A Gay Sports Bar, a Real Housewife, a Mess

Carrillo and Gruver say they hesitated to accept Samaha's offer because the Java Detour involved high startup costs, including building a kitchen. They claim Samaha told them he would cover startup investment and get his brother, who owned a construction company, to "cut them a deal on construction costs."

"Defendant Samaha again represented to plaintiffs at that meeting that even if plaintiffs Carrillo and Gruver didn't raise any money at all for Bar Varsity, he had enough people who would invest in the project to pay for it, especially with plaintiffs' names attached to it, and that he would also personally invest in the venture," the complaint states.

At the end of the meeting, Carrillo and Gruver say, they signed an agreement to lease the Java Detour from Samaha for seven years at $4,000 a month in exchange for a $500,000 investment from Samaha. Since Samaha agreed to fund their restaurant, they say, they quit their jobs and "invested their money and hundreds of hours of their time into the plans, permitting, design, development and promotion of Bar Varsity."

After spending more than a year designing logos, developing menus, opening bank accounts, meeting with potential investors and seeking permits, Carrillo and Gruver say, they "finally obtained" approval from the West Hollywood Planning Commission to expand the Java Detour and get it nightclub status in June 2011.

"Plaintiffs' success in obtaining a permit to utilize the Java Detour location as a nightclub greatly increased the value of the master lease for the Java Detour location, as well as the value of the real property of the Java Detour location itself," the complaint states.

Then Samaha got cold feet, the plaintiffs say.

"Inexplicably to plaintiffs, after the Planning Commission approved the Bar Varsity's plans and permits, communication by defendants to plaintiffs started to slow," the complaint states. "Samaha had represented to plaintiffs that he would start funding the project so that demolition and renovation could move forward, but he failed to do so. Instead, defendants Samaha and Frumkes started to pressure plaintiffs to obtain investors in Bar Varsity. However, due to the failure of Samaha to make the initial $500,000 investment in Bar Varsity as he previously agreed to do, plaintiffs' potential investors declined to invest in Bar Varsity."

Carrillo and Gruver say they tried many times to contact Samaha and find out what was going on, "but defendants were evasive and failed to respond to plaintiffs' attempts at communication."

"On or about February, 2013, plaintiffs Carrillo and Gruver first saw a posting at the Java Detour location with the name P.U.M.P. Lounge on it. Thereafter, plaintiffs learned that defendants Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd had leased the Java Detour Location," the complaint states.

After seeing the sign, Carrillo and Gruver say, they sent a letter to the defendants demanding a meeting to discuss their original agreement.

"After this letter was sent, plaintiff Carrillo received a phone call from Carol Braidy, sating that the Java Detour location had been leased to defendants Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd (the 'Vanderpump defendants') and indicating that the Vanderpump defendants were not partners with Samaha," the complaint states.

Carol Braidy is not a party to the complaint.

Carrillo and Grover claim the defendants' failure to invest in their restaurant as promised damaged their reputations, hurt their ability to attract investors and cost them more than $4 million in salaries and profits.

They seek $4 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive and exemplary damages for breach of contract, constructive fraud, and deceit. They also want an injunction preventing any further construction on the P.U.M.P. Lounge, a court order forcing the defendants to honor their agreement to fund the plaintiffs' bar, and restitution and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains.

They are represented by Joseph Adams of West Hollywood.

Vanderpump and Todd denied any wrongdoing in the matter.

"We had no prior knowledge of Ryan Carrillo and Andrew Gruver or their claim," they said in a statement. "We took the lease in good faith seven months ago and all of our applications and notices have been posted publicly. Any issue will be between them and the property owner."

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