Why hasn't SpaceX, worth $2T, paid this Bay Area chef the $70K it owes him?

A Napa barbecue chef, Darryl Bell of Stateline Road Smokehouse, says SpaceX has not paid roughly $70,000 for two large catered dinners at the company’s Palo Alto campus in July and August. He was hired to provide meals for 425 employees at about $78 per person and had hoped to run six monthly events; instead he received invoices for just over $35,000 each that remain unpaid past agreed 30-day terms. Bell did not sign a written contract but complied with an intensive vendor screening, signed an NDA, bought about $7,000 of equipment, and scheduled staff to work long shifts. SpaceX acknowledged that payments were past due and at times told him transfers were initiated, but the funds had not arrived and the company put his remaining events on hold after Bell mentioned legal action.

The unpaid bills have left Bell scrambling to cover food costs, vendor bills and wages, and have rendered the new equipment largely idle now that the higher-volume bookings are paused. Repeated requests for updates were met with shifting contacts, requests to add purchase-order numbers and intermittent assurances of payment. Bell frames the dispute as an example of how a small, low-margin restaurant can be hurt by slow payment from a multi‑billion‑dollar company, and he continues to press for the money he says is owed.