YouTube mega-success MrBeast is suing Virtual Dining Concepts, the company behind his ghost kitchen food chain, MrBeast Burger, for damaging the MrBeast brand. According to the lawsuit, thousands of fans have sent in negative reviews of MrBeast Burger, many of whom shared photos of burgers and chicken sandwiches with uncooked, inedible meat. MrBeast’s team also claims that Virtual Dining Concepts violated their contract by failing to pay royalties and registering MrBeast Burger trademarks without the YouTuber’s permission. So, MrBeast’s team is suing the ghost kitchen company to get out of the contract and shut down the MrBeast Burger business.
The MrBeast Burger franchise has made millions of dollars since opening in 2020, though, according to the lawsuit, MrBeast himself — the 25-year-old Jimmy Donaldson — has “not received a dime” and is owed money from the venture. To make matters worse, customers say the food is “inedible.”Since launch, the burger chain has gotten mixed reviews. Still, the brand is popular enough that last year, 10,000 kids and teens crowded New Jersey’s American Dream mall for the opening of a brick-and-mortar MrBeast Burger store. Some queued all night to be at the front of the line.
But per the lawsuit, MrBeast feels he is letting these fans down.
“When Joe DiMaggio was asked why he hustled on every play of every game, he responded that ‘there is always a kid who may be seeing me for the first time. I owe him my best,'” begins the legal complaint. “This encapsulates the philosophy that one of the most accomplished and prolific online content creators in the world [MrBeast] brings to everything he does.” (Note: lawsuits typically do not open with Joe DiMaggio quotes.)According to MrBeast’s team, the YouTuber complained to Virtual Dining Concepts about the ghost kitchen’s lack of quality control, but the company did not rectify these issues. The lawsuit includes an 85-page document highlighting just a fraction of the bad press around the enterprise, which call MrBeast burger the “worst burger ever,” “a terrible meme burger,” “raw and disgusting” and “tough as shoe leather.”
As a ghost kitchen, Virtual Dining Concepts uses the kitchens of local restaurants to prepare the food, then sells it on delivery apps like Grubhub, Uber Eats and DoorDash. The company works with other internet stars like the hosts of sports podcast Pardon My Take, who opened a restaurant called Pardon My Cheesesteak.
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