Buyers, Well being Violations, and Extra

When Jessica Corridor invested in Sugar Taco in 2018, she thought she was turning into greater than a part-owner of a vegan Mexican restaurant — she thought she was becoming a member of a social motion.

The restaurant’s produce, she was advised, could be natural, ethically and regionally sourced from unbiased farms in Southern California. It will be eco-conscious and sustainable. Packaging would remind prospects that “rising feed crops for livestock consumes 56 % of water within the U.S.” Deliveries would come with biodegradable picket utensils as a substitute of plastic. Leftover meals could be composted, not thrown out. The decor could be purchased secondhand to chop down on waste. Timber could be planted to offset its carbon output. Animal rights could be revered, with a portion of the proceeds going to Los Angeles-based rescue shelters.

Above all, Sugar Taco could be feminist — or at the least feminine. The founders — Jayde Nicole and Brittany Littleton — have been constructing an funding group made up completely of ladies. And never simply any girls: a sorority of social media-savvy fashions, wellness influencers and actuality TV alums — a stunning variety of whom had hung out on the pages of Playboy.

Corridor, for example, graced the journal in 2005. Nicole was 2008 Playmate of the 12 months, and he or she promoted the restaurant to her sister-investors as a sort of post-Hugh Hefner, women-led utopia — much less grotto, extra Lean In — the place the mission was feminine empowerment, the message was veganism, and the vibe was all the time photo-ready.

“For each children meal bought, they have been going to feed three children in Mexico,” Corridor says of the funding pitch. “I had simply grow to be a mother, so I used to be like, ‘That is superb.’ ”

It wasn’t.

Over the subsequent a number of years, traders like Corridor discovered themselves embroiled in a food-fight fiasco so chaotic, it might have diminished Gordon Ramsay to tears. There have been claims of roach-infested pantries, dangerously dilapidated gasoline strains, an industrial blade turning up in a buyer’s meal, managerial neglect and odd monetary missteps. What started as a shiny, girl-powered model with rescue canine and biodegradable forks had, by the tip, devolved right into a bitter social media melee, with Playmate pitted towards Playmate and a restaurant that was something however Instagrammable.

“They presupposed to be enterprise leaders and entrepreneurs,” says one other investor, Merissa Underwood, Miss Montana in 2020. “It simply goes to indicate that for those who can create a particular picture on-line, folks will imagine that.”

***

Corridor, now 41, and Nicole, 39, first turned associates within the late 2000s whereas each have been nonetheless sporting bunny ears and hanging out on the Mansion.

At the moment — the pre-#MeToo, pre-male gaze period — there nonetheless lingered a sure cachet to being a Playboy Playmate, and Nicole (whose actual identify is Jayde Nicole Gilette-Ivany however who goes by the extra media-friendly Jayde Nicole) made essentially the most of it. She landed a number of appearances on MTV’s The Hills and even dated certainly one of its stars, Brody Jenner. Corridor, who again then was an everyday presence on the Playboy web site and had a gig internet hosting a present on its satellite tv for pc radio channel, discovered Nicole irresistible, as did a number of different Playmates.

“She was actually tall and exquisite — she had a presence about her that drew you in,” says Sara Jean Underwood, the 2007 Playmate of the 12 months and a Sugar Taco investor. In accordance with Underwood, when Nicole went out, she was the “chief of the pack.”

Nicole’s backstory is traditional centerfold hagiography: Born and raised in a tiny city northeast of Toronto, she was plucked out of a live performance crowd by two modeling scouts. On a shoot within the Florida Keys, a photographer urged she undergo Playboy. Simply earlier than her twenty first birthday, she was anointed Miss January 2007, then, a 12 months later, made Playmate of the 12 months and was given a room of her personal in Hef’s mansion (the 2 by no means dated).

