A popular restaurant in downtown Mebane is at the center of a protracted legal battle over the division of its ownership and profits.
Juan Rossi has filed a lawsuit against the owner of Junction on 70, Steven (“Steve”) Krans, claiming to have put up $30,000 as a down payment for Krans to purchase the former Pomodoro Italian Restaurant at 107 East Center Street in Mebane, where Krans had been employed as the general manager, for $100,000 in 2017.
In his suit, Rossi alleges that he’d approached Krans at the time about owning one-half interest in the new restaurant and being its general manager. Krans indicated that he would be interested but said he had no money to invest in the purchase, the suit asserts.
“It was agreed that…Krans would form the company and the assets would be held in that entity,” Rossi alleges. Rossi offered to put up the down payment because he was concerned that he might be subject to a lawsuit related to another one of his restaurants, according to the lawsuit against Krans, which doesn’t identify what other restaurants that the plaintiff owned or owns.
“All funds to purchase the business were initially provided by [the] plaintiff,” Rossi asserts in his suit. Under the terms of their alleged agreement, Krans was to have acted as the manager of the business and “provided periodic checks” equal to one-half of the operating profit to Rossi.
Krans subsequently repaid half of the down payment – the amount of which isn’t specified in Rossi’s suit – and financed the remainder of the $100,000 purchase price, the complaint states.
In 2021, Krans asked Rossi if he wanted to sell his interest in the company for $100,000, Rossi asserts, adding that he believed that Krans’ offer of $100,000 “was far less than the actual value” and rejected the offer.
In December 2022, Rossi purportedly discussed amending the “company,” which appears to be a reference to its articles of incorporation, to reflect Rossi’s 50 percent ownership interest, and the pair met with the company’s accountant, who advised against it. (The company is also named as a defendant to Rossi’s suit.)
In November 2023, Rossi received a text message from Krans, “stating that he would not make any future payments” and instructing Rossi not to contact him again, the lawsuit alleges.
Rossi filed suit against Krans and his company, Tre Bambini, through which Junction on 70 operates, in 2024, seeking more than $25,000 in damages under multiple alleged claims for relief, including breach of a partnership agreement and breach of fiduciary duty.
Rossi contends that Krans was entrusted with money that belonged to the plaintiff and used “partnership funds” to purchase Martinho’s Deli & Bakery in 2023, which his suit describes as a “direct competitor of Junction on 70.”
After buying the former Pomodoro restaurant in downtown Mebane in 2017 – and reinventing it as the Junction on 70 – Krans also bought out Martinho’s Bakery & Deli along West Clay Street in 2023, according to the suit, which also cites a feature story that ran in a local newspaper at the time.
In his response and motion to dismiss the suit, Krans says that Rossi is not entitled to any relief because neither Krans nor his company “owed an obligation to the plaintiff,” though he acknowledges that Rossi had “advised” him to acquire the business at the center of the legal dispute.
However, Krans counters in his response, Rossi “refused to participate or join in the business as a legally recognized member” and that he is the sole and exclusive member of the company, Tre Bambini, which operates Junction on 70, according to the defendant’s motion to dismiss the suit.
The defendant also acknowledges that Rossi had offered to pay a down payment of $30,000 in order for Krans to acquire the Pomodoro business, adding that it was agreed that Krans or his company would assume $30,000 in debt from Pomodoro and would finance the remaining $40,000 of the purchase price, according to his response and motion to dismiss Rossi’s suit.
However, Krans denies agreeing that he and Rossi would each hold a 50 percent ownership interest in Tre Bambini, allegedly for the purpose of shielding Rossi from financial liabilities due to other, unrelated potential litigation, according to the defendant’s motion to dismiss.
Krans also admits that he and Rossi had been “unsuccessful in agreeing on terms to end [the] plaintiff’s ongoing demands for payment from Tre Bambini” and that, in November 2023, he told Rossi that payments from Tre Bambini would cease and instructed Rossi to stop contacting him.
The case was ultimately referred to mediation in August 2024 in order for the parties to attempt to reach an out-of-court settlement.
The two sides reached an agreement on all issues in early 2025, though the terms of the settlement do not appear to be included among the documents in the case file.
The case is currently scheduled for a hearing in superior court on August 17 to finalize the settlement.
Rossi is being represented by the Michael W. Strickland & Associates law firm in Raleigh.
Krans and the parent company for Junction on 70 are being represented by the Vernon Law Firm in Burlington.
