Back in December, Short Order announced that Latin Burger would acquire the CheeseMe name. Ever since, CheeseMe by Latin Burger has been on the road selling grilled cheese alongside macho burgers and tacos.
Now some CheeseMe partners are demanding Latin Burger stop using the name. And they plan to send out their own truck next month.
A January 19 email signed by David Nepo (who's company Nepo Collection is also the title holder of the original CheeseMe truck),was sent to both Latin Burger's Jim Heins and Andrew Kaplan, who controlled the original CheeseMe.
It named a guy named Felix Bendersky, as the one who should be running CheeseMe.
Indeed Bendersky has control of CheeseMe's Facebook account, as well as the original CheeseMe truck,
which he said he received "badly vandalized." He plans to have CheeseMe back on the road within two weeks.
The most recent CheeseMe Facebook post confirms this, "Often Imitated never duplicated. The Orig CheeseMe Truck returns Feb 5.
Watch for details. Dont be fooled by fake CheeseMe trucks."
Kaplan claims CheeseMe's "name, logo, menu was my creation. Nothing was ever registered as far as trademarking. All the partners did was put up the money to fund the operation. They had no involvement in the creation of this brand. I might have used some of their resources to design and execute the truck design, but that's the extent."
Heins says he is painting over the CheeseMe logo on his truck. He laughed the whole thing off, "That's pretty much the food truck game. My foremost concern is about Latin Burger. CheeseMe? I'm not that concerned about it."
Short Order will keep you posted regarding updates.
Follow Short Order on Facebook and Twitter @Short_Order.
Laine Doss is the food and spirits editor for Miami New Times. She has been featured on Cooking Channel's Eat Street and Food Network's Great Food Truck Race. She won an Alternative Weekly award for her feature about what it's like to wait tables.
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