After closing her profession as a centerfold, Nicole developed right into a nightlife impresario (a commerce she had clearly lengthy been considering; earlier than Playboy, she’d studied resort administration at George Brown Faculty). In 2012, she opened her first hotspot, AV Nightclub in West Hollywood. By all outward appearances, it was a roaring success. Star journal hosted its “All-Hollywood” occasion there, and Lindsay Lohan usually confirmed up with swarms of paparazzi. Two extra golf equipment adopted, one in Scottsdale, Arizona, and one in San Diego, and Toca Madera, a Mexican restaurant in West Hollywood that closed earlier this 12 months.

In 2018, Nicole started reaching out to her huge community of associates — fashions, influencers, former Playmates — to pitch them Sugar Taco, a restaurant idea that merged her hospitality experience together with her curiosity in plant-based politics. She discovered an prompt ally in a former assistant, Littleton, who had since blossomed right into a vegan influencer — “herbalist,” is how she describes herself on Instagram — with a crunchy on-line feed that includes earthy motherhood helpers like recipes for oat, flaxseed and nut butter “lactation bites” and natural hemp “pads” for diapers. Nicole and Littleton turned founding companions within the restaurant enterprise, and the 2 got down to woo traders.

It didn’t take lengthy. Corridor invested $20,000 for a single proportion level of fairness. Different former Playmates adopted, together with Jessica Burciaga (Miss February 2009) and Tiffany Toth (Miss September 2011). Public company paperwork reviewed by THR present a star-studded roster of traders past simply the pages of Playboy, together with Clueless actress and animal rights activist Alicia Silverstone, onetime Nickelodeon star Daniella Monet, skilled surfer Tia Blanco and The Bachelor‘s Kelley Flanagan.

“I didn’t know something concerning the restaurant trade,” Toth admits. “I simply wished to be a part of one thing I may be ok with.”

The primary Sugar Taco opened in spring 2019 on the nook of Melrose Avenue and Alta Vista Boulevard, and it seemed extra like an influencer photograph backdrop than a conventional Mexican restaurant. Partitions have been painted in funky neons and adorned with fake ivy. Tables and chairs have been a mixture of reclaimed wooden and salvaged finds. Vibrant Dia de Los Muertos murals adorned the partitions. It labored. Sugar Taco was a success, even by way of COVID. Turned out a quick-service, delivery-friendly, vegan taco store was precisely the sort of eatery that health-conscious, socially distanced Angelenos craved throughout the pandemic.

Because of Nicole’s appreciable social media abilities — and the net attain of her Insta-savvy backers, with a mixed following of thousands and thousands — Sugar Taco seemed to the skin world like a thriving restaurant. Extra importantly, traders have been completely happy, at the least at first. They began receiving their preliminary disbursement funds of $1,125. Plans have been drawn for a second location in Sherman Oaks.

What traders didn’t see, nonetheless, have been the early warning indicators of impending chaos. “We had no administration,” a former Sugar Taco worker tells THR. Nicole was “by no means there.” Littleton and newly employed Sugar Taco head chef Alan Campos — former regional government chef for Neiman Marcus, the place he oversaw the plant-focused menu on the division retailer’s cafés — had been attentive when the restaurant first opened. However after a number of months, they stopped coming in usually. Kitchen and front-of-house staff would present up for shifts, says the previous worker, and handle themselves.

None of this confirmed up on Instagram’s feed — or in Nicole’s pitch to new traders, throughout which she continued to undertaking a picture of shrewd feminine entrepreneurship. “I used to be like, ‘Wow, that’s a number of development, particularly in that state of affairs,’ ” recollects podcaster and vegan activist Jamie Campo, who ended up investing in Sugar Taco’s enlargement to Sherman Oaks. “I assumed they have to be doing nice.”

When the Sherman Oaks department opened in early 2021, it was a star-studded affair — effectively, at the least Silverstone confirmed up. “Scrumptious meals, nice service and a tremendous solution to assist small companies!” the actress gushed on Instagram. “Belief me … you’ll thank me later.”

However as Sugar Taco expanded, the funding payouts slowed. At first, no person was too alarmed — rising pains and all — however once they did start inquiring about cash, Nicole and Littleton would flip frosty. “Each time we requested questions, we have been advised, ‘Most traders don’t care to know that. Most traders don’t get what you’re asking for,’ ” remembers Toth. “We have been all the time met with some form of bizarre hostility.”

