Lynn Gordon built French Meadow into a go-to Twin Cities café, and now she is asking a judge to help her take it back. In a new lawsuit, the founder wants last year's sale of the Minneapolis flagship on Lyndale Avenue undone, calling the deal "a horrible mistake." Her court filing says the buyer behind the location defaulted on most of the purchase financing and let the standards that made the café a local staple slip, with potential fallout for the St. Paul location and the popular State Fair stand.
What the lawsuit alleges
The suit, filed in Hennepin County, accuses buyer Marlene Leiva and her company BlueOne Plate of owing roughly $1.7 million on a promissory note tied to a roughly $2 million sale, and of putting down only a $300,000 down payment, according to the Star Tribune. The complaint says Leiva overstated property values, failed to disclose liabilities before closing, and then missed rent and loan payments. Lapses in permits, insurance and vendor payments allegedly followed. Gordon and the other plaintiffs say those financial and operational problems are putting their plan to revive French Meadow's wholesale organic-bread operation at risk.
Buyer, background and plans
Leiva, a longtime customer of the café, publicly took over the Lyndale spot last fall and described ambitious plans to energize the sprawling restaurant with pop-ups, ticketed dinners and other events, according to Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. The ownership change had first been announced in a February press release covered by Bring Me The News, and Gordon says she initially believed Leiva was "the perfect buyer."
Alleged fallout and brand risk
The complaint says some longtime vendors were left unpaid and that menu items and sourcing practices shifted, including a change from locally sourced organic eggs to frozen hamburger patties, with customer complaints following, according to the Star Tribune. The suit also states that Leiva faces felony charges tied to bounced April rent checks and that the landlord has launched a separate eviction case.
In an affidavit, Gordon says watching the business decline has been like "watching a loved one wither away," adding that she has long called French Meadow her "fourth child." The plaintiffs say they offered to let Leiva use $200,000 in earnest money to catch up on rent, taxes and loans, only to later learn that the money was not in escrow.
What happens next
Gordon's lawsuit is now pending in Hennepin County civil court. The case is headed into the slow grind of motions, discovery and legal back-and-forth before any judge decides on remedies. Because the dispute overlaps with the landlord's eviction proceedings and separate criminal allegations related to the bounced checks, outcomes for staff, suppliers and the State Fair operation could arrive on different timelines. For now, both sides are preparing filings while customers wait to see whether the court orders repayment, unwinds the sale entirely, or opts for some other form of relief.
