By Chloe Chef Says She Was Pushed Out After Rejecting CEO

WEST VILLAGE, NY — The celebrity chef Chloe Coscarelli is suing her former business partners, claiming that she was pushed out of her namesake restaurant chain after rejecting the advances of one of her colleagues.

Coscarelli, the chef behind the vegan restaurant chain By Chloe, is seeking damages and to reclaim her name from By Chloe chain. Eater first reported on Coscarelli's lawsuit, which was filed in California on Tuesday.

Coscarelli, who left the By Chloe in 2017, said the chain's continued use of her name "is a deliberate effort to benefit from Chloe’s fame, celebrity, and reputation as a pioneering vegan chef." Coscarelli gained fame as a celebrity chef after becoming the first vegan chef to win "Cupcake Wars" on the Food Network.

The suit is the latest in months of feuding between Coscarelli and ESquared Hospitality, the restaurant group with which she opened the first By Chloe location in 2015. The fast-casual eatery opened in the West Village, and after its early success, Coscarelli says that ESquared CEO Jimmy Haber became "infatuated" with her, and began "a jealous and threatening campaign" to try and control her, she said in her lawsuit.

"By 2016, after months of Chloe spurning Haber’s advances and refusing his proposals to license her name to mass produce food for retail sale or allow her name to be sold to international buyers, Haber became furious," according to the suit.

Coscarelli said in her lawsuit that Haber sent "threatening messages to Chloe and her family" after she rejected his advances.

Coscarelli ultimately left the business in 2017 after a different legal battle with ESquared and an independent arbitrator concluded that Coscarelli's partnership with the hospitality group could be terminated. ESquared Hospitality now manages the By Chloe chain by itself.

In her new suit, Coscarelli also says that the restaurant chain, which has ten locations in the U.S. and one in London, has "cut costs and sacrificed quality" since she left the business.

"The result has been that customers complain that Defendants have served, and continue to serve, poor quality food in restaurants that still bear Chloe’s name, damaging Chloe’s brand and reputation," the lawsuit says.

Last week, the By Chloe announced that it had received $31 million in funding to expand the chain in the U.S. and abroad.

Coscarelli previously sued Haber in 2016, accusing him of threatening her when they disagreed over the future of the chain. Coscarelli's earlier suit claimed that Haber wanted to open non-vegan restaurants under the By Chloe name, and, when Coscarelli refused, Haber allegedly told her "she would need a bodyguard if she dared to meet with him in person.

In a statement, Haber pointed to a 2017 arbitration decision that cited "gross negligence" by Coscarelli and called her actions "malicious efforts."

"The past two years have been emotionally difficult for all of us as we watched a promising partnership with Chloe Coscarelli fall apart," Haber said in the statement. "We are disappointed by these public accusations from a disgruntled former partner, but we will not lose sight of our bigger mission."

A spokesperson for ESquared Hospitality did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Patch.

By Chloe has locations in the West Village, Flatiron, Soho, Williamsburg and Midtown.

This post was updated with comment from Jimmy Haber.

Image credit: Donald Bowers/Getty Images for H&M. Image caption: Vegan Chef Chloe Coscarelli Hosts H&M Home Breakfast on September 7, 2017 in New York City.