Sources near Sugar Taco’s management adamantly deny any mismanagement, declaring that Sugar Taco remained open whereas a whole bunch of eating places in L.A. closed throughout the pandemic. Additionally they word that disbursements should not a given. They are saying that there isn’t any schedule or assure that traders will obtain them in any respect, or in any certain quantity or timeline.

Nonetheless, as traders would study, the Sherman Oaks location gave the impression to be much more dysfunctional than the West Hollywood department. “It was revolting,” says a former worker who shared pictures with THR documenting the unsanitary situations. The images present a sink lined in ants; rat droppings within the kitchen and on a number of the produce; tomatoes and avocados that had been partially eaten by vermin; and a gasoline line with its protecting sheathing dangerously frayed.

One buyer discovered a useless spider in a protein bowl, one other was served a cockroach along with his plate of nachos.

When staff complained, Nicole and Littleton would promise to handle the issues however, in accordance with staffers, by no means adopted by way of. “Jayde and Brittany have been nowhere to be discovered,” says Ash Pavesio, a former front-of-the-house worker.

By September 2022, some staff bought so fed up with the work situations, they went on strike — on Labor Day, no much less. They have been fired the subsequent day, inspiring some remaining staff to stop in protest. The hanging staff already had filed complaints with the Division of Public Well being. A meals inspection carried out three days after the mass firings revealed 11 essential well being code violations, a number of involving roaches, useless and residing. The restaurant’s allow was suspended till a fumigation might be accomplished. Throughout the delousing, the restaurant’s entrance home windows have been papered over in order that the obligatory public well being closure discover was not seen to the general public (or traders). When the paper got here down and the kitchen reopened, Sugar Taco’s well being grade signal had been downgraded from an A to a B.

However by far essentially the most troubling Sugar Taco incident didn’t happen in any of the chain’s eating places; it occurred on the DGA constructing on Sundown Boulevard, the place Sugar Taco had been employed in September 2022 to cater the premiere of Peeled, a vegan cooking competitors present. One of many occasion’s attendees suffered “vital accidents” after biting right into a burrito that contained “a big industrial blade,” in accordance with a lawsuit filed in 2023 in Los Angeles Superior Court docket by the wounded diner.

***

Buyers have been by no means made conscious of the commercial blade accident, nor of the labor and well being issues, and there was actually no indication that Nicole or Littleton have been troubled by any enterprise woes. Quite the opposite, the founders lived effectively. Each bought houses — Nicole’s a desert hideaway in Indio, California, Littleton’s a Victorian farmhouse in South Carolina. Within the media, Nicole made it sound as if Sugar Taco was a woman boss’ dream job. “Typically we maintain [meetings] on the seashore in bikinis,” she advised health mannequin Lori Tougher on an episode of her self-help podcast, Earn Your Completely satisfied. “Typically we go for cocktails at a restaurant.”

For traders, although, the expertise was hardly enjoyable within the solar. Whereas Sherman Oaks backers obtained some disbursements, in funds of $1,142.86, within the months instantly following the restaurant’s opening, the checks quickly stopped with out clarification. “The cash began slowing down,” Sara Jean Underwood recollects. “I’d attain out to Jayde personally and be like, ‘Hey, what’s happening? When are we going to get one other disbursement?’ She would say, ‘It’s COVID.’ ”

To the shock of some traders, Nicole and Littleton opened their third Sugar Taco in Lengthy Seashore in summer time 2023. The disclosing was a purple carpet affair, with an all-female mariachi band for leisure. “The truth that so many influencers have been on this undertaking made me really feel safe,” says Claire Luken, a French immigrant in San Diego who invested $20,000 within the Lengthy Seashore restaurant and one other $20,000 in every of the opposite two areas. As with the opposite traders, she obtained a number of early disbursements and was shocked when the cash instantly dried up.

“[The founders] have been hyper-communicative after I determined to speculate,” Merissa Underwood, the previous Miss Montana, remembers. “However afterward, the communication actually died.”

