Certified Angus Beef Threatens NYC Restaurant Over 'CAB' Status on Menu

Perhaps the most famous meat corporation in the land has serious beef with a New York City eatery, and what you smell cooking ain't a sizzling grill ... it's an all out legal war!!!

Here's the deal ... Certified Angus Beef is going after Beetle House NYC for allegedly using the CAB label, without permission, to promote items on their menus.

The corporation fired off a legal threat, obtained by TMZ, claiming Beetle House is using the CAB's good name to hawk the Edward Burger Hand burger. Clever. Ya get it?

Anyway, the restaurant's online menu says the burger comes with a "cab 1/2 patty" ... and that's the burning issue. Certified Angus Beef says Beetle House didn't buy its product, and even if it had, Beetle wasn't allowed to use the trademarked name.

The company says it wants Beetle House to remove any references to its products from their menus.

Beetle House owner Zach Neil says he initially thought the legal threat was a joke. He claims his restaurant bought real CAB products, but will stop doing so in the future.

Zach calls the CAB's beef "part of what’s wrong with America right now. People are dying, restaurants are failing, these guys are threatening the very people that buy their products. It’s really sad.”

A rep for CAB tells TMZ ... "We take the Certified part of our name to heart and have a system in place to track our beef so those known to be purchasing our beef are truly promoting it. Our system does not show NYC Beetle House is purchasing product, though we fully recognize we may be missing that important information.