Philadelphia’s Middle Child is denied in lawsuit against an upstart Middle Child in Las Vegas

The middle child is billed as the peacemaker and the go-between.

But there’s no truce in sight in the trademark dispute between Philadelphia’s Middle Child restaurants and the operators of an unrelated Middle Child restaurant that opened in June in Las Vegas.

A federal judge in mid-November dismissed a lawsuit filed by Philadelphia restaurateur Matthew Cahn, who opened his first Middle Child in October 2017 and a more upscale offshoot called Middle Child Clubhouse in October 2021. Cahn had sought to bar the Las Vegas group from using the name. The judge gave Cahn 21 days to file an amended complaint but the deadline passed Dec. 16.

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has yet to rule on the trademarks, whose awarding can be appealed.

The Las Vegas group, led by bartender Nectaly Mendoza, filed a trademark application in September 2022. Cahn filed his own Middle Child application in January 2023 and sent a cease-and-desist request to Mendoza.

In April 2023, according to the suit, the Las Vegas group offered to allow Cahn to use the name in the “Philadelphia metropolitan area” while allowing the Vegas group to use it elsewhere. Cahn filed to oppose Las Vegas’ application in September 2023.

In May 2024, Cahn took the beef to Instagram, urging Middle Child’s followers to email Mendoza to protest. (Mendoza commented on the post: “WE HAVE A LOTTA MUTUAL FRIENDS AND IVE HEARD UR A STAND UP DUDE. IS THIS REALLY HOW U TREAT UR RESTAURANT COLLEAGUES??”)

Last weekend, Cahn told The Inquirer that he should have filed years before to trademark the name. “I have no ill will toward them,” he said. “What I think is disappointing is that there are a lot of overlaps between our businesses.”

The Las Vegas restaurant serves breakfast and lunch and has a bar. Middle Child Clubhouse on Frankford Avenue in Fishtown serves lunch, brunch, and dinner, and has a bar. Cahn’s original location, on 11th Street in Washington Square West, is a 16-seat luncheonette.

In his suit, Cahn mentioned that he wanted to expand Middle Child to Philadelphia International Airport as well as Austin and Los Angeles. Cahn also claimed that Middle Child has a national footprint because its merchandise has been sold by mail to 45 states.

U.S. District Judge James C. Mahan said Cahn had failed to sufficiently allege that his Middle Child had market penetration in Las Vegas.

Regardless of how the matter plays out in the Patent & Trademark Office, both restaurants will be allowed to keep their names. “Things happen,” Cahn said. “It’s not the end of the world.”

Tiffs over restaurant names common. In Philadelphia, two Bookbinder’s restaurants slung insults for years. The Tacconelli’s pizzerias battled over branding. When the Tony Luke’s sandwich empire was split up, one son kept the name while the patriarch and another son renamed their remaining location Tony & Nick’s.

Before the 2016 Olympics, the U.S. Olympic Committee sent a cease-and-desist letter to Olympic Gyro at Reading Terminal Market. Owner Athens Voulgaridis changed the name to Olympia Gyro.

Last year, the Philadelphia bars known as Garage sued a Denver-based company, Garage Sale Vintage, that plans to open across the street from one of its locations in Fishtown. Also, in a widely watched case, Taco Bell took on Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar in Somers Point, N.J., over the term “Taco Tuesday.” The nonprofit group hoping to rebuild historic Tun Tavern in Old City is fighting the Atlantic City bar that holds the Tun Tavern trademark.