Fig & Olive (Photo by Leslie Duss via the Creative Commons on Flickr)

Fig & Olive (Photo by Leslie Duss via the Creative Commons on Flickr)

Many of the dishes featured frozen food. The menu saw nearly across-the-board price hikes. The damaging headlines kept on coming in the wake of a salmonella outbreak at Fig & Olive, and they all bore the same byline.

Washington City Paper reporter Jessica Sidman has been on top of the New York-based chain, trying to get answers about the outbreak and its aftermath. In total, 41 cases of salmonella were linked to the D.C. outpost.

But Fig & Olive, for the most part, wasn’t talking—giving Sidman only partial answers and declining interview requests. Then the restaurant gave The Washington Post the exclusive.

Sidman declined to discuss her reporting efforts or the company’s choice to speak to the Post.

But if Fig & Olive thought the Post would go easy on them, they were wrong. In an interview published late on Friday with Fig & Olive president Greg Galy, Tim Carman (who previously had Sidman’s job at the City Paper) asked pointed questions that cited or referenced the alt-weekly’s stories multiple times.

Greg Galy: This is an extensive recipe book. In the recent article, [Sidman] meant to show this entire list as if the commissary was producing all those items to be sent nationwide. Which is not true. It does not mean all those items were shipped nationwide.

Tim Carman: So how many were shipped to D.C.? The City Paper article mentions 200 items. How many of those were actually shipped to Los Angeles or D.C.?

GG: I don’t have the exact count now. But as I mentioned, the vast majority are dressings, tapenades and purees.

And then this happened:

TC: Okay. What else did you want to add to this conversation?

GG: First of all, I’d like to thank you for this opportunity. I hope I answered some of your questions, and I’m sorry if I couldn’t answer others. I’d like to thank our employees, if that can be shared. I’d like to thank our employees and customers for continuing to believe in our grand vision and for their continued patronage. I apologize to our guests for being subjected to any misrepresentation by the media.

TC: You apologize for what?

GG: To our guests for being subjected to any misrepresentation by the media.

TC: To being subjected to any misrepresentations by the media?

GG: Yes. As we conclude this interview, I’d like to take also the opportunity to wish our guests a happy holiday and a safe holiday season. We look forward to continue serving those guests in 2016.

TC: Do you apologize to the people who got sick?

GG: I apologize to our guests for being subjected to any misrepresentation by the media.

TC: I heard you say that.

Satirical news blog Stuck in D.C. has already written the perfect parody.

Filed Under: Fig & Olive, fig and olive, jessica sidman, salmonella, washington post,