Joe’s Deli owner accuses competitor of IP theft
In an eye-catching Instagram post, the owner of Joe’s Deli accused a former manager of stealing multiple recipes when he started his own sandwich shop.
The owner of popular sandwich shop Joe’s Deli launched a vicious attack on social media against a former employee, accusing him of recipe theft and facilitating the break-in of his CBD sandwich shop.
Patrick Killalea took to Instagram on Wednesday afternoon to claim that Amit Roy, former manager of Joe’s Deli store, stole the menu presentation and recipes at the launch of his new sandwich shop Stack’d in Woolloongabba.
In the lengthy post, Killalea detailed four sandwiches and a cheesecake that he claimed were direct dupes of items on the Joe’s Deli menu. He also released a copy of Roy’s Joe’s Deli employment contract and security footage of what he claimed was Roy and another person leaving the back area of Joe’s Deli Brisbane, and accused Roy of cheating, saying he would resign from Joe’s Deli a month ago and return to his previous employer, Guzman y Gomez.
“We have since discovered this was a lie,” the post claimed. “He had been tearing up our concept since August 2025 and was preparing to open a rival business 10 minutes away from the store he worked at.
“Hospitality is competitive and inspiration comes. This is normal.
“IT IS NOT THEFT, INTERNALITY, LIE AND FRAUD.
Killalea continued in his post: “Stack’d’s menu mirrors ours; same item names, same structure.” “The recipes and suppliers belong to us. Their Instagram also follows our brand and content style. They even took one of our latest specials and tried shooting it in the same style and added it to the menu.
“It is deeply disappointing to see our work copied in such a sneaky, sloppy and dishonest way. I am fortunate to have an incredible team who have poured their heart and soul into Joe’s Deli from day one. For them, this is a blatant slap in the face.”
Joe’s Deli is taking legal action, Killalea said. Speaking of the people he claims were shown on security footage in the back of the company: “They were never employees and never had permission to be there. They were there for one reason only – to steal our trade secrets.”
“Our intention is simple: Cease and desist and build something of your own rather than profiting from someone else’s work.”
When contacted for comment Thursday afternoon, Roy defended himself strongly via text message, saying he planned to contact his attorneys on Friday.
“The allegations he makes are absurd and untrue,” Roy said.
Speaking to this masthead on Thursday morning, Killalea said he first learned of Stack’d’s similarities to Joe’s Deli after an employee brought it up to him last week.
“I said, ‘Oh yeah, okay, whatever. It’ll do,'” Killalea said. “Everyone takes ideas from somewhere and repackages them or puts their own spin on them. That’s where people get inspired.
“But when I looked at it and saw that it had written our menu word for word, it was just a kick in the guts,” he claimed.
“What surprises me is the sneakiness,” he continued. “I’ve worked really hard in my career to get to this point. There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears that someone has taken away.”
“There was a lot of trial and error and huge investment in design and packaging. Where we are now is a combination of years of hard work.”
Killalea said he dwelled on the allegations that he had “got his ducks in a row” for a week before filing legal notice on Wednesday, and followed up with an Instagram post on Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m not a big public poster or anything like that, but with that being said, I said, ‘I need to get this off my chest and this needs to be public knowledge.'”
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at the Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-in-chief at Broadsheet Brisbane and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among others.
