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Popular YouTuber Jimmy "MrBeast" is recognized for his inventive endeavors, venturing into diverse industries beyond content creation. For instance, he's successfully established a thriving presence in the F&B sector with his Feastables Chocolate Brand. Nonetheless, not all of his endeavors have met with the same success, as evidenced by his MrBeast Burger venture.
While the company initially showed promise, it ultimately failed to live up to expectations, leading to its involvement in a lawsuit against Virtual Dining Concepts, the company responsible for the ghost kitchens.
What happened to MrBeast Burger? Explaining the controversy and lawsuit
Jimmy kicked off his burger chain during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first joint sizzled onto the scene in November 2020 in North Carolina. The chain then spread like wildfire, sprouting up in hundreds of additional spots, employing a ghost kitchen model where partnering restaurants lent a hand in cooking and dispatching the food items.
Despite his hopes for smooth sailing, things didn't quite pan out as Jimmy had envisioned. The ghost kitchen setup meant that the YouTuber could no longer keep a tight rein on the quality of the food items being delivered to customers, leaving much to be desired.
In a now-deleted tweet from June 17, 2023, Jimmy wrote that since the food items were prepared by external vendors, the quality of the products couldn't be assured to the extent Jimmy would have preferred. He wrote:
"I started MrBeast Burger to help restaurants make more $ during the pandemic and it worked! But sadly when working with 2000 restaurants I don’t own it’s impossible to guarantee the order quality."
He added that moving on, he will focus more on his chocolate brand Feastables:
"I’m moving on from MrBeast Burger so I can focus on Feastables and making snacks!"
What is the legal controversy involving MrBeast Burger?
A couple of months after Jimmy updated his fans on why his company hadn't met expectations, reports surfaced that the YouTuber had filed a legal notice against Virtual Dining Concepts, the operator of his virtual fast-food chain. He sought to terminate the deal.
Jimmy's Beast Investments lodged a lawsuit on Monday, July 31, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Virtual Dining Concepts and its parent company. Here is the screenshot of the lawsuit:
The primary concern raised by Jimmy was the feedback from customers regarding the restaurant chain. For instance, the lawsuit included a screenshot of a Reddit post where a fan claimed that the burgers served had raw meat.
A further update has occurred since Jimmy filed the lawsuit. In a surprising turn of events, Virtual Dining Concepts has filed a lawsuit of its own against Jimmy, alleging that he breached their agreement.
As of this writing, the official website (mrbeastburger.com) is still operational, and it seems they are still accepting orders. The legal battle has yet to conclude.
