PrintRebecca Charles is Mad as Hell and She's Not Going to Take It Anymore
Rebecca Charles, chef-owner of Pearl Oyster Bar in New York City and subject of an incredibly lively discussion on Serious Eats, is mad as hell and she's not going to take it any more. She's suing her most recent imitator, Ed McFarland, her former sous-chef of six years, for purposefully stealing her concept, menu, and look and feel in opening his own restaurant, Ed's Lobster Bar, less than a mile from Pearl.
"I've looked the other way for years," Rebecca said. "I understand that chefs take dishes from the restaurants they worked in when they open their own restaurants. But Ed's Lobster Bar is much more than a knock-off. It's an exact duplicate of Pearl. Thirty-one of the 34 dishes on his menu are simply lifted from Pearl. The stools, the look and feel of the place, everything is exactly the same. It's offensive. Plus he lied to me. He told me and the staff when he quit that he was leaving to open an Italian seafood restaurant. I said great. I even offered to help him. Then, six weeks later, he opens Ed's."
In the restaurant world this suit is groundbreaking stuff. Songwriters are sued for stealing lyrics and melodies, screenwriters and movie studios are often accused of stealing treatments (remember when Art Buchwald sued Eddie Murphy?), but as far as I know this is the first time a chef-restaurateur is suing a former employee and accusing him of stealing everything but the toilet paper.
McFarland refused to comment about the suit, telling the New York Times that he hadn't yet seen the paperwork. In what could only be called a serious expression of chutzpah, he told the Times: "I would say it's a similar restaurant. I would not say it's a copy."
Charles knows that many people in and out of the restaurant business will think that she's nuts for doing this. But even though she knows that this is going to be time- and emotion-consuming, not to mention expensive, Charles thinks the time is right for a chef to take a stand on this long-simmering issue: "I'm not trying to be a saint here, but I do feel that by doing this now I am going to be helping a lot of other chefs in the present and future when this happens to them. But obviously that's not the only reason I'm suing Ed. This guy is making money off my back, money that I don't have. I don't have a lot of restaurants. I only have one. I think Pearl Oyster Bar has made a meaningful contribution to food and restaurants in New York, and I'm going to do what I have to do to protect what I have built."
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17 Comments:
I applaud her effort.
How difficult is it to open something that's not a Xerox?
Even worse that her former employess can't even be bothered to leave the neighbourhood.
Win or lose she's already made her point.
Good luck to her.
norman at 1:09AM on 06/27/07
Thanks for the stand. we can say that karma is a b.....ch, and watch someone rip off a concept and (usually) fail, and they usually do. But after this, I'll go after the next person that goes after mine.
paulius at 5:57AM on 06/27/07
It is sad people have so little integrity that they would copy an original concept so blatantly. I wish Rebecca Charles the best in fighting this wrong.
Vitello Tonnato at 8:25AM on 06/27/07
This is a fairly absurd lawsuit. A win for Rebecca Charles would be bad for the customer and bad for the restaurant industry.
There is very little done in restaurants that is "original." Heck, one of my favorite parts of the New York Times article is, "She learned [the Caesar salad recipe] from her mother, who extracted it decades ago from the chef at a long-gone Los Angeles restaurant. It became a kind of signature at Pearl." If Charles ran the restaurant world, would she even be able to use this recipe?
greenfield at 9:05AM on 06/27/07
She (Rebecca) acknowledged that Pearl was itself inspired by another narrow, unassuming place, Swan Oyster Depot in San Francisco.
FultonFishMarket at 10:04AM on 06/27/07
Here's an interesting analysis from the point of view of IP law.
curdnerd at 11:30AM on 06/27/07
I think her point is that the actions of her ex-employees directly attack her bottom line.
Having an employee open a new restaurant? Totally ok.
Having an employee open a copycat restaurant in, say, Washington D.C.? A little annoying, but hey, that's entrepreneurship.
Heck, if Ed had opened his restaurant on the UES instead, or in Park Slope, maybe even then it'd be a different matter.
Fact is, he took her entire concept: the types of dishes served + the general atmosphere + little bitty details like the same types of chairs and bartop, then opened a restaurant near enough to directly pull business away from Pearl.
Yes, other people use marble-topped bars. Yes, other people serve lobster rolls. Yes, other people have straw-backed chairs and whatnot. (and so on for all sorts of decor and food details) But how many of those people have all those things, in combination, in one restaurant, in NYC, within spitting distance of Pearl?
Samantha at 11:33AM on 06/27/07
How can she be sure it's her Cesear salad if she's hasn't even eaten it? I think to be as credible as possible in court she needs to eat the salad.
Regardless, I think she should go for it. Owners of intellectual property need to protect their IP in order for it to retain its value. That's all she's doing: trying to protect her IP.
And, there's nothing wrong or illegal about Charles having been inspired by another restaurant. It sounds like from the article that McFarland has gone way beyond inspiration to flat-out misappropriation.
