When we left off last month, Mi Cocina founder Mico Rodriguez and his former business partners were in the midst of a bitter lawsuit over control of the Mesero Restaurant Group’s intellectual property, the fate of a six-restaurant Tex Mex empire under furious debate. (To whom would the recipes and the name belong? among other questions.) News comes today that they’ve resolved the lawsuit. “[The parties] have settled their differences,” according to Larry Friedman, the lawyer representing Mico Rodriguez.
Trey Dyer, Matt Fleeger, and Ryan Rogers have bought Rodriguez out of the majority of the Mesero businesses, including five of the restaurants. Rodriguez has, in turn, bought them out of the original Mr. Mesero at 444 McKinney, which he will own and operate, though he will be obligated to change the name. The name Mr. Mesero and all Mr. Mesero intellectual property now falls in other hands.
It’s an outcome Friedman describes as “the best results under the circumstances. Everybody shook hands at the end.”
Stay tuned for the new name and menu update at the place that will continue to be the Rodriguez stronghold, though his personal empire has shrunk.
