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Home > Blogs > Taste: Dayton food and restaurants > Archives > 2009 > April > 08
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Fight over Dominic’s name and recipes heads to federal court
There have been significant developments in the Dominic’s saga that we wrote about three weeks ago.
Here’s are two stories that are scheduled to run in the Dayton Daily News on Thursday, April 9:
DAYTON — The legacy of Dominic’s Restaurant — and control over the recipes behind the dishes once served there — is the subject of a federal lawsuit that pits the widow of the former owner against the founder’s granddaughter.
In the lawsuit filed against Christie Mantia and her business partners in U.S. District Court on Friday, April 3, Anne Mantia claims her stepdaughter has infringed on the Dominic’s trademark. It also alleges that Christie Mantia has engaged in “unfair competition, … fraud, deceit and misrepresentation” in her involvement in a restaurant slated to open soon at 630 E. Dixie Drive in West Carrollton.
The lawsuit contends that if Christie Mantia and the other defendants “are permitted to continue to violate” Anne Mantia’s rights, “damages will likely exceed $2 million.” It seeks monetary damages and a temporary restraining order.
Christie Mantia told the Dayton Daily News on March 17 that the as-yet-unnamed restaurant for which she serves as general manager would serve dishes based on Dominic’s restaurant’s “original recipes” that were handed down to her by her grandmother, the wife of the restaurant’s founder. Dominic’s had been a mainstay of the Dayton dining scene for five decades before it closed in July 2007.
Christie Mantia said she and business partner Reece Powers had no comment on the lawsuit. But renovations are in full swing, and Mantia said the restaurant remains on schedule to open by April 30.
DAYTON — Anne Mantia, who owned Dominic’s at the time it closed in July 2007 and who has released garlic salad dressing and pasta sauce that includes the Dominic’s name on the labels, has filed a federal lawsuit to prevent her stepdaughter — the granddaughter of the restaurant’s founder — and the stepdaughter’s business partners from using the Dominic’s name or claiming a direct connection to its recipes in their new restaurant venture.
The dispute centers on a new, as-yet-unnamed restaurant that is being renovated at 630 E. Dixie Drive in West Carrollton. Christie Mantia, who is the granddaughter of Dominic Mantia, told the Dayton Daily News March 17 that the restaurant has hired Harry Lee, the chef who cooked those dishes at Dominic’s for 25 years between 1980 and 2005, and would be serving “the original recipes” from Dominic’s. The news was welcomed enthusiastically by readers who commented on the story on the newspaper’s web site that they have been waiting for a Dominic’s rebirth. The restaurant and its garlic-laced Italian salad dressing became a mainstay of the Dayton dining scene for more than 50 years and became a pregame and postgame gathering spot for University of Dayton sports fans.
The West Carrollton restaurant is owned by Reece Powers III, the nephew of the founder and owner of Duke’s Golden Ox, which operated for many years near the former Dominic’s on South Main Street near the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. According to records filed with the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, Powers filed articles of incorporation on Feb. 23 for “Dominic’s Restaurant Inc.” in West Carrollton.
Anne Mantia named Christie Mantia, Harry Lee and Powers as defendants in the lawsuit, claiming they have engaged in trademark infringement, fraud and breach of contract.
The lawsuit says Christie Mantia was a former shareholder of Dominic’s but sold her interest and the right to utilize its name in 2005 to Anne Mantia for $460,000 — $285,000 in cash and $175,000 plus interest to be paid before May 2010. A share redemption agreement spelling out the settlement is attached to a portion of the lawsuit that seeks a temporary restraining order against Christie Mantia.
While Anne Mantia never opened a successor to Dominic’s, she told the Dayton Daily News on March 17 that she’d “love to have a Dominic’s-style restaurant in Dayton … I’ve been talking to people for a long time and waiting to see what happens with the economy. If the right opportunity comes along, I’d like to do it.”
An excerpt from the lawsuit states that:
The founder of Dominic’s, Dominic Mantia, opened the restaurant on March 17, 1957, andn along with the help of his won,Dick Mantia, and Dick’s wife, Anne B. Mantia, created a Dayton landmark over the next 50 years. Following the death of Dick Mantia, Anne B. Mantia has continued to guide the company by applying the solid work ethic of Dick and Dominic, and by establishing a Copyright-protected image, and marketing the fine sauces, dressings, and other goods from the original recipes and good will of the family’s restaurant business.
Christie Mantia and Powers declined comment on the lawsuit Wednesday, April 8, as they oversaw renovations and talked with vendors inside the new restaurant. Mantia said the restaurant is on schedule to open by the end of April.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Thomas Rose of the U.S. District Court’s Southern District in Dayton. Online court records suggest that no date has yet been set on a hearing on the temporary restraining order.
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TweetDenny’s buy-1-get-1 ‘Slamwich’ promotion is today
A reminder: the Denny’s promotion that we first told you about last week in which customers who buy one “Grand Slamwich” can get a second one free is TODAY — Wednesday, April 8.
According to this Denny’s web page, the promotion — in which the restaurant chain invites you to “Don’t just bring your appetite, bring someone special” — lasts until 2 p.m. today.
The buy-one-get-one promotion isn’t as generous as the Denny’s promotion two months ago in which the restaurant simply gave away free breakfasts with no purchase necessary, but that earlier promotion triggered a robust response and long lines at Denny’s in southwest Ohio and across the country.
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