Treadsack Restaurant Group Principals Sued By Chef's Father

HOUSTON, TX — Revenge is a dish best served cold, the saying goes, and the father of a chef who once ran the kitchen at a now-closed Houston restaurant is seeking it in financial form for himself and his son.

Cliffe E. Laborde III, father of Graham Laborde, the former chef at Bernadine's, is seeking $191,000 from Chris Cusack and Joey Treadway, two principals in Mothership Ventures, the company that operated the restaurant.

Cusack has been the poster boy of the controversy that's been swirling around the restaurants related to the Treadsack group, which ran Bernadine's, Hunky Dory, and Foreign Correspondents, and Canard, all of which are now closed amid a flurry of lawsuits and tax issues.

The Houston Press' Craig Malisow reported on Thursday that Cusack, in an email to the Press, wrote: "There is no ill will between us and the Labordes. This is a business matter and we respect their need to do their due diligence. We believe that we'll resolve this amicably and we wish them the best."

An entity overseen by Laborde Sr. invested $200,000 in Mothership in 2015, according to Malisow's reporting:

Under the terms of a December 2015 "investor finance agreement," Cusack, Treadway, and their company, Mothership Ventures, promised to repay a $200,000 investment from an entity controlled by Cliffe E. Laborde III called the Laborde Family Company, LLC. (There's apparently a requirement that all Cusack- and Treadway-related financial phenomena be as complicated as possible).

Laborde's suit claims that Cusack and Treadway have thus far repaid only $8,559 of the $200,000 investment; Laborde reportedly demanded the repayment of the full sum in January 2017.

In March of this year, Richard Rothfelder, a Houston attorney, sued Cusack and Treadway seeking payment of $60,000, a sum he said he was owed. Malisow reported that the pair deny Rothfelder's claim.

Graham Laborde is now cooking at Killen's.

In case you missed it:

Treadsack Group Files Bankruptcy For Additional Restaurant: Update

Treadsack Restaurant Group's Woes Continue

— Image: Chris Cusack (Treadsack)