Sources near Sugar Taco administration declare the house owners have been clear with monetary documentation. Nonetheless, traders remained pissed off and started speaking with each other, sharing details about the restaurant and digging into Littleton’s and Nicole’s pasts. They have been unnerved by what they discovered.

Nicole, for one, had a historical past of being accused of unsavory enterprise practices. In 2014, she and then-boyfriend Tosh Berman had been amongst a number of folks sued in L.A. Superior Court docket by traders in her first West Hollywood hospitality enterprise, the seemingly profitable AV Nightclub. The grievance, reviewed by THR, referred to as them “hustlers” and “swindlers” who allegedly used the nightclub’s funds “as their very own private piggybank.” In the end, an arbiter discovered that AV’s bookkeeping left one thing to be desired however that there wasn’t sufficient proof to search out Nicole, her boyfriend or the opposite co-defendants liable.

Littleton, in the meantime, had been embroiled in an animal rescue lawsuit. In 2020, a nonprofit agency sued her on behalf of Elliot Haas, a homeless man whose canine was taken off the road and given to Littleton’s Little Love Rescue for rehabilitation (an L.A. Superior Court docket choose dominated that Littleton ought to return the canine; she’s nonetheless interesting the case). Across the similar time, the California Lawyer Normal ordered Little Love Rescue to stop operations over considerations concerning its fundraising efforts (sources near Littleton declare these costs have been baseless).

Armed with all that info, traders from all three areas banded collectively to confront Nicole and Littleton. In a bunch textual content, Toth, taking the lead, requested a gathering to go over Sugar Taco’s funds. Nicole responded, “Hey tiff! I’ll textual content you off this chain,” then deleted the chat group.

“Tiff” by no means bought that follow-up textual content. A number of days later, Nicole despatched a prolonged textual content to all traders, in a newly fashioned group chat, addressing their litany of considerations. The staff who went on strike have been lazy, irresponsible liars, Nicole wrote. Sherman Oaks had a vermin drawback as a result of staff “didn’t need to preform [sic] the cleansing duties requested of them.” Sugar Taco didn’t have a revenue and loss assertion as a result of “i’m conscious of ever [sic] gross sales quantity and fee we make so i [sic] don’t have the necessity for them.”

She blamed the restaurant’s struggles on “loopy prospects, violent houseless people who are available.” The corporate’s funds weren’t so as due to points with the earlier accountant. She defended opening a 3rd Sugar Taco location as a result of it “truly helps the opposite areas tremendously. … It creates extra shopping for energy for reductions on meals and provides, it helps share the price of advertising and marketing and even will get us reductions on insurance coverage and dishwasher leases,” she went on.

“I work 24/7,” she texted her traders. “I don’t date. I don’t exit to dinner or films with associates, I don’t go to the health club, I barely depart my home, as a result of I’m working.”

Unhappy with Nicole’s response, a number of traders retained authorized counsel and, in September 2023, shortly after the Lengthy Seashore department opened, despatched a requirement letter to Nicole and Littleton searching for the corporate’s financial institution and bank card statements. A overview of these paperwork by THR present Sugar Taco continuously made purchases at retail supermarkets resembling Ralphs, Pavilions, Complete Meals and even the comically costly Erewhon and used such supply companies as Instacart and Uber Eats. Nicole defended the observe to traders, writing that Instacart was useful for restocking minor objects and that Sugar Taco primarily purchased its produce from wholesalers, together with Nature’s Produce (an organization, by the way, that sued Sugar Taco in December 2023 for $19,904.80 in unpaid payments; Sugar Taco paid the steadiness and the case was dropped). Sources near Sugar Taco administration declare that buying from grocery store chains just isn’t an uncommon observe within the restaurant enterprise.

A THR overview of the paperwork identifies cash from Sugar Taco financial institution accounts was used to fly Nicole’s mom to Palm Springs. Nicole justified the expense to traders by claiming her mother had been serving to hold the corporate’s books, although Sugar Taco had contracted a third-party accounting agency.

