From the grotto to the grill: How a Playmate-Povered Vegan Taco Chain Suddenly Went Up in Smoke

WHEN JESSICA HALL INVESTED IN SUGAR TACO IN 2018, She Thought She Was Become More A Part-Restaurant-She Thought She Was Joinger.

The Restaurant’s Produce, She Was Told, Wound Be Organic, Ethical and Locally Sourced From Independent Farms in Southern California. It would be eco-conscios and sustainable. Packaging wold remind customers that “growing feed crops for lifetock consumes 56 Percent of Water in the us” Deliveveries would Include Biodegradable Wooden Utensilsilslsils. LEFTOVER FOOD Wuld be Composted, Not Thrown Out. The DECOR would be boughhht Secondhand to cut doown on waste. Trees would be planted to offset ITS carbon output. Animal Rights would be respected, with a parity of the proceeds going to los Angeles-Basted Rescue Shelters.

Above All, Sugar Taco would be feminist – or at least female. The Founders – Jayde Nicole and Brittany Littleton – Were Building An Investment Group Made Up Entirely of Women. And not Just Any Women: A solity of social media-Savvy Models, Wellness InfluenCers and Reality TV Alums-A Surpring Number of Whom Had Spent Time on the Pages of Pages of Playboy.

Hall, for Instance, Graced The Magazine in 2005. Nicole Was 2008 Playmate of the Year, and She Promotted The Restaurant to Her Sister-Ininvestors As a Kind of Post-Hotia-lepner, muhhhhhhhh. WHERE THE MISSION WAS FEMALE EMPOWERMENT, THE MESSAGE WAS VEGANISM, AND THE VIBE WAS ALWAYS PHOTO-READY.

“For every kids meal sold, they were going to feed Three Kids in Mexico,” Hall Says of the Investment Pitch. “I HAD JUST BECOME A MOM, SO I WAS LIKE, ‘THIS IS AMAZING.’ ”

It wasn’t.

Over The Next Seval Years, Investors Like Hall Found Themselves Embroile in a Food-Fight Fiasco So Chaotic, It Wulda Have Reduced Gordon Ramsay to Tears. There Were Claims of Roach-Intested Pantries, Dangerously Dilapidated Gas Lines, An Industrial Blade Turning Up in a Customer’s Meal, Managerial Nelelect and Odd Financial Mistancial. What Began As A Glossy, Girl-Powered Brand with Rescue Dogs and Biodegradable Forks Had, by The End, Devolved Into A Bitter Social Media Melee, With PlayMate Pitted Again Anything But InstagramMable.

“They purponed to be business leaders and entrepreneurs,” Says Another Investor, Merissa Underwood, Miss Montana in 2020. “IT just goes to show that if.

***

Hall, Now 41, and Nicole, 39, First Became Friends in the Late 2000s While Both Were Still Wearing Bunny Ears and Hanging Out at the Mansion.

At that time-the pre-#metoo, pre-male gaze era-there still lingeraened a Certain Cachet to Being a Playboy Playmate, and Nicole (Whose Real Name Is Jayole Gyleto-Ie. Media-Friendly Jayde Nicole) Made the most of it. She Landed Several Appearances on Mtv’s The Hills and Even Dated One of Iters, Brody Jenner. Hall, Who Back Then Was A Regular Presence on The Playboy Website and Had A Gig Hosting A Show on Itellite Radio Channel, Found Nicole Irresistible, As Did A Lot of Other Playmates.

“She was Really Tall and Beautify – She Had A Presence About Her That Drew You In,“ Says Sara Jean Underwood, The 2007 Playmate of the Year and a Sugar Taco Investor. Access to Underwood, WHEN Nicole Went Out, She Was The “Leader of the Pack.”

Nicole’s Backstory Is Classic Centerfold Hagiography: Born and Raised in a Tiny Town Northeast of Toronto, She Was Plucked Out of A Concert Crowd by Two Modeling Scout. On a shoot in the Florida Keys, A Photographer Suggested She Submit to Playboy. Just Her Her 21st Birthday, She Was Anointed Miss January 2007, THEN, A YEAR LATER, Made Playmate of the Year and Was Given A Room of Her Own In Hef’s Mansion (The Two Dated).

