Joe's Pizza Mid-City

After 8 Short Months, a Soured Business Deal Shutters Bootleg Pizza on Pico | Eater LA

"At its Mid-City space on Pico Boulevard, Bootleg Pizza—chef Kyle Lambert’s operation that evolved from a pop-up to a food truck and then a restaurant—will close this Sunday, August 29, after a truncated run. The spot built a robust local following after opening at the height of last winter’s coronavirus surge and is known for Lambert’s unique style of thick-crust pan pizza; Lambert insists the closure is not due to a lack of business. Instead, the shutdown stems from a business dispute with Rob Vinokur and the Playhouse Group: Lambert says an early, informal deal that left the Playhouse Group covering the lease, build-out, and operations later turned sour, and Vinokur registered multiple LLCs (including Bootleg Pizza International, Mid-City Pizza, and Bootleg Pizza Holdings) and began a trademark process that Lambert claims he did not know about. After lawyers got involved and a buyout attempt failed, the Pico Boulevard location will no longer operate under the Bootleg name, though Lambert says he plans to do pop-ups and hopes to reopen in a new spot—summarizing his feelings on Instagram as, “I got fuckin’ bamboozled.”" - Farley Elliott