‘You don’t say something belongs to you when it belongs to someone else’: Nantucket food and wine festival sparks lawsuit
Chances are, there will be some kind of food and wine festival in Nantucket May 14-18 next year. We just don’t know which version yet.
That’s because two parties are laying to claim to the annual event at the same date and venue. On one side there’s Nancy Bean, who has owned the Nantucket Wine & Food Festival since 2013. The festival, which draws about 3,000 people each year, has been a popular event on the island for over a quarter of a century. The White Elephant hotel has hosted the festival for about a decade.
But in a lawsuit filed in US District Court in Boston, Bean is accusing David Gordon and the Gordon Companies in Waltham, a family-owned chain of liquor stores, of stealing her business. Indeed, the Gordon Companies have set up a website promoting the Nantucket Food & Wine Experience at the White Elephant Hotel on the same dates in 2025 as Bean’s annual event.
Compounding the confusion is a recent press release issued by the Gordon Companies in which it claimed to have purchased the event. But then company issued another statement saying that it did not buy Bean’s festival and was starting something new.
“Most people learn by kindergarten that you don’t say something belongs to you when it belongs to someone else,” Barry Pollack, an attorney representing Bean, told the Globe.
Neither David Gordon, CEO of Gordon Companies, nor White Elephant returned calls seeking comment.
According to court documents, Bean declined a proposal by Gordon to take over management of the festival. But on June 17, the Gordon Companies issued a press release in which it claimed that it purchased the festival.
“The Gordon Companies, owners of Massachusetts’ Gordon’s Fine Wine and Baker’s Best Catering, has acquired ownership of the Nantucket Food and Wine Experience, one of the longest running food and wine events in the U.S.,” the statement said.
“The rebranded event, in partnership with Nantucket’s iconic White Elephant harborside hotel, will take place on the island from Wednesday, May 14 through Sunday, May 18, 2025, and will feature the world’s top vineyards and culinary minds during wine dinners, seminars, galas, thematic receptions, wellness events, and celebratory brunches.”
But the company soon backtracked from the claim.
On the website Gordon Companies created for its festival contains “an announcement correction.”
“The Gordon Companies have partnered with White Elephant Resorts in a deal to produce a new event titled the Nantucket Food And Wine Experience. Gordons has not purchased, acquired, or rebranded the previously existing Nantucket Food & Wine Festival which has been operated by a still operating entity which is not affiliated with The Gordon Companies in any way. The Nantucket Food And Wine Experience is also not affiliated with the Nantucket Food & Wine Festival.”
Weiss, the attorney, said Bean still plans to host the festival next May as planned. But where in Nantucket remains up in the air.
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