Calgary’s Blowers and Grafton reopened after AHS closure due to sewage backup

A downtown Calgary restaurant has reopened after Alberta Health Services ordered it closed due to a sewage backup on Wednesday.

According to a notice on the AHS website, Blowers and Grafton in the Mission neighbourhood was closed due to water and debris from a sewage backup in the basement kitchen.

The notice also said the restaurant’s dishwasher was not sufficiently sanitizing dishes and insufficient equipment was available for manual dishwashing.

Josh Robinson, chief brand officer and one of the owners of Blowers and Grafton, told Global News a plumbing issue on the street outside the restaurant caused sewage backups for several nearby businesses.

He added that he agreed with the closure.

“A few establishments, including ourselves, have had some, sewage backup actually come into their establishments. We’re not the only, food establishment that’s had that happen in the past week,” he told Global News on Sunday.

Robinson said the staff noticed the malfunctioning dishwasher the morning of the inspection and they were getting a technician in to fix it.

He said the inspection came at a bad time but took full responsibility for the infractions. The restaurant was able to open Thursday morning after AHS confirmed the sewage issue was rectified.

“We rectified the problems right away … We made sure the team cleaned that back room immediately, and luckily we were able to open the next morning. Hopefully the sewer issue is dealt with, so we don’t have to run into this kind of thing,” Robinson said.

“We understand that the public’s trust gets wavered in these type of situations, and it’s a really scary look. Obviously, it’s scary for us as well … But we hope we can rebuild that trust and have everybody come in. We take a lot of pride in food safety and quality.”