Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Owner of Redline Sports Grill Responds to Lindy Reilly

Posted By on Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 4:00 PM

Luke Cusack of Redline Sports Grill says he has parted ways with former business partner Lindy Reilly, but he gives a far different account than the one Reilly provided yesterday.

Cusack says the idea behind the business was not only to serve Reilly's unique take on burgers and other items, but to have Lindy on site as a sort of local celebrity.

But he says Reilly stopped spending much time at the restaurant as the months rolled on, so they made a new agreement for the restaurant to use Reilly's name and image for $1,000 a month.

Cusack said he never shared any harsh words with Reilly, and that he thought everything was fine between them until he received a letter demanding $90,000 from Reilly's lawyer several weeks ago.

"Out of the blue we got a letter from his lawyer saying we have 10 days to change everything," said Cusack.

"I never told him to fuck off and that he couldn't have his equipment," said Cusack. "I'm sorry he harbors so much hate."

Cusack says Reilly and his lawyer have since dropped the amount of their demand to $30,000.

When asked what he thought may have caused the rift, Cusack also pointed to another happening at the restaurant.

"Our customers were coming to us and telling us that we needed to have more than just burgers, so I started working on a menu with more items. I guess that upset him and he thought he’d throw it back in my face," said Cusack.

Cusack also says he paid Reilly all the money owed to him, something Reilly flatly denied today.

"It's just lies," said Reilly, adding that there was no new agreement for a lower per-month payment. "He wanted to re-do the deal and I said 'I'm not doing anything else if it's not in writing.'"

Reilly says Cusack agreed to pay him $1,500 a month, two-thirds of food sales and two percent of all drinks sold there. He says he received about $8,000 in total. He also says Cusack took creative control over some menu items, which was strictly prohibited by their business agreement.

Reilly said he has been banned from the property and that he is continuing with his attempt to take back the rights to the food he created.

As for the future of Redline Sports Grill, Cusack says he has rewritten the menu and basically scrubbed the building of any sign of Reilly. He's says there are now 20 kinds of hot wings, new salad and that many more items are made with homemade ingredients than when Reilly ran the kitchen.

I asked Cusack if the items on the new menu resemble Reilly's food - as Reilly indicated yesterday - and he said some items from the old menu did carry over, but they are items that other restaurants also serve. He said if anyone has any doubt about it they should come down and check it out for themselves.

Reilly says he got his hands on a preliminary copy of the menu and that the only thing that has changed on many items are the names.

"So like, there's a burger with blue cheese and bacon, lots of people have a burger with blue cheese and bacon, but I'm known for a certain style of food in this town, and that's what I'm trying to protect," said Reilly. "He's stealing me. He's trying to steal me. That's what got me fired up."

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