Just months after announcing a settlement, the owners of the Rusty Pelican restaurants in Newport Beach and Glendale and Houston-based Landry’s Seafood Restaurants Inc. are back in court.
San Clemente-based Rusty Pelican Restaurants Inc., which two years ago sold its five-unit chain and name to Landry’s for roughly $7 million, now is suing Landry’s over a settlement that allowed the company to keep using the Rusty Pelican name at the two restaurants it still operates.
The settlement, which stems from a suit filed in June by Landry’s against Rusty Pelican Restaurants, included a $500,000 payment by Rusty Pelican Restaurants to Landry’s for use of the Rusty Pelican name at the Newport Beach and Glendale restaurants.
According to the recent lawsuit, Rusty Pelican Restaurants charges no payments have been made because “Landry’s refuses to honor the agreement.”
Landry’s, which operates 190 restaurants including the brands Joe’s Crab Shack and Rainforest Caf & #233;, declined to comment on the recent suit.
The suit is the latest in a series of legal rows involving Rusty Pelican, which has been a Newport Beach fixture for 30 years. An original suit filed by Landry’s called for Rusty Pelican Restaurants to pay for repairs to one acquired restaurant and compensation for another under performing one in the Midwest. Landry’s also asked Rusty Pelican Restaurants to stop using the Rusty Pelican name.
In January, Rusty Pelican Restaurants filed suit against its Newport Beach landlords alleging they thwarted the original 1998 deal to sell the Newport Beach restaurant to Landry’s by not allowing a sublease.
The owners of Rusty Pelican Restaurants also own and operate a newer chain of restaurants under Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurants Inc. in San Clemente. They count 12 eateries in seven states in a joint venture with Paramount Pictures based on the film “Forrest Gump.” n
