2015 case. Among his specialties as a lawyer is foodborne illness.

“Foodborne illness is like a silent accident,” Nunes said. "Imagine if 260 people were hurt in a car accident on 490 today. What would you be saying — how could that possibly happen? But because it’s food and because nobody saw the collision … the perception is not as serious.”

TRACYS@Gannett.com

Before 60 got ill, restaurant needed 'massive' cleaning