Buyers additionally level out that the paperwork present that Littleton and Nicole used the corporate’s American Categorical card for private bills, resembling Nicole’s journey to attend Littleton’s marriage ceremony. In February 2023, a $1,375.96 airline ticket buy and $293.23 value of Airbnb leases in Mexico have been charged to the AmEx card used for Sugar Taco’s Lengthy Seashore location. The timing appeared curious. The next month, Littleton bought married to Campos, Sugar Taco’s head chef, in a cave exterior the Mexican resort city of Tulum. In an Instagram photograph posing with the bride (since deleted), Nicole wrote, “All the time in a enterprise thoughts, even after we are having enjoyable.” (Sources near Sugar Taco administration say this was a mistake by an assistant and the sums have been repaid when the error was found.)

In all, Nicole and Littleton raised untold thousands and thousands for six totally different companies — three Sugar Taco areas; The Plant Butchers, a vegan “butcher store” in Lengthy Seashore; The Donut Room, a vegan donut store; and Azucar (Spanish for “sugar”), a canned tequila cocktail model.

All Sugar Taco eating places are actually shuttered, together with the unique Sugar Taco, which closed in April. The Plant Butchers additionally shut down this 12 months, whereas The Donut Room and booze model by no means materialized.

“After I requested [Nicole] for the cash again, her response was, ‘Are you having monetary points?’ ” recollects Adam Weitsman, a billionaire serial investor who sunk $300,000 into Azucar. He ultimately took management of the tequila model and — who is aware of? — it might sometime discover its solution to cabinets. However Sugar Taco traders should not prone to get a lot of their a refund, at the least not and not using a lawsuit — and the mathematics for launching authorized motion doesn’t actually add up. Most invested someplace between $20,000 and $60,000, and a protracted authorized battle would very possible price greater than they put in.

“To assume that I poured my cash into their fingers, when I’ve a household myself,” laments Luken, who says she was so distressed from the expertise that she has moved her household from San Diego to Mexico. “I may have used this cash for travels or for my daughter’s school. It made me actually depressed. I began to have nightmares about it.”

A number of the traders blame themselves for not performing their due diligence on Nicole and Littleton till too late, when the eating places have been already in hassle. “I want that I’d’ve by no means allowed them to make the most of my identify and my likeness,” says Monet, the previous Nickelodeon star. “I didn’t know them effectively. I shouldn’t have trusted them.”

A number of the girls who invested in Sugar Taco as a result of they wished to grow to be feminine entrepreneurs have been so turned off by the expertise, they’ve given up on the entire notion of entrepreneurship. “I really feel so silly for [investing], particularly when my husband was like, ‘I don’t know for those who ought to make investments on this,’ ” says Sugar Taco investor Ivette Saucedo, a actuality star turned influencer. “It damage me. It damage my ego.”

What stings most for a lot of of them isn’t simply the cash misplaced or the model’s collapse — it’s the betrayal of what Sugar Taco claimed to face for. “I do know eating places are in all probability not a really sensible funding,” Sara Jean Underwood says. “I took the possibility anyway as a result of the mission was so interesting to me.”

It wasn’t nearly tacos; it was about altering the world, one biodegradable spoon at a time. However the girls who signed up for sisterhood, preventing towards local weather change and saving animals as a substitute bought ghosted and gaslit and misplaced tens of 1000’s of {dollars}.

As for the founders themselves — neither of whom would converse on the report for this text — they’ve been preserving a low profile.

Littleton not solely modified her final identify when she married Campos in that cave close to Tulum, she modified her first identify, too. She is now Nia Gatica Campos, presumably residing in her crunchy homestead in rural South Carolina.

Nicole bought her residence in Indio and decamped for components unknown. Like Littleton, she too has undergone a little bit of an id transformation. In March, she erased all pictures and private particulars from her Instagram account, briefly turning the feed over to an AI avatar named Nicola Bianchi. “Greek-Italian muse,” her new bio learn. “Mannequin & artist. Exploring the world’s magnificence.”

As of late, although, her Insta is totally clean, much less influencer, extra enigma.

This story appeared within the June 18 challenge of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.