Diners at Napa's La Toque and Bank Cafe & Bar Possibly Exposed to Hepatitis A

If you ate at Napa's Michelin-starred La Toque or its casual sister spot Bank Cafe & Bar from February 9-26, be forewarned: you may have been exposed to Hepatitis A. As CBS Local reports, the two restaurants at the five-star Westin Verasa Napa resort saw two employees stricken with the disease, which has brought them under investigation in an outbreak that has sickened a total of five people in the Napa area.

Diners who ate at the restaurants in that interval are being asked to monitor themselves for signs of the debilitating (but rarely fatal) disease, which can be transferred through food, drink, or person-to-person contact. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, dark urine, clay-colored bowel movement, joint pain and jaundice. So far, no customers of the restaurants have been among those stricken, but since symptoms typically don't emerge until a month after exposure (and can take as long as 50 days to appear), that may possibly change over the course of this month.

In a statement to CBS, chef Ken Frank says the two restaurants "take the health of our guests very seriously...we have strict health standards in place, and we are cooperating fully with Napa County Public Health to identify the source of the virus." Nonetheless, the news is an especially rough blow given that La Toque has already been in the spotlight of late as a place to eat foie gras after the overturning of California's ban, which Frank had publicly fought by giving away foie on his tasting menu for many years.