Badin vs. Fredericktown
Miamisburg graduation 2012
Valley View vs. Greenville
Home > Blogs > Taste: Dayton food and restaurants > Archives > 2009 > May > 28
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Duke’s had chance to reopen if it stopped serving Italian, attorney says
The attorney for former Dominic’s Restaurant owner Anne B. Mantia suggested in a court filing Wednesday that Duke’s restaurant in West Carrollton could have reopened by now if its owner had agreed to cease serving Italian food, including a garlic house salad dressing similar to one served at the former Dominic’s.
Meanwhile, the attorneys for Duke’s owner Reece Powers III also filed documents in the federal trademark-infringement court case Wednesday, suggesting they’re preparing to mount a vigorous defense that Duke’s food and recipes — including those inspired by dishes once served at Dominic’s — should be allowed to be served at the restaurant.
In his filing on behalf of Mantia, James M. Morris said he and Mantia “have expressly offered, in open court, to allow the Powers defendants to open a restaurant at 630 E. Dixie Drive in West Carrollton so long as (they) agreed not to serve any Italian food and refrained from using a garlic house dressing.
“Moreover, plaintiffs offered to allow defendants to donate any food claimed to be spoiling or otherwise harming the Powers defendants’ business interests to charity, with a dollar-for-dollar reduction in any plaintiffs’ recovery in this matter, so as to assure that the foods are not wasted, that the restaurant employees could return to work, and the defendants could operate a successful business operation.
“The Powers defendants elected to reject plaintiffs’ offers, preferring to keep the restaurant closed,” the court filing said.
In a motion unrelated to Morris’ filing, attorneys Steven Dankof Sr. and Thomas Intili, who began representing Powers last week, asks U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rose to allow them to amend a legal response to the initial lawsuit that had been filed by Powers’ previous legal teams.
In arguing for the right to reconfigure Powers’ defense against the lawsuit, the attorneys suggested Powers and the other defendants have done nothing wrong, although Judge Rose has found enough evidence to approve a temporary restraining order and to order the restaurant closed pending the outcome of the case.
“For example, although it might not be lawful for the Duke’s Restaurant defendants to open a new restaurant in the Dayton area and call it “Dominic’s,” the ‘fair-use’ doctrine would permit the Duke’s Restaurant defendants to inform the media and the public that they had hired a former Dominic’s restaurant chef of 25 years, if that were in fact true,” the attorneys wrote.
“Moreover, the Duke’s Restaurant defendants would be free under the ‘fair-use’ doctrine to inform the media and the public that recipes used or developed at the former Dominic’s restaurant were being used at their new restaurant, unless those recipes constituted ‘trade secrets’ as defined in Ohio’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act.”
Anne Mantia filed the federal trademark-infringement and breach-of-contract lawsuit on April 3, about three weeks after her stepdaughter Christie Mantia — granddaughter of Dominic’s founder Dominic Mantia and Anne’s stepdaughter — told the Dayton Daily News she was going to manage a restaurant owned by Powers that would serve some of the “original recipes” from Dominic’s. Christie Mantia had accepted a $460,000 buyout from Anne Mantia for her half-ownership of Dominic’s, and the buyout agreement required Christie to refrain from using the Dominic’s name and trademark.
Permalink | Comments (49) | Post your comment | Categories: Local restaurant news
TweetFour local pizza restaurants close abruptly
This story was updated with comments from a CiCi’s Pizza Restaurants spokesman at 3 p.m. Thursday, May 28.
Sign greeting customers of the CiCi’s Pizza in Kettering Wednesday night
The four Dayton-area CiCi’s Pizza restaurants closed abruptly on Wednesday, May 27.
A sign on the door of the CiCi’s at 3050 S. Dixie Drive in Kettering told disappointed customers, “We are no longer open for business. Please try one of our Cincinnati or Springfield locations.” Calls to the other three local Cici’s — in Huber Heights, Beavercreek and the Sugarcreek Twp.-Centerville area — went unanswered Wednesday. Customers of the Kettering store who encountered the “closed” sign Wednesday night said the restaurant had been open the previous day.
Kyle Smith, vice president of operations for the Coppell, Texas-based CiCi’s restaurant chain, sent the following email Thursday afternoon, May 28:
“We understand the impact store closings have on employees in the Dayton community. Unfortunately, this is a result of the current economic crisis affecting consumers and restaurants in Dayton & across the country. The closed restaurants were franchised stores and the decision to close was not anticipated by CiCi’s Corporate. The employees will be personally contacted and will be hand-delivered their payroll check for all hours worked. CiCi’s will also be presenting other job opportunities at CiCi’s restaurants in nearby Columbus and Cincinnati. We are committed to the Dayton Market and are already actively looking for a way to resume operations as quickly as possible. We appreciate the many loyal guests who have supported CiCi’s and look forward to once again serving guests very soon.
Less then three months ago, the three CiCi’s Pizza restaurants in Butler County — in Hamilton, Fairfield and West Chester — closed. The restaurants were operated by a franchise owner.
Permalink | Comments (116) | Post your comment | Categories: Restaurant closings
Tweet
