American Girl Cafe Reopens After Stomach Bug Outbreak Updated April 26, 2010 10:26am

American Girl Place dolls (pamusc93 / flickr)

By Jill Colvin & Michael Ventura

DNAinfo Staff

MANHATTAN — American Girl Place, the tourist-friendly Fifth Avenue high-end doll shop and lunch spot for tween girls, reopened Saturday after being closed several days for a stomach bug outbreak.

The restaurant closed Wednesday after three people who had dined there earlier in the week called to say they all got sick afterward.

"It was a precautionary measure in response to a suspected stomach virus," Julie Parks, director of public relations for American Girl, told DNAinfo."We took every measure to resolve this issue."

Parks said 285 reservations were canceled because of the outbreak, and that many had already been rebooked.

After passing a health department inspection, the restaurant reopened at 11 a.m. Saturday, Parks said.

A check of past inspections on the department's website found few, if any, problems with the food at American Girl Place.

Rather, the department figured the problem was a highly-contageous norovirus, or stomach bug that causes vomiting, diarrhea and cramps, usually for one or two days.

Hardly any of the tourists waiting Monday morning for American Girl's doors to open had heard about the scare.

"That's news to us," said Leslie Levitt, 36, of the outbreak. She was planning to celebrate her twin daughters' fifth birthdays at American Girl for more than a year. "That's a little scary."

Charlotte Nelson, 59, from Columbia, Miss., celebrating granddaughter Kaitlyn's 9th birthday agreed. "I wouldn't expect anybody to get sick," she said. "It's a Fifth Avenue store. The prices are pretty high, so I would expect high quality."

The virus is generally transmitted by having contact with food or objects that have been touched by someone infected with the bug. The infections are generally not serious, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By Michael Ventura, DNAinfo.com

Follow Michael on Twitter @mpvdna