Fat Sal”™s Branding, owner of a popular California restaurant chain, has accused Fat Sal”™s Bar & Grill of Buchanan of feasting on its valuable name.
The California Fat Sal’s charges the local eatery with trademark infringement in a Jan. 8 complaint filed in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
The Buchanan Fat Sal”™s is free riding on the success of the original Fat Sal”™s, the complaint states, and blatantly trading on its goodwill.
Fat Sal”™s Branding has trademarked the name and the logo for restaurants, bars and catering; prepared and packaged foods; and clothing. It began using the mark in 2010.
Sal is Salvatore Capek, “a living individual whose consent is of record,” the registrations state. The logo features a mustachioed caricature of Capek in a chef jacket gesturing the hang loose sign with his left hand and hoisting a humongous submarine sandwich in his right hand.
Fat Sal”™s in Hollywood, Westwood and Encino, California feature rather huge hoagies. Like the Big Fat Fatty: cheesesteak, cheese burgers, pastrami, chicken fingers, bacon, mozzarella sticks, fried eggs, jalapeno peppers, fries, onion rings, chili, marinara and fat sauce on a 27-inch garlic hero, $49.99, or free if you can eat it in 40 minutes.
Fat Sal”™s in Buchanan was formed in 2014. Its logo also employs the name Fat Sal”™s but includes a caricature of a horned cow twirling a steak.
The restaurant also offers an array of burgers and sandwiches, salads and sides, but in far tamer portions and eschewing the “fat” prefix on most menu items.
The California Fat Sal”™s markets itself with an eye on nationwide notoriety, according to the complaint, and with plans for opening restaurants across the country, including in New York.
It has been featured on the Food Network, Travel Channel, Hallmark Channel and Playboy Channel. Stories have been published in Zagat, Forbes and The Huffington Post. Celebrities have endorsed the delis and been photographed in Fat Sal”™s clothing.
Foodies have traveled to California from across the United States, the company claims, just to dine at a Fat Sal”™s.
The Buchanan Fat Sal”™s, according to the complaint, promotes itself on Yelp, Facebook and Instagram.
The original Fat Sal”™s said it sent a cease and desist letter to the New York Fat Sal”™s a year ago, but the Westchester restaurant has refused to rebrand.
The Buchanan restaurant did not respond to an email asking for its side of the story.
The California company accuses Fat Sal”™s Bar and Grill of trademark infringement and unfair competition. It is asking the court to bar the Buchanan restaurant from representing itself as affiliated with Fat Sal”™s Branding and it is demanding three times “all the profits realized” from infringing the trademark.
San Diego attorney Erin M. Hickey represents the California company.
