The Gordon Ramsay Fat Cow Lawsuit Spills Over to Vegas

Be careful who you sleep with. Shouty chef Gordon Ramsay is embroiled in a legal battle with his business partner Rowen Seibel over their venture The Fat Cow in Los Angeles, and now that feud is spilling over to Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Seibel — the New Yorker who partnered to bring Serendipity 3 to Caesars Palace and partnered with Ramsay on Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas, Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grlll at Caesars Palace and Gordon Ramsay BurGR at Planet Hollywood Resort — filed $10.8 million lawsuit against Ramsay last month after the restaurant closed.

It gets complicated. The Fat Cow shuttered at The Grove in March after a Miami restaurant called Las Vacas Gordas (Spanish for The Fat Cow) claimed trademark infringement — "change its name … or close." So Ramsay closed and planned to flip the restaurant to GR Roast.

In the fallout, Seibel says, "Ramsay deliberately mishandled a trademark problem for their LA eatery The Fat Cow."

Seibel "told the Manhattan Supreme Court that Ramsay knew about the name trademark from the get-go. Instead of changing The Fat Cow's name and keeping the place open, Ramsay used the trademark problem as an excuse to shutter."

Well, the GR Roast partnership doesn't include Seibel. And that makes him even madder.

Ramsay's camp fired back. "We're surprised that Mr. Seibel has the audacity to file this ridiculous suit when he and his team were responsible for the day to day running of The Fat Cow and spectacularly mismanaged it resulting in a string of financial and legal issues," a rep tells Eater LA. "Gordon Ramsay and his team immediately stepped in and tried to resolve these issues, but Seibel refused to engage in any meaningful conversations, rendering the restaurant unsustainable. Throughout, Ramsay was very forthcoming with Seibel that any future plan for another restaurant partnership in Los Angeles was impossible due to Seibel's refusal to operate and fund the restaurant properly, sadly including Seibel diverting funds from the business."

Now that feud spills over to Ramsay's fourth proposed Vegas restaurant. Apparently Ramsay planned to open Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips at The Linq with Seibel as a partner, and those plans have "slowed." Ramsay also had plans to open another restaurant in Atlantic City, and the same goes there.

That's not stopping Seibel from opening Morimoto with the Iron Chef at the Mirage later this year. While the restaurant has yet to start construction despite being announced more than a year ago, it should take over the Japonais space and open in time for 2015.
· Could Gordon Ramsay Open a Fish and Chips Shop at The Linq? [~ELV~]
· Business Partner Slaps Gordon Ramsay with a $10 Million Lawsuit Over The Fat Cow [~ELA~]
· All Coverage of Gordon Ramsay [~ELV~]