YouTube’s MrBeast files suit to shutter virtual restaurant
A YouTube celebrity is going to court to try to shut down a virtual restaurant bearing his name that has significant Orlando connections, including to restaurateur Robert Earl.
Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, wants a federal court to declare that he has the right to shut down MrBeast Burger, a brand from Orlando-based Virtual Dining Concepts.
Earl, known for Planet Hollywood and chains like Buca di Beppo, co-founded Virtual Dining Concepts and has helped publicize MrBeast Burger. He is not named as a defendant in the case, however.
Beast Investments LLC sued Virtual Dining Concepts and two other companies on Monday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.
Virtual restaurants such as MrBeast Burger allow restaurants to add menus under different names on delivery apps like Uber Eats.
Beast Investments entered into an agreement in September 2020 to start MrBeast Burger and it launched in December of that year, the lawsuit said. MrBeast Burger, which as of Tuesday remained available on Uber Eats in Orlando, grew to 1,700 locations by 2022, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims Virtual Dining Concepts has damaged MrBeast’s brand and reputation, citing negative online reviews including undercooked meat, cold fries and unbranded packaging.
“Because the entire business is based on the tremendous global value of the MrBeast brand, it is MrBeast himself, and not Virtual Dining Concepts, who has borne the brunt of the ( justified) attacks and criticisms,” the lawsuit states.
In a statement, Virtual Dining Concepts said the lawsuit is “riddled with false statements and inaccuracies” and the company has retained lawyers to represent it in the dispute.
While MrBeast claimed his reputation has been hurt, Virtual Dining Concept’s statement said his “notoriety has grown exponentially,” in part because of MrBeast Burger.
“[Virtual Dining Concepts] takes quality and customer reviews very seriously,” the statement said. “… Any negative customer reviews reflect the experience and opinion of a very small minority of MrBeast Burger customers.”
In June, MrBeast posted on Twitter that he couldn’t control the quality of the orders and it was impossible to do so when working with other restaurants.
Virtual Dining Concepts has other brands and menus such as Pardon My Cheesesteak, which gets its name through a partnership with the Pardon My Take sports podcast. As of June, menus from Virtual Dining Concepts were in more than 3,015 kitchens, with about 4,525 brand locations as some restaurants offer more than one of the menus.
Earl has promoted MrBeast Burger. He pointed out in a June Orlando Sentinel story MrBeast Burger had been so successful that it opened a brick-andmortar restaurant in New Jersey last year.
“It’s that strong a brand,” Earl said then.