Another Eviction, Another Misrepresentation: What the Pembroke Pines Case Reveals About Stephen Giordanella

In its 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), Pilar Coffee Bar lists a pending lawsuit against Mac and Cheese Pines, LLC and CEO Stephen Giordanella in Item 3. The disclosure frames the case as “a sublease to another party who failed to keep lease payments current.” The court record, however, shows something entirely different, and it fits into a troubling pattern that has played out for years.

The Facts in Court

The landlord of the I Heart Mac & Cheese location at 15999 Pines Boulevard, Pembroke Pines, Florida, filed suit in late 2024. The defendants were Mac and Cheese Pines, LLC, the entity on the lease (inactive since September 22, 2023), and Stephen Giordanella, the personal guarantor. The complaint was straightforward: unpaid rent, totaling nearly $21,000 at filing, plus ongoing rent of over $7,700 per month.

On January 22, 2025, the court entered a Final Judgment for Eviction. A writ of possession was issued, removing Mac and Cheese Pines, LLC from the premises.

Nowhere in the complaint, nor in Giordanella’s Answer, is there mention of a sublease. The landlord’s pleading alleges simple non-payment of rent. Franchisee Enrique Ros is not named as a Defendant. The Pilar FDD’s suggestion that this dispute stemmed from a sublet is not supported by the record.

Why That Matters for Disclosure

Item 3 of the FDD is supposed to give prospective franchisees a clear view of the franchisor’s litigation history. It exists to help buyers assess risk. When a franchisor characterizes an eviction as a dispute about a “sublease,” when the docket plainly shows it was about unpaid rent, it is not simply an oversight, it is misleading.

Worse, the 2025 Pilar FDD describes this case as “pending” as of March 2025, even though a final judgment for eviction had already been entered in January. The eviction itself was seemingly resolved and there are no other entries on the docket after January 23, 2025. The disclosure leaves prospects with the impression of an unresolved dispute, and certainly no fault of the franchisor or Stephen Giordanella, when the outcome was already clear.

Evictions as a Pattern, Not an Anomaly

This is not the first time I Heart Mac & Cheese or its affiliates have faced eviction. In fact, eviction actions have followed the brand across multiple jurisdictions. From corporate units to franchised stores, landlords have consistently been forced to sue for unpaid rent. “Just the cost of doing business,” is what Giordanella told me in 2018 when I was faced with either making payroll or paying rent. “Always pay rent last, if at all,” was the sage advice I was given by IHMAC’s CEO. Little did I know he practiced what he preached.

That reality cannot be chalked up to a single bad location or a struggling franchisee. It is evidence of a system that was not financially viable. And executives knew it.

Giordanella, as CEO and guarantor on leases, and Delia Valles, as Director of Finance, had direct visibility into the cash flow of corporate units. They saw the defaults. They signed the guarantees. They managed the finances. They knew these restaurants were not profitable; not in Pembroke Pines, not in any jurisdiction.

Yet even as their own units failed, they continued to sell hundreds of franchise units. Many were never built. Many others opened and quickly closed. The pattern is unmistakable: a leadership team pushing growth at all costs while knowing the “system” could not support it. Why couldn’t the system support the growth? I don’t believe it was designed to.

The Supplier Conflict: Black Hawk Security Solutions

The Pembroke Pines story carries an additional layer of conflict. In June 2021, the corporate store was sold to Henry and Enrique Ros, a father-son duo. Enrique Ros is listed as CEO and owner of Black Hawk Security Solutions, LLC; the franchisor-preferred security camera and installation vendor.

The 2023 I Heart Mac & Cheese FDD discloses in Item 8: “Black Hawk pays to us $1,000 for any security system sold to our franchisees.”

In other words, a franchisee; who also happened to be the franchisor’s approved supplier; was paying kickbacks to the franchisor each time another franchisee bought a security system. Then, when the Pembroke Pines store failed, that same supplier-franchisee walked away from the restaurant’s obligations, leaving the landlord to pursue Giordanella and Mac and Cheese Pines, LLC.

It is a stark example of how the franchisor monetized its supply chain, even as its franchisees collapsed under the weight of unprofitable operations.

Same Executives, New Brand

Mac and Cheese Franchise Operations, LLC (MCFO) is no longer selling I Heart Mac & Cheese franchises. The brand has all but collapsed, with locations shuttered and litigation piling up. But that does not mean the executives responsible have stopped selling.

Instead, they have shifted to a new brand: Pilar Coffee Bar. Many of the same executives, including Stephen Giordanella and Delia Valles, are now behind Pilar, marketing it as a fresh concept while quietly carrying forward the same tactics that doomed I Heart Mac & Cheese.

The 2025 Pilar Coffee Bar FDD lists the very eviction case described above, but mischaracterizes it as a “sublease dispute.” It is the same pattern: sanitize the litigation, downplay the failures, and keep selling to a new wave of franchise buyers who do not know the history.

Prospective Pilar franchisees are not being given an honest account of the executives’ track record. The same people who sold hundreds of I Heart Mac & Cheese locations, most of them never built, many of them closed, are now pitching coffee and ice cream with the same promises, the same omissions, and the same risks.

Take one recent example. At a franchise trade show earlier this year in Charlotte, NC, a prospective franchisee told me they met Joe Amodio and his wife Vicki actively promoting Pilar Coffee Bar. The pitch sounded irresistible: Joe offered to “finance the entire cost of a Pilar location in Charlotte” on their behalf. Joe went on to say he had previously owned I Heart Mac & Cheese and that Pilar did not include an Item 19 disclosure. The prospect recognized the Amodio name, Pilar, and I Heart Mac & Cheese as red flags, and decided to do some digging. What they discovered was telling; Joe Amodio is allegedly permanently barred from selling franchises in the state of Indiana.

What Prospects Need to See

When a franchisor’s Item 3 disclosure is inaccurate, when eviction judgments are sanitized as “sublease disputes,” and when executives continue to sell a system they know is failing, prospective franchisees are deprived of the truth they need to make informed decisions.

The pattern is now well-documented: evictions, defaults, misleading disclosures, and conflicts of interest baked into the supply chain. Each new case adds to the trail of evidence that I Heart Mac & Cheese executives did not just mismanage; they sold a system they knew could not succeed.

Now, they are selling Pilar Coffee Bar with the same tactics, the same omissions, and the same risks. Different brand, same playbook.

Franchisees deserved transparency. What they got instead was a revolving door of failed units, mounting litigation, and a franchisor profiting at their expense.

This report relies on public filings, including court documents and Franchise Disclosure Documents, and is provided solely for informational and educational purposes. Franchise Reality Check™ does not provide legal or financial advice, and nothing in this post should be interpreted as such. While we carefully review and fact-check against available records, readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult with qualified legal or financial professionals before making franchise-related decisions. The observations and opinions expressed here reflect our independent analysis of the documents cited and are not allegations of wrongdoing beyond what is contained in the public record. Our mission is to promote transparency in franchising so that entrepreneurs can make informed choices.