UPDATE: As of 11:48am, this article was updated to include the correct court document for T & R Burgers, LLC

The much-loved local food truck, BurgerRobs, has become the subject of a complex legal battle as conflicting narratives emerge from the brand’s founders and the current operators of the food truck.

The founders, Shelby and Rob, recently revealed their side of the dispute, alleging that the current operators of the trailer initiated the unauthorized sale of the BurgerRobs brand and food truck without their consent. The founders assert that this has led to the withholding of revenue and damage to the brand’s reputation, prompting them to take legal action to protect their interests.

The operators of the food truck, Ryan and Talia, sent us their side of the story and to refute these claims, insisting they never breached any contract. They claim to have had an investor interested in buying the entire franchise, a possibility that was allegedly open to the founders in the past. Tensions reportedly escalated after the operators won accolades for the food truck, which led to a disagreement over social media posts and recognition for the awards.

According to the operators, the subsequent actions by the founders — which included removing the operators from social media and threatening to cease the food truck operations — constituted a breach of contract. This prompted the operators to respond with a cease and desist, and, following a failed mediation attempt, a lawsuit.

The operators have emphasized that they use the same recipes and products as the founders did and deny any change in quality or offerings. They also refute allegations of causing personal injury or having a negative temperamental impact on client relationships, labeling such claims as false and harmful to their reputation.

The legal conflict has resulted in substantial financial losses on both sides, with the operators highlighting thousands of dollars in legal fees and lost revenue due to the ongoing issue. They state that their goal is to maintain the quality and reputation of the BurgerRobs brand and hope for a peaceful resolution.

This dispute paints a picture of a once cohesive partnership now marred by a public and legal disagreement, casting a shadow on the future of the BurgerRobs food truck. As the court proceedings continue, the Titusville community watches on, hoping for a resolution that preserves the future of a local favorite.

Rob & Shelby
“FOOD TRUCK UPDATE (well, the most heartfelt & honest we can)
Many, many of you have asked about the trailer and we’ve been hesitant to share some sad and embarrassing details. We love our fans very, very much and thought it was time to help you understand what we have been going through.

Early in September, without our knowledge or permission, the team running the trailer with our branded name, began the process of evaluating and taking steps to sell our food truck business and the BurgerRobs business name WITHOUT our permission. An agreement was in place to operate the trailer (they own) using our name, but nothing giving them ownership or “sell rights” to the BurgerRobs brand. Upon them sharing that they “weren’t asking” and would continue “looking for someone to buy” the BurgerRobs brand, we had no choice but to immediately terminate them from operating our business and pulled down their access to our social media accounts in fear that a potential sale was imminent to any prospective buyer they were attempting to solicit without our approval

They have continued to operate (their trailer) with our business name, without our approval, support, endorsement nor backing of doing so. Because of the continued operation of the trailer, they both owe Shelby and I thousands of dollars in back sales revenue that we are entitled to from selling BurgerRobs branded food. They are pocketing 100% of the money you are giving them, possibly with you as the customer or business owner thinking that it is supporting our business. Unfortunately, it is not.

Attorney’s have been retained and we will diligently fight for the business, our brand, our name and our recipes. Broken hearted, we will lean on and hope for support from our tens of thousands of fans who deserve to know, that Shelby and I are fighting the fight of our lives to save our food truck business. Opening a new restaurant and managing our current location has made this even more difficult of a challenge.

We only thought it fair that you knew these very sad events are taking place behind the scenes. If you decide to continue to dine at the trailer, book the food truck for private events, or book BurgerRobs at a food truck rally…please know that a legal dispute is underway. This is to protect our name and food and wanted to give you the opportunity to know that Shelby and I do not endorse, nor support the product coming off of the trailer, its operators, nor should it be a reflection on us as BurgerRobs owners. Thank you for being fans and understanding as we go through this hard process.”

Ryan & Talia
“First, we’d like to address the claims made against us. We refute any claims that we breached the contract. We took no steps into selling our Franchise. We had an investor interested in buying us out of our franchise. We brought it up to Rob and Shelby that we were wanting to sell, which in a previous dinner sit down they said they were wanting to sell the restaurant in the future and that we could sell our franchise as well if we wanted too, and when we approached them about it, they claimed we were trying to steal their business.

This started a huge argument where they claimed we were trying to steal their business, and that none of the hard work we put into the truck meant anything for the evaluation it had earned (even though the evaluation is based off the sales and profits that WE brought it and worked for – which we had tripled in only a year after taking over the food truck) and if there were to be a sale of the food truck we would get absolutely nothing out of it. This conversation did not go well, but at the end of it we told them we would not sell and would just continue running it as we had been.

Skip forward a couple of weeks, we were on talking terms but tensions were still high between us all.

The award announcements for Florida Today’s Best Of Brevard Choice Awards came out, and burgers robs food truck was mentioned as winning both best burger and best food truck in Brevard. Rob and Shelby took it upon themselves to make a post saying the restaurant had won best burger – and the truck had won best food truck. We asked them to take the post down, or to revise it because the food truck had in fact won, not the restaurant. They claimed it was just a typo and that we were in the wrong.

This act of us asking them to take down or revise their post is what sparked everything that’s happening now. They removed us from all social media accounts and told us we had until November to stop running the food truck and that we were fired from the franchise. We told them that they were breaching the contract we had all signed, and unless access to all accounts were returned to us we would be taking legal action.

Access was not returned to us, so we sent them a cease and desist. They responded with a demand letter with outrageous demands, we asked them for mediation so we could mutually come to terms about when we would discontinue running the burger robs food truck. They agreed to mediation, we sent them a settlement offer, they rejected it and responded to our settlement request with a law suit.

Their law suit holds only baseless lies to which they have no evidence to support a single claim they filed. Not only did they try to hurt our reputation as burger robs food truck by saying we sell inferior product and have changed the recipes, but they also tried to hurt our personal reputations by saying that Ryan injured someone on the food truck and that his temper has cost us clients.

I’d like to point out that we use the exact same product that was used when Rob and Shelby ran the food truck (which we have textual evidence to support) and that at no time did they demand of us to switch to the product they now use at the restaurant, and that no recipes have been changed. Secondly, their claims that Ryan injured someone and that his temper has cost us clients are FALSE and it’s truly disgusting that they would resort to spreading lies about something like that.

They have not only cost us thousands of dollars in lawyer fees, but also cost our business 10’s of thousands of dollars in revenue by removing us from social media – and now even worse by slandering us on their recent post.

Things may have seemed picture perfect before all of this, but the truth is that we’ve been dealing with threats from Rob since we took over the food truck. He has threatened us numerous times (which again; we have textual evidence of) to take the truck away from us, rip the name off it, remove us from social media, delete our marketing posts, etc. all because his ego gets hurts, or he doesn’t agree with something we say.

We have done nothing but try to uphold and uplift the Burger Robs name since we’ve taken over the food truck, and everything going on is truly disheartening. We hope going forward this can be resolved as peacefully as possible.”