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Worst bat mitzvah ever.
A Manhattan family’s swanky bat mitzvah was ruined when their severely allergic daughter, who struggles with celiac disease, ate a piece of pita bread — and soon began “projectile vomiting,” according to a lawsuit.
Joel and Holly Kurtzberg shelled out more than $53,000 for their eldest daughter’s special day at Second, an event space in Midtown where at least 85 adults and 45 kids turned out, gobbling up dishes such as seared Scottish salmon, peppercorn crusted sliders and wild mushroom risotto.
The couple, who have two girls, repeatedly asked for gluten-free options and “allergy safe” foods at the February 2019 bash, telling the restaurant that guests with serious allergies, and conditions like celiac disease, would be attending — including the guest of honor’s younger sister.
“We met with them so many times and really emphasized that our [youngest] daughter has celiac disease and a severe nut allergy and a sensitivity to dairy. … We said it so many times, we were like, ‘We’re sorry we’re repeating ourselves,’” dad Joel Kurtzberg recalled, adding, “It was very disappointing.”
The restaurant told the pair “that they would take great care in assuring that guests with celiac disease and/or allergies would be able to eat safely at the event” and promised to label foods which had gluten and dairy, the Kurtzbergs said in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit against Second.
Celiac disease can cause an immune reaction to foods like bread, which contain gluten.
The restaurant not only allegedly failed to label the food, the Kurtzbergs claim, but when their 10-year-old daughter double checked and asked a server if the pita bread being passed around was gluten-free, the server wrongly told her it was, according to the litigation.
“My daughter, who is really careful about eating things — when they say it’s safe, she checks — she asked, ‘Is this gluten free?’” Kurtzberg said. “It wasn’t and she ate it and she just got really violently ill.”
The party “should have been a very special occasion,” he said, but instead, the couple took turns caring for their sick child while trying to greet guests.
“It’s the only thing you can remember about an event that’s supposed to be a really happy occasion. It was embarrassing for her, she wanted to be celebrating with her sister. By the end she was curled up in a fetal position completely exhausted after vomiting repeatedly,” he noted.
“It was just really mishandled and very unfortunate,” Kurtzberg added.
Second didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.
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