Eric Moore, whose St. Louis-based Boardwalk Waffles and Ice Creams empire seems to at least for now have folded, is being sued by a former girlfriend and business partner who says Moore owes her $250,000.
Michelle Hastings, 48, filed the lawsuit against Moore, 52, last month. She tells the RFT that this January she loaned him $100,000 followed by another loan for $70,000 in February. Hastings says she and Moore met online in September 2022 and were in a romantic relationship at the time she loaned him the money. The loans made them effectively business partners as well.
Hastings says she believed Moore when he told her that he expanded his business too fast but that the four eateries he was operating at the time were overall doing well. Hastings says she thought to herself, "I'm going to help him and we're going to get married. We're going in this together."
"That's not what happened," she says.
About two months after that second loan, the RFT reported that Moore's waffles and ice cream operations were embroiled in litigation, including lawsuits filed by Moore's landlords on South Grand and in south county, Maplewood, Soulard and Grand Center.
Hastings says in April she read those alarming reports about Moore's businesses and confronted him. Hastings says that when she put questions to Moore, he got angry.
"He would get very defensive and he'd say, 'You keep needling me about all these things.' And I said, 'Eric, I'm not needling you about them. I'm asking you because A, we are in a relationship and B, I'm an investor in this company.'"
When the RFT spoke to Hastings last week, she said it had been a month since she'd last seen Moore.
In a phone call Friday morning, Moore made clear to the RFT that he does not want to respond on the record to Hastings' claims and that he is not happy with our coverage.
Filings included with Hastings' suit include copies of the original promissory notes signed by Moore, which seem to indicate he agreed to pay her back $150,000 by July 6 for the first loan and $100,000 before August 14 for the second. Hastings says in her suit she hasn't gotten any of that money and she's unsure where the money she loaned him went to begin with.
"The wires I gave him specifically say that it was for the intention of investment in his business," she says. "Now, have I seen any evidence that's where that money went? Absolutely not."
Hastings, a psychologist, says she liquified her retirement savings to make those loans to Moore. She stresses that she wanted to speak publicly about it in hopes it might prevent someone else from finding themselves in a similar situation. In retrospect, she says there are signs in a relationship that people should pay close attention to because they could potentially be warnings of trouble to come. These include a partner ignoring boundaries in the relationships, a hesitancy to take responsibility for even the smallest of issues and a lack of transparency about things like finances.
"At this point, it's more about protecting other people," she says.
She adds, "I could sit here and be angry and sad. However, I'm not going to let this harden my heart. I'm not going to let it deter me from moving on."
Moore was served a summons in the suit at the end of last month. There is no court date set as of right now in the case.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include Eric Moore declining comment. A previous version of the story said he did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment, which was incorrect due to the message being left at an incorrect number. We regret the error.
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