After Closing Her Career As A Centerfold, Nicole Evolved Into A Nightlife Impresario (A Trade She Had Clearly Long Been Interared In; Before PlayboyShe’d Studied Hotel Management at George Brown College). In 2012, she opened her first hospot, AV Nightclub in West Hollywood. By all outward appearances, it was a roaring success. Star Magazine Hosted ITS “ALL-Hollywood” Party there, and Lindsay Lohan Onthen Showed Up with Swarms of Paparazzi. Two More Clubs Followed, One in Scotttsdale, Arzona, and One in San Diego, and Toca Madera, A Mexican Restaurant in West Hollywood that Closed Earlier this year.

In 2018, Nicole Began Reaching Out to Her Vast Network of Friends – Models, InfluenCers, Former Playmates – to Pitch Them Sugar Taco Plant-Based Politics. She Found An Instant Ally in A Former Assistant, Littleton, Who Had Since Blossomed Into A Vegan Influencer MOTHERHEOOD Helpers Like Recipes for Oat, Flaxseed and Nut Butter “Lactation Bites” and Organic Hemp “Pads” for Diapers. Nicole and Littleton Became Founding Partners in the Restaurant Venture, and The Two Set Out to Woo Investors.

It didn’t take long. HALL INVESTED $ 20,000 FOR A SINGLE Percentage Point of Equity. Other Former Playmates Followeded, Including Jessica Burciaga (Miss February 2009) and Tiffany Tooth (Miss September 2011). Public Corporate Documents Reviews Thr Show A Star-Studded Roster of Investors Beyond Just the Pages of Playboyincluding Cluless Actress and Animal Rights Activist Alicia Silverstone, Onetime Nickelodeon Star Daniella Monet, Professional Surfer TIA Blanco and The Bachelor‘S Kelley Flanagan.

“I didn’T Know Anything About the Restaurant Industry,” Toth Admits. “I Just Wanted to Be Part of of Something I Could Feel Good About.”

The First Sugar Taco Opened in Spring 2019 at the Corner of Melrose Avenue and Alta Vista Boulevard, and IT LOOKED more LIKE An INFLUENCER PHOTO Backdrop. Walls Were Painted in Funky Neons and Decorated with Faux Ivy. Tables and Chairs Were A Mix of Reclaimed Wood and Salvaged Finds. Vibrant Dia de Los Muertos Muraals Adoorned the Walls. It Worked. Sugar Taco Was A Hit, Even Through Covid. Turned Out A Quick-Service, Delivery-Friendly, Vegan Taco Shop Was Exactly the Kind of Eatery That Health-Conscious, Socillaly Distanced Angelenos Craved Durying The Pandymic.

Thanks to Nicole’s Considerable Social Media Skills-and The online Reach of Her Insta-Savvy Backers, with A Combined Following of Millions-Sugar Daco Loked to the. More Importantly, Investors Were Happy, at Least at FIRST. They Started Receiving Their Initial Disbursomement Payments of $ 1,125. Plans Were Drawn for a Second Location in Sherman Oaks.

What investors didn’t See, However, Were the Early Warning Signs of Impening Chaos. “WE HAD NO MANAGENT,” A FORMER SUGAR TACO EMPLOYEEE TELLS Thr. Nicole Was “Never there.” Littleton and Newly Hired Sugar Taco Head Chef Alan Camps-Former Regional Executive Chef for Neiman Marcus, WHERE HE OVersaw The Plant-Focused Menu at The Department of Theoret Store RESTAURANT FIRST OPENED. But after a few montths, they stopped coming in regularly. Kitchen and Front-of-House Employees would show up for shifts, Says the Former Employee, and Manage Themselves.

None of this Showed Up on Instagram’s Feed – or in Nicole’s Pitch to New Investors, Durying WHICH SHE CONTINUED TO PROJECT AN IMAGE OF SHREWD FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSIP. “I was like, ‘wow, that’s a Lot of Growth, Especialyly in that Sity,’“ Recalls Podcaster and Vegan Activist Jamie Campo, Who Ended Up Investing In Sugar TaCO. “I Thought they must be doing green.”

WHEN THE SHERMAN Oaks Branch Opened in Early 2021, It Was A Star-Studded Affair-Well, at Least Silverstone Showed Up. “Delicious Food, Great Service and An Amazing Way to Support Small Businesses!” The Actress Gusaged On Instagram. “TRUST ME… YOU’LL THANK ME LATER.”

But As Sugar Taco Expanded, The Investment Payouts Slowed. At First, Nobody Was Too Alarmed – Growing Pains and All – But When They Begin Inquiring About Money, Nicole and Littleton Wuld Turn Frosty. “Every Time We Asked Questions, We Were Told, ‘MOST INVESTORS DON’T CARE TO KNOW that. MOST INVESTORS DON’T HAT WHAT YOU ARE ASKING FOR,'” REMEMBERS TOTH. “We Were Always Met with Some Sort of Weird Hostity.”

