ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company has filed a response to the lawsuit The Orange Peel levied against them earlier this month.
Background
It was recently announced that the downtown Asheville concert venue Rabbit Rabbit was going to be rebranded as Asheville Yards, increasing the number of events held there and incorporating new features.
However, the decision was not without its detractors, chief among them local entertainment venue The Orange Peel.
The Orange Peel and Ninja Brewing Inc., the owners of local restaurant Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company, had originally opened Rabbit Rabbit as partners. However, Orange Peel will not be involved in Asheville Yards, leading to a lawsuit that the company filed against Ninja Brewing Inc. on Thursday, Jan. 2.
Read about the Orange Peel lawsuit in our story here.
The lawsuit requested expedited discovery from the court, allowing the case to go to trial sooner and evidence to be collected faster.
The other side of the story
Ninja filed a response to the Orange Peel lawsuit on Thursday, Jan. 16. stating that the court deny the Orange Peel’s request for expedited discovery.
In the response, Ninja highlighted the benefits that Asheville Yards would bring to the community.
Those benefits include upping the number of events held at the venue from 21 concerts to “100-plus nights of events this year, a major increase from the Rabbit Rabbit days,” according to an email from Ninja’s public relations representative, Kyle Parks of Parks PR.
The response to the lawsuit included an affidavit, or written statement under oath, by Asheville Pizza owner Mike Rangel.
One major contention of the Orange Peel lawsuit was that the venue had to financially support Asheville Pizza in order to hold up their end of the deal. They alleged that Ninja was in dire financial straits.
Rangel opposed those allegations, stating in point 35 of the document that “Ninja and AB Properties are not insolvent, were not insolvent, and have never been close to insolvent as alleged in the Complaint.”
In fact, the response claimed that Orange Peel withheld over $1 million from Asheville Pizza.
“Asheville Brewing believes this was an attempt to starve Asheville Brewing’s cash flow and force Asheville Brewing to sell Rabbit Rabbit to them at a lower price or agree to drastically change contracts in their favor,” Parks wrote in a summary of “key findings” from the response and affidavit.
Ninja claimed that it sought to find a solution for the rift between Orange Peel and Asheville Pizza for over a year, extending the deadline for ending their Rabbit Rabbit management agreement twice before terminating it on Sept. 4, 2024. The termination went into effect on Dec. 31, 2024.
Another major claim that Rangel made in his affidavit was that the Orange Peel sought to defame Asheville Pizza in a social media campaign.
“Further, I believe OPE and J. Patrick Whalen, Jr. have directed OPE and/or The Orange Peel employees to engage in a social media campaign to disparage and defame Ninja and Asheville Yards, which are designed to harm Ninja’s ability to do business in 2025 and beyond,” Rangel wrote.
The future
On Friday, Dec. 6, “Asheville Brewing entered a new management agreement with a different company to significantly increase programming at Asheville Yards, including an ice-skating rink, special events and more family programs and concerts,” Parks wrote.
Rangel suggested in his affidavit that those curious for more information about the future plans of Asheville Yards should seek out their website, www.ashevilleyards.com.
This story is developing.
CORRECTIONS: 12:38 p.m., Jan. 22, 2025 — Kyle Parks’ company is called Parks PR, not Parks Public Relations as stated in a previous version of this story. Additionally, The Orange Peel and Ninja Brewing Inc. did not open Rabbit Rabbit as a joint venture, but as partners.