The reason behind the sudden closure of Tweed Heads’ Nacho Baby
A popular Mexican restaurant-bar’s owners - including an escort and reality TV contestant - are trading ugly allegations of unpaid staff and rent plus mismanagement after its sudden closure.
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A popular Mexican restaurant-bar’s owners - including an escort and reality TV contestant - are trading ugly allegations of unpaid staff and rent plus mismanagement after its sudden closure.
Tweed Heads’ tequila bar Nacho Baby closed on December 8 after opening in September promising to take customers on a “journey of Mexico” with the “best margaritas” in town.
The restaurant was started by Carly Electric and Jamie Westerlund, both already in business with clothing label Not Your Baby. Company records show Ms Westerlund sold her shares in July.
Soon after Ms Westerlund left, ex-Married At First Sight contestant Dan Hunjas, Bridgette Ford and Mailese Davis, 35, became shareholders with Ms Electric.
Bulletin queries to Mr Hunjas were met with a statement saying the operating company was entering voluntary administration and shareholders voted Ms Electric out as a director.
According to company records, the business is not in administration as at the date of publication of this story.
New director Joshua Davis, 35, was appointed December 5.
“The decision to begin the voluntary administration process was not made lightly but seen as the most sensible and ethical step forward for all stakeholders,” a statement from ‘Nacho Baby Media Liaison’ said.
“The internal review concluded the business’s financial challenges were significantly exacerbated, with a number of suppliers remaining unpaid on accounts well overdue for several months.
“...the financial position of the company was much worse than originally thought,” the Nacho Baby Media Liaison statement claimed.
Voluntary administration was intended as the best outcome for staff and creditors, it said.
Shareholders and staff have alleged Ms Electric as the ex-manager had a “lack of experience”. The shareholders and staff blamed her for claims of overdue rent, staff wages and superannuation.
Ms Electric denies all those allegations and claimed any “misconduct” was the fault of the shareholders and claimed they “removed all rights” for her as a business owner before the September launch.
Mr Hunjas claimed after the management restructure it was discovered the business was in a “very poor financial position” - “Myself, along with the other shareholders, creditors and staff are out of pocket hundreds of thousands.”
A Nacho Baby staffer claimed money was owed to suppliers including Simply Fresh Wholesale Produce whose spokesperson told the Bulletin they received two payments from her in October and November but were still owed a “substantial” amount of money.
A spokesperson for Mextrade, the venue’s tequila supplier, also claimed not to have had a payment since the September opening.
The same staff member said while Ms Electric claimed to have “all this experience in how to run a bar”, she seemed out of her depth.
“We would have suppliers come in looking for Carly and being quite aggressive about being owed money. It kept getting worse,” the staffer said.
“Our suppliers started cancelling orders which put huge pressure on the bar.”
Ms Electric denied all the allegations and claimed there were business problems the week before opening.
“There were major personality conflicts. They removed all rights from me as a business owner,” she said.
“I wasn’t allowed to make any decision, hire/fire or run the business how I wanted it run.”
Ms Electric said she had worked in hospitality for 20 years.
“They froze me out from day one. They had meetings without me, undermining my directorship,” she claimed, adding she ran Nacho Baby with “integrity”.
“It was my baby and I persisted for three years to get it open,” she said, explaining she started the development application process in 2020.
“To have it taken away from me after three months has been absolutely devastating,” she said.
“You don’t go through all of that for three years just to tank a business as soon as you open.”
The mother of two said she “wanted to open an amazing bar in Tweed because I love the area and have a huge passion for Agave spirits.
“They killed my dream instantly. I’m devastated.”
Ms Electric said she believed the business was “only” $25,000 in debt and “for a start-up hospitality business this is pretty good”.
She had intended to negotiate another three-year lease: “I feel naive I was out businessed by ruthless and savvy businessmen. I already had the designs, branding and social media running for the venue when they came on board. I felt so grateful at the time that people could see my vision and what I wanted to achieve.
“I feel very alone in what’s happened, even though when I speak to our suppliers and trade accounts, they mentioned this kind of thing happens all the time.”
Mr Hunjas said it was “highly unlikely” they would reopen another Nacho Baby.
“The more we find out, the worse it gets,” he said.
Fellow shareholder Ms Ford said: “We deeply regret the impact this has had on our dedicated staff, loyal customers and valued suppliers. We were unaware how serious this was until very recently.”
‘NACHO BABY WAS MY WAY OUT OF SEX WORK’
A former shareholder of Mexican restaurant Nacho Baby which abruptly closed and removed her as a director says she had hoped the venue would be a way out of sex work.
Nacho Baby co-founder Carly Electric opened up about why she originally started escort work, saying at one point she was left with “no other options but to turn to sex work to survive”.
Ms Electric, with more than 22,000 followers on Instagram as Carly Electric, helped opened Nacho Baby in September claiming it was three years of planning to make her vision come to life.
She told the Bulletin on Thursday she turned to sex work after she was a “victim” of the Government’s failed and illegal Robodebt scheme which left her having to pay back $15,000.
“As a single mum with two little kids, I had no other options but to turn to sex work to survive,” she said.
Ms Electric added she had been receiving single parenting payments from Centrelink and was working as a designer before the Federal Government “cut her off”.
“We were living on food stamps and I had no other options as Centrelink completely cancelled my parenting payments until I had repaid that incorrect debt,” she said.
Ms Electric said she had high hopes for Nacho Baby: “Since then, I’ve been able to provide for my family and I have tried tostart businesses so I can leave the sex industry behind.
“I was meant to be retiring at Christmas and work in Nacho Baby fulltime, because that’s where I wanted to be, and what I wanted to be doing for my future.”
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