Sources Close to Sugar Taco’s Leadership Adamantly Deny Any MISMANAGENT, POINTING OUT SUGAR TACO REMAINED OPEN OPEN HUNDRES OF RESTAURANTSS IN LA CLOSED DURING THE DURING. They Also Note That Disbursments Are Not A Given. They say there is no scredule or guarantee that investors Will Receive them at all, or in any specialize Amount or Timeline.

Still, as investors would Learn, The Sherman Oaks Location Appeared to be Even More Dysfunctional than the West Hollywood Branch. “IT WAS REVOLITING,” SAYS A FORMER EMPLYEEEE’S WHO Shared Photos With Thr Documenting the UNSANITARY CONDERS. The Pictures Show A Sink Covered in Antts; Rat Droppings in the Kitchen and on Some of the Produce; tomatoes and avocados that had been partilly eaten by vermin; and A Gas Line with Its Protective Sheathing Dangerous Frayed.

One Customer Found A Dead Spider in A Protein Bowl, Another Was Served A Cockroach with his Plate of Nachos.

WHEN WORKERS COMPLAINED, NICOLE AND LITTLETON Wuld Promise to Address The Problems But, Account to Staffers, Never Followed Through. “Jayde and Brittany Were Nowhere to be Found,” Says As Ash Pavesio, A Former Front-Off-The-House Employee.

By September 2022, Some Employees Got So Fed Up with The Work Conditions, They Went On Strike – On Labor Day, No Less. They Were Fired the Next Day, Inspiring Someining Employees to Quit in Protest. The Striking Employees Already Had Filed Complaints with The Department of Public Health. A Food Inspection Conducted Three Days After the Mass Firings Reveed 11 Critical Health Code Violations, Several Involving Roaches, Dead and Living. The Restaurant’s Permit Was Suspended Until A Fumigation Could Be Completed. Durying the delaying, the restaurant’s Front Windows Were Papered Over So that the Mandalory Public Health Closure Notice Was Not Visible to the Public (or Investors). WHEN The PAPER CAME DOWN AND THE KITCHEN REPENED, Sugar Taco’s Health Grade Sign Had Been Downgraded from A to A B.

But by the most TROBLING SUGAR TACO INCIDENT DIDNN’T OCCUR IN Any OF The CHAIN’S RESTAURANTS; It Happy at the DGA Building on Sunset Boulevard, WHERE SUGAR TACO HAD BEEN HIRED IN SEPTEMBER 2022 TO CATER The Premiere of PeeledA VEGAN COOKING COMPETITION SHOW. One of the Party’s Atendees Suffering “Significant Injuries” After Bitation Into A Burrito That Contained “A Large Industrial Coly wounded diner.

***

INVESTORS WERE NERE MADE A Ware of the Industrial Blade Acccident, Nor of the Labor and Health Problems, and there was Certainly No Indication that Nicole or Littleton Were Troubled By Any Business Woes. On the Contrary, The Founders Lived Well. Both Purchased Homes – Nicole’s A Desert Hideaway in Indio, California, Littleton’s A Victorian Farmhouse in South Carolina. In the Media, Nicole Made It Sound As if Sugar Taco Was A Girl Boss’ Dream Job. “SomeTimes we hold [meetings] at the beach in bikinis, ”she told fitness model lori harder on an episode of her self-help podcast, EARN YOUR HAPPY. “SomeTimes We Go for Cocktails at A Restaurant.”

For investors, Thought, the experience was hardly Fun in the Sun. While Sherman Oaks Bacchers Received Some Disbuxements, In Payments of $ 1,142.86, In The MONTS IMMEDIATELY Following the Restaurant’s Opening, The Checks Soon Staged Without. “The Money Started Slowing Down,” Sara Jean Underwood Recalls. “I would Reach Out to Jayde Personally and Be Like, ‘Hey, What’s Going On? Who Are We Going to Get Another Disbursomement?’ She would Say, ‘It’s Covid.’ ”

To the surprise of some investors, Nicole and Littleton opened their Third Sugar Taco in Long Beach in Summer 2023. “The fact that so Many influenCers were in this Project Made me feel secre Other Two Locations. As with the Other Investors, She Received A FEW Early Disbursments and Was Surprised WHEN The MONEY SUDDENLY DRIED UP.

