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.”
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2012.
NOBODY is buying it Cusack. Lindy is just the newest addition to a laundry list of people who claim to have been done dirty by you. Who are you gonna believe 25 businessmen or 1 “businessman”?
I don’t know a thing about their business dealings, but I had one of their exclusive “Lindy Hamburgers” and what a surprise. and I might add a mess! That was a couple months ago. I had never heard of Lindy’s downtown, I am not a downtown type person. No disrespect for the professionals downtown, but do they really go for the pile of “food” on a what should be a simple hamburger? I plan on revisiting Redline next week to see the new and what has to be an improved menu.
Is he saying he invented the Blue Cheese and Bacon hamburger? Hey, if you want to sue to get some money for your ‘creation’…go after Chili’s they have a Blue Cheese and Bacon burger too…they’re steeeeealing you!!! Get yourself back from them. In addition, they have deep pockets.
This song is so appropriate to Luke:
No more!
The crap rolls out your mouth again
Haven’t changed, your brain is still gelatin
Little whispers circle around your head
Why don’t you worry about yourself instead?
Who are you? Where ya been? Where ya from?
Gossip is burning on the tip of your tongue
You lie so much you believe yourself
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself
Holier than thou
You are
Holier than thou
You are
You know not
Before you judge me take a look at you
Can’t you find something better to do
Point the finger, slow to understand
Arrogance and ignorance go hand in hand
It’s not who you are, it’s who you know
Other’s lives are the basis of your own
Burn your bridges build them back with wealth
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself
And for those of you with information about Luke Cusack’s business practices, who have not already, send me an email at: informer@realemail.net
@What – no that is exactly the opposite of what he is saying. he is saying, obviously some menu items may be similar, but anyone who knows lindy’s food will realize he is stealing things that are very apparently him. (NOT THE BLUE CHEESE BACON BURGER)
If Luke thought everything was “fine” between the two of them, then why has he been slandering Lindy’s name since the beginning of the partnership? Why was he always telling employees to stop answering the phone with the full name “Lindy’s at Redline Sports Grill”, but instead with just “Redline Sports Grill”.
Luke is right. By adding some items that clash with the rest of the menu that he simply renamed, he created something unique. An ignorant menu… Who goes to a burger joint for crabcakes? …or pizza?
Maybe this restaurant will be as “wildly successful” as his last restaurant “Steak in the Neighborhood”, that is now closed.
Funny dj dingus is luke.
https://www.facebook.com/LukeCusackFans
Luke is a shrewd businessman. There are some people in this town he has gotten the better of.
On the flip side, though, he is not above throwing someone under the bus, and has wronged more than a few, and I could name names, but will not.
this comment comes in 1/2013-after the closing of redline….all i can say is that we had gone many times while they were open, but havent been recently. A couple of weeks ago, we went for lunch and it was amazingly awful!! the service was terrible, and the food did not hold a candle to what we had received on previous visits. After reading the article about the closing, and now this article, it all makes sense now.
Since Lindy left it all went downhill, but what ultimately killed Redline was Cusack. He has no business running a restaurant. The food quality and the service turned into total crap under his leadership. Sad because the decor and building were awesome.
I used to cook at redline, and Cusak was always trying to find something to nitpick when I was running the grill… He fired one of my closest friends because of how I was cooking bacon?! The dude is a control freak with no sense of interpersonal communication skills. I still haven’t gotten my W2 and I don’t ever expect to see it. He couldn’t stand to have Lindy get all the attention from him, who just owned the building…
Well folks this story is over. Redline is bankrupt, the building razed, and Luke the Puke has fled to Mexico.
Tucson is now a better place!