Restaurant owned by MasterChef’s Andy Allen dragged into messy legal dispute between family-owned café and former landlords at luxury event venue The Lodge Bellingen

A family cafe on the north coast of New South Wales is embroiled in a nasty dispute that inadvertently involves a number of celebrity chefs, including MasterChef winner Andy Allen.

Husband-and-wife team Carla Jones and Richie Dolan, along with their business partner Matthew Evans, have been embroiled in a legal battle with luxury event venue The Lodge in Bellingen for the past two years, the agency reports. Daily telegram.

The Lodge was once home to their cafe, The Hilltop at The Lodge, which opened its doors in 2019 and was open Thursday through Sunday.

However, things went wrong when the owners of The Lodge requested The Hilltop to increase opening hours to seven days a week, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.

After failing to reach an agreement, Dolan claims to have been given an ‘ultimatum’ by The Lodge to leave in July 2021, and when he disobeyed they claimed they were ‘locked out’ of the property in September. year.

Husband and wife team Carla Jones and Richie Dolan (pictured) have been feuding with luxury events venue The Lodge in Bellingen for the past two years after the establishment ‘locked them out’ of their premises in 2021

Now, MasterChef’s Andy Allen, along with celebrity chef Darren Robertson and Matt LaBrooy, is taking over the spot once occupied by The Hilltop with the latest addition to their famed farm-to-table restaurants, The Three Blue Ducks.

The Three Blue Ducks already has branches in Byron, Sydney, Melbourne and Nimbo and opened the branch in Bellingen last week.

Paul Dewhurst, co-owner of The Three Blue Ducks, told the Daily Telegraph that they were ‘aware’ of the dispute between The Lodge and its former tenants.

“After lengthy communications with both The Lodge and the previous tenants, we understood that there was a plan in place to resolve the deadlock. We will leave The Lodge and the former tenant to resolve any outstanding issues as the matter concerns them and not Three Blue Ducks,” they told the publication.

The owners of The Hilltop had signed 13-year terms with The Lodge, but did not have a fully registered lease.

MasterChef’s Andy Allen, along with celebrity chef Darren Robertson and Matt LaBrooy, are taking over the spot once occupied by The Hilltop with the latest addition to their famed farm-to-table restaurants, The Three Blue Ducks

Robertson is pictured with his fiancée, TV presenter Magdalena Roze

The case has already been taken three times to the NSW Civil Administrative Tribunal and in July 2022 the court ruled that the owners of The Hilltop had been illegally locked out of their premises.

Despite this, they are still not allowed to enter.

A spokesperson for The Lodge told the Daily Telegraph that The Hilltop’s claims were “factually incorrect”.

Hilltop’s husband-and-wife team told the publication they are financially and emotionally drained by the dispute, calling it “the hardest two years of our lives.”

The pair also spoke about the situation in a lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday, explaining why they chose to go public with the dispute.

“After a few tough years of legal battles and quite a bit of misinformation and now that the situation has been made public, it was important for us to put things right,” they said.

“As many of you may know, our family business was illegally locked out of our restaurant at The Lodge in Bellingen in September 2021,” they continued.

“Since then, we have tried to resolve the matter fairly through legal channels. But in the meantime another company has taken over our restaurant space on the site and opened a new restaurant on the site.’

They continued with a swipe at The Three Blue Ducks, but stressed that their real dispute is with The Lodge.

“We have known the owners of Three Blue Ducks before and we are disappointed with some of their public comments. However, this dispute is not between us and Three Blue Ducks – it is based on the actions of The Lodge’s landlord,” they wrote.

“Both personally and professionally it has been the toughest two years of our lives, we never thought we would be in this position. It was also heartbreaking that the exclusion meant we had to let go of our wonderful team that had made the Hilltop at the Lodge such a special place.”

The couple are currently selling coffee and food from their Sawtell location as they continue to pursue legal action.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted The Lodge and The Hilltop for comment.

The Lodge was once home to their cafe, The Hilltop at The Lodge, which opened its doors in 2019 and is open Thursday through Sunday

The Three Blue Ducks has become one of Australia’s most popular restaurants in recent years.

It has already launched successful eateries in Melbourne, Sydney, Byron and more.

However, Allen was forced to close the Bronte location in 2021, during the Covid pandemic.

“This little place has meant so much to us. It has always been a place of community, both inside and outside its walls,” he said at the time.

Thank you to all involved, past and present. Thanks for the laughter, thanks for the tears, we all learned so much about each other and ourselves.

“We built this place with our hands, we cooked here with our hands, and now it’s time to deliver it.”