Koulouri B has the hottest thing coming out of Houston from “Still Tippin'” to his wildly popular Trill Burgers. But now it seems that Bun B's baby is at the center of a court case with several allegations being made.
According TimeBun B and his former partners and co-founders of Trill Burgers, Patsy and Benson Vivares, duke it out in court as both sides accuse each other of theft.
In 2023 Bun B, Andy Nguyen and Nick Scurfield filed a lawsuit against the Vivares brothers alleging that the two had stolen $45,000 from the company's coffers. Turning the tables on Bun B and company, Patsy and Benson filed a countersuit claiming that Bun B, Nguyen and Scurfield not only stole their idea for the smash burger but also the original recipe, which led to to crown Trill Burgers. the best burger in america.
Represented by Saad Aziz and Walter “Web” Beard of Aziz and Beard Trial Law, the Vivareses claim they connected with Andy Nguyen in 2021 when they were looking for a new menu item to add to the Sticky's Chicken restaurant menu.
Time References:
“[The Vivareses] spent a lot of time and energy developing the recipe,” Aziz said. “They're the ones who somehow came up with the specifics of the smashburger … now called the OG Trill Burger.”
According to the Vivareses' counterclaims, the brothers and Nguyen in July 2021 connected and worked with Bun B, who had known Nguyen since 2010 and was said to be a fan of Sticky's Chicken. At the time, the Vivareses approached Bun B through a meeting facilitated by Nguyen and Nick Scurfield, founder of PR firm Scurfield Group, who at the time listed Sticky's Chicken as a client. According to court documents, the initial meeting was set up to test the rapper's interest in “getting involved with the promotion” of the burger.
A partnership for the smashburger concept was confirmed on July 22, with each partner taking an ownership percentage, according to court documents. An email sent to each partner described the partnership, indicating that the Vivareses and Nguyen together would retain a 50% stake, Bun B would hold 40% and Scurfield would retain the remaining 10%. It's unclear how ownership was split between Nguyen and the Vivareses, though court documents claim the Vivarese are entitled to 33.4 percent. Until January 4, 2022, a limited liability company was established for Trill Burgers.
Dime! We thought this was Bun B's secret recipe, but the Vivares claim it as their own. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in court and who came up with the recipe that put Trill Burgers on the map.
However, the Trill Burger debuted in February 2022 at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and was a huge success. The Vivares brothers ran the pop-up themselves and cooked up thousands of burgers that day, bringing in quite a lot.
As for the $45,000 Bun B's team claimed the Vivareses stole, the brothers admitted in texts that they “misappropriated” the money, but said all the partners knew they would use the pop-up's profits to pay for the placement of Sticky Debt.
The Vivareses are seeking $1 million from Bun B, Scurfield, Nguyen and Trill Burgers, LLC, saying they not only stole their recipe for Trill Burgers, but poached their chef, Mike Pham, in the process.
What do you think about the drama surrounding Trill Burgers? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Photo: Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images/Getty
