Locals lament spinach loss

Pizza Express's famous Popeye pizza has lost its pizzazz-- its spinach.\n"We are serving the Popeye without spinach," said Pizza Express marketing communications manager Sara Sheikh, who, along with business people around Bloomington, has been doing her best to work around the recent spinach crisis. \nBut as the E. coli scare that has paralyzed spinach sales across 21 states enters its second week, local consumers and vendors are tiring of the ban on the common vegetable.\n"I hope this ordeal is over soon," said Javad Noori, the owner of Sahara Mart. Noori said his store got rid of all of its bagged and fresh spinach and salad mixes last Friday and still has customers asking for it. \n"Some people are really missing their spinach," he said\nAt Upland Brewery Co., where the spinach and artichoke dip appetizer is a customer favorite, the restaurant had to throw away more than 30 pounds of product containing spinach, said Ryan Harvey, the restaurant manager.\n"For the weekend I was forced to go to Marsh and buy cases and cases of Romaine lettuce to make our own salad mix," Harvey said. \nAs an alternative, his restaurant is using frozen or canned spinach product for its dishes.\nSince last Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration has received reports of E. coli outbreaks in 21 states related to fresh and bagged spinach. One of the first affected was Indiana. Of 131 cases, 66 people have been hospitalized, 20 have suffered kidney failure and one person has died.\nCustomers are feeling the pinch as they are told their favorite dishes are unavailable. \n"I was shocked that I couldn't get spinach," said Stephanie Suvak, an IU graduate student who was given a spinach-less wrap at Kiva in the Indiana Memorial Union Wednesday. "I didn't realize they'd actually be pulling spinach, and there would be a shortage."\nAt restaurants like Mother Bear's Pizza, where spinach is an essential part of many recipes, the spinach shortage has forced them to remove certain crowd pleasers from their menu.\nEllie Debevoise, an IU alumnus, said she was very disappointed when she learned she couldn't order the spinach lasagna from Mother Bear's.\n"I was upset about that," Debevoise said. "Spinach is one of those things you take for granted. You never really think about vegetables being a health problem."\n"We had to throw out a whole pan of spinach lasagna we were cooking," Wyatt Clark, a cook at Mother Bear's, said. Clark said that the pizza place would return to cooking with spinach once the FDA ban was lifted, but it's hard to say when that will be.\nFresh spinach has been recalled up to Oct. 1, according to the "Best if Used by Date" on the packages, and vendors are uncertain when the crisis will be deemed over.\nGreg Phillips, the produce manager at Bloomingfoods, said the local co-op was still waiting on word from its vendors.\n"I'm not even sure they really know when the E. coli scare is going to be over," said Angela Lamonica, the front house manager at Roots. Her restaurant has been substituting Romaine lettuce for spinach. \nWhile Lamonica said the restaurant was fully reimbursed by its vendor for the spinach that was in stock, some local businesses, like Sahara Mart, are still waiting to find out if they will be reimbursed as well.\n"We are hoping to be reimbursed by the company," Noori said. "I know the farmers are going to lose big time because of this. I hope someone reimburses them"