Beloved Carleton burger joint Fat Stax abruptly closes amid business dispute

CARLETON, Mich. (FOX 2) - A beloved small-town burger joint is expected to close its doors and the owner as well as the community is devastated.

Fat Stax, on Telegraph Road in Carleton, recently shut down and the owner, Barb Little, was spending the day cleaning it out.

How did this come to be?

Big picture view:

Little says they were open a month and doing well. "The Burger Review" came out recently, tried a burger and gave it a 9.3 out of 10. However, Little says the entire time she did not sign a lease, even though she asked for one repeatedly.

Little says Monday the owners, Mega Fireworks, which is next door, approached her about entering into a partnership and giving them 50% of the profit. Little says she didn’t know what "partnership" meant. But today, Little says they offered her partnership again and says if she can’t do it, then today’s her last day.

So she made a social media post about what happened and began cleaning things out.

"They’ve turned the power off on me to where I can’t cook any food, even the product that I had today," said Little. "Thankfully the community has really rallied around me. They don’t even know me. And I can’t even thank them enough. People are offering me, they’re handing me money right and left. They’re offering me restaurants and food trucks and storage space and this, that and the other. And I can’t be more appreciative of everything. I just, I haven’t even had time to wrap my head around all of this that my dream blew up in my face."

Mega Fireworks responds

The other side:

FOX 2 spoke with Mega Fireworks, and they provided a statement that tells their side of the story.

They say Little didn’t have the funds to put into the business, so they agreed to work with her on the food truck deposit and other business needs.

On Sept. 16, they agreed to a partnership after she told them she felt overwhelmed and needed help managing.

They entrusted her with their $150,000 food truck business, and later told them she didn’t know what the partnership meant. And when it came time to review end-of-month receipts, invoices and expenses, they claim she walked away.

Statement from Mega Fireworks

They wrote a statement, saying:

"Her account of what happened with Fat Stax does not accurately represent our agreement or the support we provided. She did not have the funds to put into the business, so we agreed to work with her on the food truck deposit and other business needs. On September 16, after she told us she was overwhelmed and needed help managing the business, we agreed to a partnership. That day, she got down on her knees and thanked us for helping her. We trusted her with our $150,000 food truck business investment, which we paid for, and committed our time and labor, working behind the grill to help her for 11 hours a day. When it came time to review the end-of-month sales reports, receipts, invoices, and business expenses, she then said she did not understand what she had agreed to or what a partnership meant. Her husband was the one who said he wanted to shut the business down; we did not make that decision. They now want to walk away without reviewing the business financials or accounting for the expenses and investments made. We believe her account takes the situation out of context and leaves out our financial investment, our work, and the responsibilities we agreed to share. Running a business comes with costs, accountability, and shared responsibilities, and we want our agreement and the full circumstances represented accurately."

Mega Fireworks didn’t want to go on camera out of fear of retaliation. They say people have driven by and given them the middle finger. So they called the police.

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