Big Spoon Sauce Co.’s Occidental owners are expressing “utter surprise” at the lawsuit from another small food brand.
A Sonoma County couple behind a popular, locally produced chili crisp are in the cross hairs of a lawsuit filed by a North Carolina nut butter company with a similar name.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in North Carolina federal court by Big Spoon Roasters, accuses Big Spoon Sauce Co. of Occidental and its owners, Nathan Bender and Lani Chan, of trademark infringement.
Bender called the lawsuit “heartbreaking.” Chan called it “nightmarish and disappointing.”
“I never expected to be on the receiving end of something like this, especially from (another) small food brand,” said Chan.
The lawsuit claims the similar names “have likely caused confusion among the consuming public and consumers of goods sold at specialty food retailers.”
Big Spoon Roasters, founded in 2011, makes nut butters with flavors such as “espresso almond butter” and “Thai curry cashew.”
Big Spoon Sauce’s chili crisp is a spicy, chunky oil-based condiment made with chilis, chopped nuts, shallots and garlic.
Chan and Bender said they spent several months in negotiations with Big Spoon Roasters prior to the lawsuit. Chan said the time spent dealing with it has put a damper on their business.
“I don’t have time for it. I don’t have the energy for it,” she said. “These are things that make small businesses not want to continue working and building their business.”
Chan and Bender source many of their ingredients from local farmers’ markets and also forage ingredients, like seaweed, themselves that they use in limited release batches of their product.
The couple, who make their products by hand each week, sells their goods at the Sebastopol Farmers Market and a handful of small specialty retailers in Sonoma County and the greater Bay Area, as well as online. They started making chili crisp in 2021 for family and friends to raise money for organizations that support the Asian American Pacific Islander community at a time when hate crimes against Asian Americans were on the rise.
Big Spoon Roasters’ lawsuit also claims Big Spoon Sauce “engaged in unfair methods of competition.”
According to Chan, Big Spoon Sauce sells about 800 cases, or close to 10,000 jars, of chili crisp products each year and “barely clears six figures” in revenue.
The Press Democrat reached out to Big Spoon Roasters for comment, but the owner, Mark Overbay, was on a flight and wasn’t immediately available.
Additionally, the lawsuit accuses Chan and Bender of “immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous” conduct by attempting to deceive consumers.
The couple call those accusations personal attacks.
“It’s deeply, deeply hurtful and damning, and it’s very personal,” said Bender.
You can reach Staff Writer Jennifer Graue at 707-521-5262 or jennifer.graue@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @JenInOz.
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