The founder of a taco business that has attracted model Chrissy Teigen and other celebrities is suing the operators of the corporation’s first brick-and-mortar location, saying he has been shut out of the restaurant operations despite contributing money to open it.
Theodoro Vasquez’s lawsuit states that Teigen, Jonah Hill and former Boston Celtic forward Paul Pierce became customers after he started Teddy’s Red Tacos in a small Los Angeles stand in October 2016, and that his shells filled with Tijuana-style beef birria were featured in a 2019 Super Bowl commercial on ESPN Deportes.
The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, filed Friday, names as defendants Jorge and Nancy Gomez, the couple identified in the lawsuit as the operators of the Teddy’s Red Tacos restaurant on Whittier Boulevard. The allegations include breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, misappropriation of trade secrets and that the couple put their interests ahead of those of Vazquez.
Vazquez also wants a judge to enjoin the couple from using the Teddy’s Red Tacos trade name, which he says he owns.
The suit seeks unspecified damages. The Gomezes could not be immediately reached.
Vazquez’s recipe uses Tijuana-style beef that enabled him to become “a local sensation in the crowded taco stand market in Los Angeles,” his suit states.
Vazquez also worked as an Uber driver and put his tacos in his trunk so passengers could be exposed to their aroma and he could offer them a sample, the suit states.
“The business grew quickly as word of the delicious tacos spread throughout the city,” according to the complaint.
Vazquez’s business expanded and he bought a food truck through which he sold tacos along Slauson Avenue in South Los Angeles, the suit states. He bought a second truck from Jorge Gomez, who owned a company that converted trucks so they could be used to sell food, the suit states.
The Gomezes offered to join with Vazquez in opening Teddy’s first restaurant, the suit states. However, they offered no capital contribution and “incredibly … required plaintiff to contribute funds in order to participate in the corporation and its new retail store,” the suit states.
Nancy Gomez and Vazquez were each made 50 percent shareholders of the corporation, the suit states. But once the corporation began, the Gomezes shut Vazquez out of the operation and took control, brought in their own staff and refused to let the plaintiff see the corporation’s books and records, the suit alleges.
The Gomezes also denied Vazquez’s repeated requests for a regular accounting as well as “any level of transparency as to the regular day-to-day operation of the corporation,” the suit states.