RAPID CITY - The owner of Art's Southern Style Smokehouse BBQ, formerly of Rapid City, is suing a former employee saying he violated a confidentiality agreement by sharing the barbecue sauce recipe with Black Hills BBQ.

Marilynn Holmes, who owned Art's BBQ, said Wennie Fernandez, who managed her business at one time, gave the recipe for the sauce to Jim Berger, the owner of Black Hills BBQ despite Fernandez having signed a confidentiality agreement when he began working for Holmes.

Holmes testified Friday before 7th Circuit Judge Janine Kern that she and Fernandez got into a disagreement over the phone in March 2006 and he quit.

By then, Holmes and her husband, Artis Holmes, had moved to Florida and had no way to operate the business in Rapid City without Fernandez, so it closed and the equipment - but not the use of the sauce - was sold to Berger.

Over time, Holmes said she got calls from friends and former customers in the Rapid City area saying Black Hills BBQ was using her sauce.

One friend flew to Florida and brought Holmes a bottle of the sauce sold at Black Hills BBQ.

"I said, 'this is my sauce, this is my sauce, I can't believe it,'" Holmes said, explaining her reaction after tasting the sauce.

Holmes is now suing Fernandez for misappropriation of trade secrets saying the sauce secret is not the ingredients but the preparation method, and she wants Black Hills BBQ to stop using what she says is her sauce.

An attorney for Black Hills BBQ said Friday the restaurant has not been using the sauce recipe.

The attorney said if Black Hills BBQ owners knew what it was they were supposed to stop using, they would, but they have not been able to ascertain what Holmes wants done differently.

For the time being, Holmes wants an injunction placed on Black Hills BBQ so the company cannot use the recipe until a jury trial takes place in the case.

Kern will decide later whether to issue an injunction after hearing more testimony unless the two sides can agree on an injunction before then.

Contact Katie Brown at 394-8318 or katie.brown@rapidcityjournal.com