A jilted ex-boyfriend sabotaged his ex’s restaurant by telling customers the eatery would be closed for the next three months in a vengeful effort to sink her business.
Capital City BBQ is a popular Vietnamese and American food joint in Lansing, Michigan opened by owner Linh Lee, 48, in 2015. Since then the eatery has soared in popularity and was even featured on chef Guy Fieri’s TV show in 2017.
However, the restaurant’s business suddenly plummeted without explanation on December 18 with profits dropping to $2,800 – less than half of her usual sales.
Only later did Lee discover that her ex-boyfriend of nine years Regan Louchart, a builder based in the Troy area, had deceived her customers to get revenge for their break up in July by hacking her restaurant’s phone number.
Michigan restaurant owner Linh Lee, 48, has accused her ex-boyfriend builder Regan Louchart of sabotaging her business Capital City BBQ. The two pictured smiling together during better times when they were featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show in 2017
Happier times: In 2017 Guy Fieri, the host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network, visited the shop where Lee and Louchart smiled side by side and were introduced as the co-owners and chefs of the BBQ joint
Capital City BBQ pictured above in Lansing, Michigan. Lee says Louchart recorded a voice message on the restaurant’s phone saying business was closed till March in an effort to sink her sales
Louchart built her restaurant back in 2011 putting in phones and other vital services into the building through his construction business, meaning he had all the passwords to the phones and technology installed inside.
During the holiday season he hijacked her restaurant’s phone number, used for take-out and catering, and recorded a message telling customers the restaurant would be closed through March.
‘Happy Holidays from Capital City BBQ. Due to the holidays we will be taking an extended leave until March 1st. We look forward to your business and seeing you after March 1st. Have a happy holiday. Thank you,’ the recording said.
Louchart’s trick worked – Lee lost business and was left struggling to make ends meet. She catered only one holiday party during the Christmas season, instead of the usual 15 to 20 events.
But she’s adamant to keep her restaurant’s doors open.
‘I am not closing. I am moving forward. I keep going,’ Lee said to the Lansing State Journal.
Just before Christmas, Lee got a new pone number in an effort to retake control over her eatery. However, the old number that featured a false recorded message is still online and on some signs inside the building.
Lee grew up in Vietnam and since childhood it was her lifelong dream to open a restaurant. She owned a little cellphone store in Lansing, which in 2011 she hired Louchart to renovate after a fire and to add a restaurant on one side.
That restaurant ended up being wildly successful.
In 2017 Guy Fieri, the host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network, visited the shop where Lee and Louchart smiled side by side and were introduced as the co-owners and chefs of the BBQ joint.
Lee said she was in charge of the Asian dishes at the restaurant and Louchart was in charge of the barbecue dishes.
Louchart claimed co-ownership of the restaurant and she said: ‘I told him I would give him 50 percent, if he could show the money he invested just like I did.’
The couple broke up after nine years together in July and since, Lee and Louchart have repeatedly butt heads.
He emptied a business bank account they shared and she had to fight to get the money back. She was also forced to move out of the house they shared.
Lee (left) and Louchart (right) broke up in July. She says since then he’s been trying to ruin her restaurant by taking their meat smoker and hijacking the restaurant’s voicemail
Family members say Louchart is out to ruin the business to hurt Lee.
‘He’s trying to take that from her because he knows that’s her dream,’ Jordan Cleveland, a former staffer and Lee’s son-in-law said.
Louchart removed an expensive smoker from behind the restaurant the evening before Thanksgiving to sabotage her sales.
She called the cops, but Louchart showed a receipt for the smoker. She argued the $13,677 smoker was the restaurant’s property – not Louchart’s.
Still, she ended up buying a smaller smoker and spent an entire evening smoking half a dozen turkeys to prepare for her Thanksgiving catering orders.
Lee is adamant to keep her business afloat – no matter what challenges Louchart throws her way.
‘You take away the phone number, I’m going to get a new number. You steal my company’s smoker, I will buy a new one,’ she said. ‘Whatever I have to do, I will do. I’m not giving up.’
She has since hired an attorney to seek legal redress.