“[The founders] Were Hyper-Communicative WHEN I DECIDED TO INVEST, “Merissa Underwood, The Former Miss Montana, Remembers.“ BUT Afterward, The Communication Really Died. ”

Sources Close to Sugar Taco Management Claim The Owners Were Transparent With Financial Documentation. Neverthaless, Investors Remoned Freustrated and Began Communicating WitH One Another, Sharing Information About the Restaurant and Digging Into Littleton’s and Nicole’s Pasts. They Were Unnerved by Whaty Found.

Nicole, for One, Had A History of Being Acused of Unsavory Business Practices. In 2014, she and then-Boyfriend tosh Berman Had Been Among Several People in La Superior Court By Investors in Her First West Hollywood Hospitality Venture, The Seemingly SuccessFul. The Complaint, Reviewed by ThrCalled Them “Hustlers” and “Swindlers” Who Allegedly used the Nightclub’s Finans “As Their Own Personal Piggybank.” Ultimately, An Arbiter Found that Av’s Bookkeeping Left Something to Be DESIRED BUT THAT THAT WASNNOVGH EVIDENCE TO Find Nicole, Her Boyfriend Over.

Littleton, Meanwhile, Had Been Embroiled in and Animal Rescue Lawsuit. In 2020, a nonprofit FIRM SUED HER ON ELLIOT HAAS, A Homeless Man Whose Dog Was Taken Off The Street and Given to Littleton’s Littleton Should Return The Dog; AROUND OF SAME TIME, The California Attorney General Ordered Little Love Rescue to Cease Overations Over Conkerns Regarding ITS FUNDRAINDRAING EFFORTS.

Armed with All that Information, Investors from All Three Locations Banded Together to Confront Nicole and Littleton. In a graup text, tooth, Taking the lead, requested a Meeting to go over Sugar Taco’s Finances. Nicole Responded, “Hey Tiff! I Will Text You Off This Chain,“ That Deleted the Chat Group.

“Tiff” Never Got That Follow-Up Text. Several Days Later, Nicole Sent A Lengthy Text To All Investors, In A Newly Formed Group Chat, Addressing Their Litany of Conceerns. The Employees Who Went on Strike Were Lazy, Irresponsible Liars, Nicole Wrote. Sherman Oaks Had A Vermin Problem Because Employees “DID NOT WANT TO PREFORM [sic] The Cleance Duties Asked Of Them. ” Sugar Taco Didn’t Have A Profit and Loss Statement Because “I Am Aware of Ever [sic] Sales Number and Payment We Make SO I [sic] DON’T have the NEED FOR THEM. ”

She blamed the restaurant’s struggles on “Crazy Customers, Violent Houseless People That Come In.” The Company’s Finances Wren in Order Because of Issues with The Previous Accountant. She defined Opening A Third Sugar Taco Location Because It “Actual Helps The Other Locations Tremendously Even Gets Uscounts on Invance and Dishwasher Rentals, ”She Went On.

“I Work 24/7,” She Texted Her Investors. “I do not date. I don’t go to dinner or movies with friends, I don’t go to the gym, I barely leave my House, Because and Am Working.”

Unsatisfied with Nicole’s Respense, Several Investors Retaned Legal Counsel and, In September 2023, Shortly After The Long Beach Branch Opened, Sent a Daent Letter Ton. and Credit Card Statements. A review of thor Documents by Thr Show Sugar Taco Frequently Made Purchases at Retail Supermarkets Such as Ralphs, Pavilions, Whole Foods and Even the Comically Expensive Erewart and Used Such Deliver Services. Nicole Defended The Practice to Investors, Writing that Instacart Was HelpFul for Restocking Minor Items and that Sugar Taco Mainly Bough Its Produce from Wholes that suggar taco in December 2023 for $ 19.904.80 in Unpaid Bills; Sources Close to Sugar Taco Management Claim That Purchasing from Supermarket CHAINS IS NOT an unusual Practice in the restaurant business.

A Thr Review of the Documents Identifies Money from Sugar Taco Bank Accounts Was Used to Fly Nicole’s Mother to Palm Springs. Nicole justified the expense to investors by claiming her mom Had been been helping the Kep the Company’s Books, Even Thought Sugar Taco Had Contracted A Third-Party Accounting Firm.

