Kandi Burruss is no stranger to making money moves, but a new lawsuit suggests she might be slipping on some bills.
Her upscale Atlanta spot, Blaze Steak & Seafood, is in hot water with its landlord, Montego Pacific Inc., which claims the restaurant owes over $150,000 in back rent.
The property owner isn’t stopping there—they’re also tacking on $56,495.75 for repairs in a suit filed March 3 in Fulton County State Court.
According to the filing, Burruss and her team have racked up $154,139.17 in unpaid rent, and if they don’t cough up soon, they could be on the hook for an extra $12,000 a month in interest.
Montego Pacific has laid down the gauntlet: pay up within 10 days, or things escalate. This isn’t Burruss’ first rodeo in the restaurant game—she and her husband, Todd Tucker, also run Old Lady Gang, a spot that’s taken its fair share of heat from critics.
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Blaze, which opened in 2020, has been their shinier venture, even earning a solid 93 from the Georgia Department of Public Health in 2023. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.
Back in 2022, a fight between two employees ended with one getting shot—nothing fatal, thankfully, but it marked the second time a gun went off at one of Burruss and Tucker’s places.
Then there was the 2021 shutdown after Blaze bombed an inspection with a measly 55. The violations weren’t apocalyptic—no rats or roaches—but they weren’t pretty either.
An inspector caught a food handler jumping from raw seafood to ready-to-eat dishes without a hand wash, costing them big points.
Still, Burruss and Tucker aren’t sweating too hard—they’ve got bigger wins to celebrate. They’re riding high as producers of the buzzy Broadway revival of Othello, starring heavyweights Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, which just hit the stage on February 24.
For now, though, it looks like Blaze might need more than a hot Broadway credit to dig out of this financial hole. The clock’s ticking, and that landlord’s not playing.