K at 12:20PM on 06/27/07
The lawsuit is a joke. She did not copyright her food, and lets be honest, lobster rolls, Caesar salads and raw seafood are nothing new. Even if he used her recipes I don't think she has a case. Has she done a chemical analysis on the Caesar dressing to determine if he is using the exact same ingredients (in the same quantities) and preperation method?
If she wants to protect herself, make all employees sign non-compete agreements or non-disclosure agreements, something you think she might have done after the first clone opened up a few years back.
Look it sucks that this guy is ripping her off, (it reminds me of the Mac Dowell's restruant in Coming to America) but if this lawsuit is successfull watch out because you will see a flurry of lawsuits. Maybe White Castle will sue Krystal for making similar small steamed hamburgers or the Anchor Bar will sue the tens of thousands of places serving buffalo wings.
EatWisconsin at 12:27PM on 06/27/07
If I recall correctly, a couple of years ago the Cheesecake Factory in Miami sued one of their former chefs who opened NEXTT on Miami Beach claiming that he had "stolen" their recipes. I don't know what the outcome was of the suit. I do know that both NEXTT and the Cheesecake Factory are doing well.
elaine at 1:03PM on 06/27/07
Ooops, the Miami Beach restaurant is NEXX.
elaine at 1:17PM on 06/27/07
Read the comments on the Gawker Post, they pretty much sum the lawsuit up
FultonFishMarket at 3:15PM on 06/27/07
Intellectual Property? I am not a lawyer, but I am an assiduous observer of the evolving definitions of intellectual property.
Is Rebecca Charles arguing that her recipes are a trade secret?
She admits that there is no novelty in the concept behind her restaurant or the cuisine she offers to her guests. To use patent law parlance, there is prior art and, consequently, no enforceable rights in the alleged intellectual property.
I hope that she does not intend to argue that anyone will confuse Pearl Oyster Bar and Ed's Lobster Bar and that this confusion will diminish the value of her recipes, concept, and guest service.
Ms. Charles is not operating a chain and has dubious claims to unregisterd trademark infringement. Ms. Charles would have to allege that Ed McFarland's business is "passing off" i.e. Ed's Lobster Bar is misrepresenting itself and illicitly appropriating the reputation and doing damage to the hard won business goodwill of Pearl Oyster Bar. Trademark is notoriously one of the most difficult forms of intellectual property to defend because of the diligent and often costly defense it requires to preserve.
Restaurants distinguish themselves in the marketplace in a variety of ways, but food quality and service are irreplaceable elements of success in the industry.
To me, Ms. Charles' lawsuit appears to be anti-competitive. It is not unusual in the market for leased restaurant space for exclusivity clauses to appear in the lease contract that prohibit landlords from renting to a competitor selling similar products i.e. a sandwich shop may require a contingency in the lease agreement forbidding the landlord from leasing to another sandwich shop within the same building or a clearly defined trade area.
If Ms. Charles wants to squander the good will she has worked hard to build up in her business venture, she should pursue this case that will surely attract the attention of her guests and her competitors in ways she may eventually regret.
If Ms. Charles wants to enjoy continued success in an increasingly competitive submarket of the restaurant industry in New York City she should continue to offer the same delightful food, service, and atmosphere that her many satisfied and loyal guests value and recommend to others.
Dyskolos at 3:15PM on 06/27/07
Although I deplore McFarland's actions and hope that he fails miserably, I don't think Ms. Charles has a strong enough legal case to prevail. Neither her menu nor her dining room are unique enough to stand as original concepts. I expect that the courts will not provide her with any satisfaction, unless she can prove that McFarland intended to deceive the public. Her best hope is to bury McFarland by providing a better and more exciting dining experience. And if there is such a thing as karma, I hope McFarland gets buried in the bad kind, right up to his neck
ronfrankl at 3:42PM on 06/27/07
I think I will never go to Pearl Oyster Bar again. I guess until POB opened there wasn't such a thing as a new england seafood shack otherwise some one would be suing her. She really needs to get over herself. Does she really think two more "lobster shacks" are going to hurt her bottom line? She gets plenty of business.
adrocks at 3:43PM on 06/27/07
Did Gertrude Stein sue Ernest Hemingway for stealing her rhythm? Did Cezanne sue Picasso? Did the crack dealer on my corner sue the crack dealer across the street - oh wait, there was that gunfight. The Anxiety of Influence strikes the seafood sector - someone tell Harold Bloom.
Phoebe Damrosch at 5:16PM on 06/27/07
I don't know much about legal matters, so I believe others when they say this case has no legal merit, but I am confused by people who compare this situation to one where you have restaurants with similar concepts in different cities that are 100's or thousands of miles apart. These places are a mile apart and almost look they could be part of the same chain.
Vitello Tonnato at 1:17PM on 06/28/07