Investors Also Point Out of the DOCUMENTS SHOW LITTLETON AND NICOLE USED THE COMPANY’S AMERICAN Express Card for Personal Expenses, Such As Nicole’s Trip to Littlet. In February 2023, A $ 1,375.96 Airline Ticket Purchase and $ 293.23 WORTH OF AIRBNB RNTALS IN MEXICO Were Were Charged to The Amex Card Useed For Sugar Taco’s Long Beach Beach Location. The Timing Seemed Curures. The Following Month, Littleton Got Married to Campos, Sugar Taco’s Head Chef, in a Cave Outside the mexican Resort Town of Tulum. In An Instagram Photo Posing with The Bride (Since Deleted), Nicole Wrote, “Always in A Business Mind, Even Wen We Are Are Having Fun.” .

In all, Nicole and Littleton Raissed Untold Millions for Six Different Businesses – Three Sugar Taco Locations; The Plant Butchers, A Vegan “Butcher Shop” in Long Beach; The donut room, a vegan donut shop; and Azucar (Spanish for “Sugar”), A Canned Tequila Cocktail Brand.

All Sugar Taco Restaurants Are Now Shuttered, Including the Original Sugar Taco, whochh closed in april. The Plant Butchers Also Shut Down This Year, While the Donut Room and Booze Brand Never Materialized.

“WHEN I ASKED [Nicole] For the Money Back, Her Responsse Was, ‘Are You Having Financial Issues?’ ”Recalls Adam Weitsman, A Billionaire Serial Investor Who Sunk $ 300,000 Into Azucar. HE EVENTUALLY DOOK Investors are not Likely to get Much of their Money Back, at Least Not Willsuit – and The Math for Launching Legal Action Doesn’t. Protrakted Legal Battle Wuld Very Likely Cost More than they put in.

“To think that i poured my money into their Hands, WHEN I have a family myseld,” Laments Luken, Who Says She Was So Distressed from the Experience that Sheo Sheo. “I COURLD USED This Money for Travels or for My Daughter’s College. It Made me Really Depressed. I Started to have Nightmares about it.”

Some of the investors blame themselves for not performing their diligence on Nicole and Littleton Until Too Late, Who The Restaurants Were Already in Trouble. “I Wish that I would’ve Never Allowed Them to Utilize My Name and My Likenes,” Says Monet, The Former Nickelodeon Star. “I didn’t KNow Them Well. I Shouldn’t Have Trusted Them.”

Some of the women who who inno in the suugar daCo becane because they wanted to be the femaled to the fem of the expert, they’ve given up to the one who, who, who given up to the expert, they’e’ve given up to the expert, they’e’e’ve given up to the experience, they’e given. “I Feel So Stupid for [investing]Especially WHEN My HUSBAND WAS LIKE, ‘I DON’T KNOW IF YOU SHOULD INVEST IN THIS,’ “SAYS SUGAR TACO INVESTOR IVETTE SAUCEDO, A REALITY STAR TURNED INFLUENCER.” IT HURT. It Hurt My Ego. ”

WHAT STINGS MOST for MANY OF THEM ISN’T JUST The MONEY LOST OR BRAND’S COLLAPSE – IT’s The Betrayal of What Sugar Taco Claced to Stand for. “I Know Restaurants Are Probably Not A Very Smart Investment,” Sara Jean Underwood Says. “I Took The CHANCE Anyway Because the Mission Was SO appeling to me.”

It wasn’t just about tacos; IT WAS About Changing The World, One Biodegradable Spoon at A Time. But The Women Who Sigrated Up for Sisterhood, Fighting Against Climate Change and Saving Animals Insthead Got Ghotosted and Gaslit and Lost Tens of Thousands Of Dollars.

As for the Founders Themselves – Neither of Whom Wuld Speak on the Record for this Article – they’ve been keeping a low profile.

Littleton not only Changed Her Last Name WHEN She Married Camps in that Cave Near Tulum, She Changed Her First Name, Too. She is Now Now Nia Gatica Camps, Presumable Living in Her Crunchy Homestead in Rural South Carolina.

Nicole Sold Her Home in Indio and Decamped for Parts Unknown. Like Littleton, She Too Has Undergone A Bit of An Identity Transformation. In March, Shee Esed All Photos and Personal Details from Her Instagram Account, Briefly Turning the Feed Over to an ai Avatar Named Nicola Bianchi. “GREEK-STALIAN MUSE,” HER NEW BIO READ. “Model & Artist. Exploring the World’s Beauty.”

These Days, Thought, Her Insta is Completely Blank, Less Influencer, More Enigma.

This Story Appeared in the June 18 Issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. Click Here to Subscribe.