Several women say they blacked out and felt drugged after recently having drinks at a ritzy Tribeca restaurant — prompting a police probe and leaving them terrified to order a drink again while out.
The women stepped forward in the past week to claim in interviews and social-media posts that they left the Mexican hot spot Casa Carmen disoriented and violently ill after as few as one or two drinks — and are now urging others to be careful.
A restaurant-goer who went to the Tribeca eatery, which also has a Flatiron location, on Nov. 22 with friends recalled instantly blacking out after taking a sip of her second margarita.
Several women have reported blacking out and feeling like they were drugged after eating at Casa Carmen in Tribeca. Robert Miller
“We had a drink with our meal, and we ordered a bunch of food. Right when we got our second drinks to the table, basically from starting to sip that second drink, I just completely have no memory from that point up until waking up the next morning,” claimed the patron, who wished to remain anonymous out of concern for her safety, to The Post.
She recalled then waking up shaky and disoriented the next morning, instantly knowing “something was wrong.
“There was like a tall glass of water next to my bed, but it was a glass that I normally don’t use, so I knew someone else had put it there,” she said. “I just didn’t know who. I was physically shaky … and just really knew something was wrong. I had never been in that position before.”
She said that thankfully, she eventually discovered she was helped into her apartment by a concerned neighbor, who set her up with a glass of water after finding her stuck in the vestibule of her apartment building, unable to get through the second door.
When piecing together the events of the night, the customer discovered multiple Google and Yelp reviews detailing similar experiences.
A woman told The Post she woke up the next morning feeling ill and with no memory of her trip to Casa Carmen after only having two margaritas at the Manhattan restaurant on Nov. 22. Robert Miller
“The restaurant was beautiful, food was decent, but half of my all-women party, after only 2 margaritas, were projectile vomiting and unconscious. Very scary. Please BE CAREFUL,” reads a Yelp review from more than two years ago.
A Google review said, “Never go to this place … please be warned!!!
“Went there with my girlfriends … we ordered two margaritas each. At the end of the night we were so buzzed. One of my friends even passed out, we were throwing up all night and the next day,” the person wrote.
The Nov. 22 customer said she was alarmed by the reviews and called the restaurant to see if it could assist her or if its workers had noticed anything suspicious. She was immediately put off by Casa Carmen’s response, she claimed.
Multiple online reviews have reported similar incidents of women feeling drugged after ordering drinks at Casa Carmen. Christopher Sadowski
“He was very routine about it. He said, ‘OK, you sat at this table. Here’s your server’s name. You know, here’s what you guys ordered. Please email the owner, and I’ll tell you what, I’ll back you up,’ ” she said of her conversation with a supposed bartender.
“And that struck me as odd because I was like, why, why, why would he say that? Like, and why do I need backup?” she said.
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The general manager of Casa Carmen, Sebastian Ramirez Degollado, assured the Nov. 22 customer in a subsequent conversation that other customers who reported feeling overly incapacitated possibly misreported how much they drank or did not eat enough, according to the patron and records reviewed by The Post.
The woman then decided to make a post about her experience on a Reddit thread, which has since gone viral and spurred several people to reach out to her directly and comment with similar experiences of blacking out after less than two drinks.
The anonymous woman told The Post she was suspicious of Casa Carmen’s response after calling about the incident. Christopher Sadowski
She also filed an incident report with the NYPD, a process she said officers initially resisted.
“The female cop from the jump looked at me and said, ‘What do you want me to do? You want me to write that you went out, got too drunk, and don’t remember anything? You want me to write that down?’ And I’m thinking to myself, like, this is exactly why women don’t report crimes like this to the police,” she said of her conversation with officers at the precinct.
An NYPD rep confirmed to The Post that officers are investigating the diner’s report of the Nov. 22 incident. They are currently treating it as an isolated incident and have not received other related police reports.
Casa Carmen Tribeca told The Post in a statement that the restaurant is aware of the allegations and is cooperating with law enforcement.
“We are aware of these recent allegations and cooperating fully with the guest and the police as we take all guest safety very seriously. We have provided video to the police and offered to show the guest as well. We look forward to the police report,” the statement said.
The customer from Nov. 22 reported the incident at Casa Carmen to the police. Christopher Sadowski
“Our standard cocktails contain between 2 to 3 ounces of hard liquor, depending on the cocktail. Our margarita on tap contains Tradicional Blanco (2oz) and Combier (1oz), which are quality brands,” the restaurant continued.
Degollado also told The Post over the phone that this is the first time the restaurant has been approached by law enforcement for such matters.
Another woman who dined at Casa Carmen’s Tribeca location in March and wished to remain anonymous said she left the restaurant “the drunkest and sickest” she’d ever been after starting to sip her second margarita of the night.
“When I was on my second drink, which was a margarita, I got really nauseous at the table and had to get up. I immediately started throwing up downstairs in the bathroom,” she said.
“I was like, this is very odd. I can usually have two margaritas and not have a problem. We were eating a full dinner with it as well,” she said.
After traveling home the next day, she was still sick and unable to keep water down, leading her to go to the hospital, she said.
She was given fluids and anti-nausea medication and had some blood work done but was only told that she had an elevated white blood cell count after the ordeal.
The New York State Liquor Authority declined to comment on the matter, and the city Department of Health did not respond to Post requests for comment.