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Ed-Greenfield brings up a strong point. Obviously your friendship with Ms. Charles is creating a bias in your writings on this subject. Let me ask you a question, clearly you reached out to Ms. Charles while writing these articles given the quotes that were not in the NYTimes article. However, you don't make it clear if you reached out to Mr. McFarland? So I'm going to ask, did you? Did you talk to him while you ate at his restaurant yesterday or get his side of the story? If you did, great, please let us know his side, but if not, then your credibility as a fair and balanced writer just went down the tubes.

The real loser in this story is not who ever loses the lawsuit, but the consumer.

Read the comments on the Gawker Post, they pretty much sum the lawsuit up

tom415: clearly you are a little delusional. So since you've been nice enough to bring up learning in school, I'll use some FACTS with citations to follow up some of your bogus claims.

First, you stated earlier that Ms. Redding was just an employee, however she was a partner and co-owner. Here's an article from the NY Times that contradicts your claim. (Unless you do not trust the paper of records?)

Again, you make uneducated claims that In any other industry this would not be allowed to happen. Again, not true. If your a lawyer at a lawfirm, you have every right to leave, open up your own practice next door, and practice the same exact law you were being trained and compensated to do at your previous firm. Better yet, how about Wall Street, arguably the most lucrative industry in New York. Stock brokers can leave their firm anytime they want, and bring there existing clients to another firm, or go at it independently. Don't believe me?

Finally, you make a point that I think everyone on this board will disagree with: Selaura, you do not get it. It is not about what is better or more convenient for YOU. Its always about whats better for the customer, in this case Selaura; that's why its named the hospitality industry. If restaurants stop thinking about whats best for the customers, then there is a huge disconnect.

Competition is the basic foundation off every industry out there. Maybe I'm alone, but I welcome Ed's and Mary's into the mix, because having two additional NE Lobster Shacks benefits the people, and I'm all for the people.