In the past year and a half, the company that operates Boardwalk Waffles & Ice Cream has been sued by four different landlords throughout St. Louis for not paying rent. Two of the suits — over properties in Midtown and Maplewood — have been settled to the satisfaction of all parties. But the other two, which involve properties in Soulard and on South Grand, have grown so contentious that one landlord has hung a banner of apology above the retail space where Boardwalk Waffles has yet to open and another landlord is facing criminal charges.
In 2017, when Eric Moore opened his first Boardwalk Waffles & Ice Cream in Maplewood, he told local media that he grew up in New Jersey and had fond memories of the Jersey Shore and its boardwalk, where he used to buy two waffles with a scoop of ice cream between them.
“These sandwiches were a staple growing up on the East Coast, but we’re going to take the idea even further,” Moore told Sauce Magazine.
The concept of sandwiching ice cream between two waffles proved to be a hit. In August 2020, Moore’s operation moved into a larger space just down Manchester Road from where it first opened. A second Boardwalk Waffles opened on Telegraph Road in south county last September, and Moore told reporters he was planning three more locations in rapid succession.
But more recently, Moore and the company for which he is the registered agent, BWAIC LLC, have been sued multiple times by their landlords.
In January 2022, Maple King Properties sued Moore and BWAIC, saying the company owed $25,000 in rent for its Maplewood space. Two months later, Grand Center Inc. also filed a lawsuit against BWAIC, alleging the company leased space from it in the Metropolitan Artist Lofts near the Fox Theater, but then missed multiple rent payments.
In August 2022, court files indicate the two parties in the Maplewood suit reached a settlement, agreeing that Boardwalk Waffles owed $34,256, but the judgment was stayed. Months later, the landlord filed again in court, and last month, earned a default judgment of $36,380 after the eatery failed to respond. The Maplewood location remains open for business, and Moore tells the RFT he and Maple King Properties are “just fine.”
The issue between Grand Center and BWAIC has also been resolved. Moore says the Boardwalk Waffles at North Grand and Olive should be open "in about a month."
However, a third landlord, Dave McCreery, considers matters between him and the waffle company far from resolved.
McCreery has been a part of the South Grand neighborhood since 1976, when he purchased the building at the corner of Arsenal and Grand, right across the street from Tower Grove Park. He previously served as president of the South Grand Community Improvement District, and for 12 years, McCreery and his wife Beulah Ann operated the Tower Grove Creamery out of the building's first floor.
Last June, they announced they were getting out of the ice cream business — and that Boardwalk Waffles would open on site in just two weeks.
Instead, 10 months passed, and the couple recently hung a banner on their building, atop where the creamery once was. "Friends & neighbors,” it begins. “We apologize for our corner shop and appreciate your patience as we work to bring in a viable business to serve you."
McCreery tells the RFT that he wanted to apologize to the neighborhood for the space being vacant for so long. He says he knows that having an empty retail space at the entryway to the business district hurts other businesses as well. “I felt I probably should have put the sign up sooner,” he says.
He adds, “The damage to the neighborhood really hurts.”
McCreery says he and Beulah Ann believed Boardwalk Waffles and Ice Cream would open on July 1. A copy of the lease shows that Moore signed the lease as both as an individual and as president of BWAIC. He also wrote rent checks for $4,000 each, McCreery says, with each check dated on the first of every month.
But, McCreery alleges in court filings, the checks for July and August bounced. (McCreery would later testify in court that the checks for October, November and December bounced as well.) McCreery's attorney Matt Ghio says he was told by an assistant circuit attorney that, as a matter of policy, city prosecutors do not pursue criminal prosecutions over post-dated checks that bounce.
Boardwalk Waffles has yet to open at the Grand and Arsenal property. In September, McCreery filed a lawsuit against Moore and BWAIC LLC, seeking to evict them from the space on Grand and Arsenal. The lawsuit alleges that Moore is refusing to leave.
But Moore says the McCreerys are “too emotionally attached to the space.”
About the allegations of bounced checks, Moore says, “If you're going to try to file for eviction. I'm not going to let you clear checks.”
Last month, Judge Lynne Perkins ruled against McCreery, writing that the lease Moore signed "does not provide for early termination," and without the lease being terminated, Boardwalk Waffles and Moore can't be said to be illegally occupying the space.
McCreery asked for a new trial in the Circuit Court with a new judge. The next hearing is set for April 19.
“I literally could open the space up in about three weeks,” Moore says. "But at the same time, it's like, are we going to open the space only to find out that they don't want to work with us and get this resolved?"
In the same call, Moore adds, “There's too many puzzle pieces. And if you want to go and run your article, it's going to be half baked, and we're going to sue you guys for libel because it's not played out yet.”
In a subsequent call, Moore insisted that everything he’d said the day before was off the record, despite not saying anything to that effect at the time. He did, however, agree to say one thing on the record: “Basically, BWAIC expanded too fast. We got ourselves caught up in a situation, but we’re hitting summertime, and we’ll get ourselves out of the situation.”
Even more contentious than the dispute over the South Grand property may be the lawsuit that has erupted over the space where Moore opened a Boardwalk Waffles in Soulard.
Last month, the owner of the building on Russell Boulevard sued BWAIC for what the landlord said was nonpayment of rent. The landlord, which operates as 1001 Russell LLC, alleges that on January 26 they notified Boardwalk they were in default and the lease would terminate.
Despite this, the suit says, Boardwalk has not left and is "unlawfully occupying the premises."
The suit alleges that, as of the end of February, BWAIC owes $75,000 in "unpaid rent, utilities and other sums due."
But Moore says the matter is far more complicated.
In fact, he says, “My landlord broke in and stole our safe.”
What's gone down in the past several months at Boardwalk Waffles’ Soulard location is not entirely clear. But a letter from the city to the landlord dated January 27 cites the Boardwalk Waffles address for an occupancy violation.
“Restaurant next door is using this space for storage and miscellaneous use without occupancy permit,” the notice from the building inspector says.
The letter adds, “Cease operation until certificate of occupancy has been obtained.”
On the very next day, according to a probable cause statement, police responded to the Soulard waffle shop. Moore told officers “that the front door to the warehouse, currently still under construction, had been partially ripped from the hinges. Additionally, several large ice cream buckets could be observed to have been removed from the freezer and thrown throughout the area.”
Moore also told police a safe had been stolen.
About two weeks later, one of the members of the LLC that owned the building was arrested and charged with burglary in connection to the incident. The charges are currently pending in St. Louis Circuit Court, but the landlord's attorney, Richard Lozano, says he expects the matter to be resolved.
In the meantime, the civil suit between 1001 Russell and BWAIC is scheduled to go to trial in May.
The suits brought by the four landlords are not the only ones in the last year for BWAIC and Eric Moore.
In April 2022, a Maplewood-based distributor of bakery ingredients, mixes and packaging sued BWAIC and Moore for $17,392. Attorney Raymond Bozarth, who represents the distributor, says that despite winning a default judgment when BWAIC failed to respond to the lawsuit, his client has not yet collected the money.
Bozarth also represented a billboard company, Outfront Media, in a lawsuit against BAIC. A judge ordered BWAIC to pay almost $17,000 in that case. Bozarth says the "judgment has not been satisfied at this time."
Two months later, in June 2022, attorney Mitchell Jacobs sued Moore and BWAIC for attorney’s fees after representing them earlier that year.
That case has since been settled.
This story has been updated.
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