The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Cleveland last week and first reported by Cleveland.com, alleges that Joe Kahn and others behind Condado Tacos stole “trade secrets” and violated an agreement Kahn entered into when he left a business partnership with Tommy Leneghan and Sean Fairbairn, the team that created Barrio.
Before exiting, Kahn agreed not to do business under the name Barrio, to not use “any logo, trademark or service mark associated” with Barrio, which included the phrase “in the heart of…” Kahn also agreed not to open a Mexican restaurant within a two-mile radius of Barrio’s locations for two years.
To be fair, Kahn technically didn’t do any of those things. He merely opened his own chain of use-a-checklist-to-make-your-own-taco restaurants decked out in white-dudes appropriating Day of the Dead “sugar skull” style interior design that delivers food in tin foil and plastic baskets in Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.
For comparison, here’s a photo of Condado Tacos that Barrio provided as part of its lawsuit.
Whether or not their double-decker shells can hold a candle to the double-decker “stoner shell” of Barrio is up for debate.
Barrio hasn’t seemed to have any issue with Condado Tacos’ expanding popularity, until now. Kahn recently announced his plan to open a Condado Tacos in Northeast Ohio as part of the oh-so-small-business-friendly Pinecrest Development in Orange Village, meaning Condado is officially creeping in on Barrio’s northeast Ohio turf.
The similarities between the two places are undeniable, but whether or not Barrio has a winning case due to Kahn’s agreement (which expired in 2016) not to open a restaurant within two miles of Barrio will be up to the courts.
Then again, by definition, “Barrio” means “a district of a town in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries” and “Condado” translates to just “county.”
So clearly, they’re totally different places.
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2018.
Dios mio this headline sucks.
How about they both give 50% ownership of their businesses to Eric Williams, a chef & operator who actually respects culinary & cultural sources of inspiration, as well as the local service industry & community?
BJ apparently isn’t aware that there are white Mexicans. They can only be brown, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexicans_of_…
I think Barrio is just scared that their hipster flair will lose appeal. If you want to eat actually good tacos, go to Taco Tontos in Lakewood. Far superior food and way less expensive. And no male waitstaff with man buns, skinny jeans/skinny cut-off jeans, or flip flops!
Barrio’s hipster cooler-than-you Millennial snark keeps me away. Too bad, cuzz the food is so good.
This staff writer seemed like a fresh wind from the west when she came here earlier this year. Now, not so much. More like stale and stuffy hot air from the prairie. Too much attitude. Too much editorializing.
i would rather see a few well-written and well-researched long stories from her than all these short opinionated ones. But, as usual, I’m not gonna get what I wish for. It is what it isn’t.
LOL at the person who suggested eating at the inferior Lakewood outpost of the legendary Kent, Ohio restaurant Taco Tonto’s. I would love to agree with you, but this version, at least the last time I tried it, is garbage and an insult to the original.
I don’t understand how the skin color of the guys matter in this story at all. The article was poorly written and boring so I’m guessing it’s the only way they could get people to click / reads it. Clickbait really.
She seems to be mostly apolitical because she doesn’t preach all that much. More hot air from the other side.
Right-wing social justice? No such animal…like saying “jumbo shrimp” or “giant economy size.” Right-wing entertainment? Bob Hope. Right-wing music? Nazi marching songs, which are actually a relief because almost all of today’s music blows dead donkeys. Right-wing comedy? Does that even exist/ What the hell’s funny about fascism? More trolling from the posterior orifice of the same old contrarian…sigh…
It’s sad to see such click bait. God forbid that anyone open a restaurant based around a culture that they have appreciation for. No, you can’t do that. Not anymore. You’re only allowed to open restaurants based in YOUR culture. We got people like BJ here to police any white person that wants to open any sort of restaurant that isn’t based in white culture.
I think you should look into what cultural appropriation actually is before you use a click-baiting headline to get people to read your sub-par article.
Barios lifespan is limited. Its bizare theme and semi self-serve slop menu attracts a low budget and unseemly crowd. The sooner the trend ends, the better. We have enough slop on a taco shell places; one less would be nice, or 10.
Liked BJ when she arrived., and usually disagreed with those who felt the need to troll her. Now? Not so much. Big disappointment. Little to no improvement over time. Very little originality or research or investigation…simply expands on stories posted at other sites, and from other sources and other writers. Little style or substance. Mostly quantity over quality. Frankly, I expected more. Don’t expect to see it.
Funny how many of these comments miss the entire point of the article: this is a copyright infringement case over design choices that are neither original nor inherited. These guys might as well be suing Subway over the ability to choose sandwich ingredients. Also, imagine someone having Santa art in their restaurant and then suing other places that also have Santa on their walls.
Wise up, Fash…every nasty comment that you post about about BJ and “her agenda driven journalism” will disappear because it’s not all about the “manipulated or fake leftist news narrative” that you are imagining and that’s mostly playing inside your head. It’s all about writing skills–there aren’t any.
And yeah, I totally agree with the previous comment. Imagine if someone opened a Halloween store and then tried to claim ownership of the holiday and sued other Halloween stores for selling Halloween-themed items and having Halloween decorations on their walls. Ridiculous, right? Well, that’s pretty much what Barrio is doing…only about a custom that one sees on the day AFTER Halloween.
Day of the Dead can no more be “owned” than Halloween or Christmas. And plenty of other food -serving outlets employ a “use-a-checklist-to-design-a-menu item” ordering style, in order to speed up service. Barrio will be laughed out of court.
Now please, Fash…if you’re going to continue to mercilessly troll BJ, lose the political rants and concentrate on her eroding skills, assuming there ever were any. Then maybe you won’t get your comments deleted as much.
Lots of people here that dont have experience with both places and voicing their stupid opinion. You live in Cleveland, youre trash. They both suck, Condado just more so.