WEEKEND COLUMN: SOME RESTAURANTS HAVE DOUBLE IDENTITIES

Editor’s Note: Below, Stan Solomon takes a look at DBA’s, the names that restaurants use that often differ from their legal names. And at the bottom, there’s a quiz!

By Stan Solomon

Okay, it’s not Breaking News that Hollywood’s Mel Brooks was born “Melvin James Kaminsky” or that Woody Allen was born “Allen Stewart Konigsberg.” And you may or may not till now have known that: Judy Garland was really  “Frances Ethel Gumm”; Michael Caine is really “Maurice Joseph Micklewhite”; and Boris Karloff, when he was wasn’t being a movie-monster, was known to his neighbors at The Dakota as “Mr. William Henry Pratt.”

Yes, performers often use stage/screen names (see the hundreds appearing on Wikipedia) and so do many UWS dining establishments. No, not Chuck E. Cheese, but those more sophisticated and grown-up places we know and love (or just know). They, too, have a public/private face … an Identité Cachét, or Secret Identity… one much more pedestrian and much less alluring than the name they present to the public.

Take, for example, the new establishment calling itself Cibo e Vino (Italiano for “Food and Wine”) at 2418 Broadway. As Rag regulars learned several months ago, that name is only a “Doing Business As” (usually abbreviated “d/b/a,” “DBA,” or even “d.b.a.”). The name appearing on Cibo e Vino’s application for a liquor license is “Bukefal LLC.”

Which is perfectly understandable. Think: any movie-marquee screaming “Starring Tony Curtis!” would have been a much bigger audience-magnet than one saying “Starring Bernard Schwartz!” Similarly, saying to The One Who Might Be ‘The One!’: “Meet me at Cibo et Vino!” sounds much more romantica than “I’ll see ya at Bukefal’s.”

But romance, as you might have guessed, has little to do with this. Yes, just as with stage names, there is the question of appearance. But, more importantly, it is a legal matter. According to Wikipedia, a DBA is “the trade name, or fictitious business name, under which the business … is conducted and presented to the world.”  It is the face presented by the business, but, it is not the “legal name of the legal person (or persons) who actually own it and are responsible for it.”

Which is important in such a litigious society as ours. Say, for example, you are dining at that hot new French bistro, Le Restaurant Tres Expensif, where, in a moment of inattention, you choke on a sliver of bone hidden in your Cote de Porc Braisees and seriously damage your public image.

So, Who Ya Gonna Call? No, not Ghostbusters – but your lawyer. But Who’s (S)he Gonna Sue? Not LeRestaurant Tres Expensif .” – because, technically, it DOES NOT EXIST! So a part of those billable hours will be spent finding out the real identity of LeRestaurant etc. Which, in many states, is actually a matter of public record.

Here on the UWS, Community Board 7’s Business & Consumer Issues Committee must approve/deny applications for: (1) renewal of their two-year SLA (State Liquor Authority) licenses; and (2) renewal of existing or granting of new permits to operate both enclosed and unenclosed sidewalk cafès. Years’  worth of these rulings are available on the “Minutes” section of CB7’s always-informative website.

Perusing those minutes tells one that it might be appropriate to order your just desserts at French Roast (2340 Broadway)…as its legal name is “Broadway Desserts, LTD.” Or to expect your corned beef on rye served really fast at Artie’s Delicatessen (2290 Broadway)…whose legal name is “Corned Beef Express LLC.” Or to really get pickled at Jacob’s Pickles (509 Amsterdam)…legal name “New York Beer Co. LLC.”

So, now that you know all about d/b/a’s, you are ready to play:

G*U*E*S*S   M*Y   D*B*A*   !

Above are eight numbered photos showing the trade names of actual UWS restaurants. Below, in scrambled order, are the names of the legal entities owning each of these d/b/a’s, but with one extra legal name just to make your task harder. Your task is to match each numbered photo with its lettered trade name. Once you’ve given up you’ll find the answers below.

Scroll Down For Answers

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A2 B7 C5 D1 E3 F8 G4 I6