‘Are there nuts in this?' She left the nightclub in an ambulance, despite warning the waiter of her allergy

Toronto Star

12-05-2025

The group of 10 friends had gathered at a popular nightclub on Dundas Street West to celebrate a special birthday with dinner and salsa dancing.
But a small bite of banana cake brought the party to an abrupt end.
'Are there nuts in this!?' Sabrina Grozdanovski asked, turning to her friends in shock.
'It's happening,' she exclaimed.
With her lips and throat swelling, Grozdanovski ran from the private dining area of the Lula Lounge and out its front doors to call 911 while her friends tried to get a straight answer from the kitchen about the cake's ingredients.
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As paramedics loaded the 24-year-old woman into an ambulance, the chef insisted the cake wasn't to blame.
'It was terrifying,' says Grozdanovski.
The problem: She said she was allergic to 'all nuts'
When the group placed their dinner orders the night of March 15, Grozdanovski noted her severe allergy to 'all nuts,' a detail she said the waiter typed into an electronic tablet.
Grozdanovski said she's had the nut allergy her whole life, but hasn't had a reaction since childhood. When the wait staff told her the chef was adamant the dessert contained no nuts, she didn't know whether to take her Epi pen and waited for paramedics to administer it.
She thought she had detected a crunchiness in her small bite. While she waited outside for an ambulance, her friends forked apart the cake looking for clues. They saw what looked like chopped nuts but the chef insisted it wasn't possible.
More than an hour after the group left, a senior manager emailed one of Grozdanovski's friends a pdf of the cake's ingredients list, confirming the chef's serious error — the cake contained walnuts.
'Please let me know how this situation develops,' he wrote.
Grozdanovski reached out to Lula Lounge after her release from hospital where she received more medicine to counter her allergic reaction and IV fluids.
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She and a friend who accompanied her to hospital took an Uber back home to Whitby.
'We are horrified that this has happened,' Tracy Jenkins, a long-time Lula senior manager wrote by email to Grozdanovski the next night. 'We will get back to you asap with a full account of how we intend to address this issue to make sure that it never happens again.'
A few days later, Jenkins emailed Grozdanovski, noting her team was preparing a 'full report on the actions we have taken and will continue to follow through on,' including a 'review of our allergy plan.'
She said she would reach out again before the end of the week, but never did.
'I've spent the past two months being gaslit, ignored, and denied basic accountability from a place that should've known better,' said Grozdanovski, who is seeking answers about the venue's allergy protocols and financial compensation.
Grozdanovski followed up with Lula several times after Jenkins had emailed, but no one reached out.
'I gave Lula every opportunity to handle this privately, with dignity,' she said. 'I reached out professionally. I set deadlines. I was transparent. I was more kind and understanding than I should've been. They dragged this out for two months — then went silent. Meanwhile, they continue to post about weekend parties and receive good reviews like nothing happened.'
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The Star steps in: 'We messed up,' says co-owner
So what did happen?
I reached out to Lula Lounge looking for answers.
Jose Ortega, one of the venue's co-owners, called me immediately on What's App from Spain.
'Without a doubt, we messed up,' he said. 'Our dessert person quit that week,' so the restaurant ordered prepackaged desserts to fill the gap.
The banana cake was 'literally introduced that day,' he said.
The chef, Ortega said, 'didn't bother to check' (the cake box's label.) He just made an assumption he shouldn't have made. He should have said, 'I don't know.' It was unprofessional.'
Ortega confirmed 'a manager went into the store room to find the packaging because nobody was getting a satisfactory answer from the chef.'
Lula Lounge fired the chef and took banana cake off the menu.
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He says Lula has since created printed and digital files of the ingredients used in every dish on its menu, which he calls 'The Bible.'
The kitchen has also implemented a new rule, he said.
'Nothing gets switched out randomly if an ingredient is not available,' he said. 'If we can't get the ingredient, (the dish) goes off the menu.'
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Grozdanovski had initially ordered a different dessert that night but was told it wasn't available. She selected the banana cake based on its menu description and the wait staff's assurances it was nut free.
As she ran outside to catch her breath and call an ambulance, Grozdanovski said none of the staff came to see how she was doing.
Ortega said he wasn't in the venue that night and can't speak to the staff's response to the medical emergency.
'I would be surprised if they were callous about it,' he said.
The resolution: Restaurant offers $3,000
While Grozdanovski was en route to hospital with one friend, the others stayed behind to sort out the allergen question and final bills.
They were taken aback, Grozdanovski said, to find the restaurant was going to charge them and had added a 20 per cent gratuity to their orders.
After some debate, the floor manager waived the cost of their meals.
Grozdanovski also wanted Lula to cover the costs of her ambulance ride to hospital, the Uber ride home to Whitby and other expenses that she and her friends incurred for the night, an amount she said totalled $3,000.
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'We weren't sure where that came from,' Ortega said. Jenkins initially asked Grozdanovski to provide receipts, a request she found insulting.
'It's such a headache to have to deal with this,' she said. 'I don't want to bother my friends for this, squeezing them for all the screenshots (of their receipts).'
Ortega noted that Grozdanovski and her friends have left a trail of one-star reviews on Google and Open Table detailing their experience that is hurting the business. He would like it to stop.
Lula's lawyer, Ortega said last Thursday, 'will be reaching out to her directly this afternoon to offer her $3,000.'
No receipts required.