The drama behind one of Cincinnati’s favorite locally owned watering holes continues to unfold.  Another legal scuffle has resulted in a restaurant without a name.

According to sources at the restaurant itself, the “New Dubliner”, fresh on the heels of a roaring St. Patrick’s day, has been the subject of legal action from the former owner over the right to use the name.  The lettering on the front of the restaurant now simply says “ THE NEW .... ER” - evidence of the litigious tornado that continues to whirl around the faux-Irish landmark.  A phone call to the establishment yields a confused answer from “the new Irish pub”, and employees suggest that a contest may soon be underway for a new name.

This is still a modest success story for the new proprietors and for the neighborhood of Pleasant Ridge. The fact that this restaurant re-opened on such short notice is remarkable. Sure, the menu isn’t complete, and the ambiance is best described as a work in progress, but the service is friendly and the clientele has mostly returned. 

What’s in a name? Certainly many regulars like myself will always call the place by the old name out of habit - or out of confusion, after a few Guinness. We may not own the property or the naming rights, but we feel like we have a stake in the business - a sentimental thought perhaps, but the Irish are notoriously maudlin.

Meanwhile the restaurant formerly known as The Dubliner should adopt an obscure squiggle - maybe something in Gaelic script - to protest the controversy.

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1. TC says:
   12 Apr 2006  at  07:30 pm | #

   Is this the same Brendan that said? 

   (Have fun with ‘The Dean’ by the way – in terms of Cincinnati-based Internet discourse he feels a God-given obligation to insert himself in the picture at every opportunity – like Jesse Jackson, or Woody Allen’s ‘Zelig’.)

   It’s too bad nobody goes to your blog or was that Brendon?

   I assume Tom got that wrong as his paper and blog are often off the mark.

2. says:
   12 Apr 2006  at  07:46 pm | #

   Off topic.

3. TC says:
   12 Apr 2006  at  10:32 pm | #

   In other words, yes. It would be too much of a compliment to compare you to Jesse Jackson.

4. says:
   13 Apr 2006  at  06:28 am | #

   There are Irish Pubs all over the county named “The Dubliner.” Just Google the word “dubliner,” and almost a million results come back.

   How can this guy have any claim to such a name, particularly when it is changed with the word “new”?

   I’d be interested to know more details of this “legal action.” If it involves courts, surely it will get thrown out.

   How does that former owner have money for a lawyer, anyway?

5. says:
   13 Apr 2006  at  07:19 am | #

   Dean --

   The difference, from what I have been told, lies in the fact that they occupy the same physical address.  The new owners could open up a new restaurant next door and call it ‘The Dubliner’ and there would be no potential conflict.  And I don’t think it will go to court since they have decided not to fight it.

6. Quim says:
   13 Apr 2006  at  11:12 am | #

   Just give it a different name already.
   The Armagher.

7. a says:
   13 Apr 2006  at  12:03 pm | #

   call it “kuhl’s” jsut to piss him off

8. says:
   13 Apr 2006  at  02:04 pm | #

   The Dublin Pub.

9. says:
   13 Apr 2006  at  02:06 pm | #

   How about “The Craic House”? .

10. says:
    13 Apr 2006  at  06:01 pm | #

    Funny…

    Brendan:  I think The New -Er ought to have a name-brainstorming happy hour.  After everyone downs a few, start the session.

    The winner gets a free pitcher.

11. says:
    13 Apr 2006  at  08:29 pm | #

    I think they are planning something.  I hope they manage to tap into the creativity of the community at large.  Maybe everyone could read passages aloud from Finnegans Wake while getting progressively drunker, and then people could have loud, elaborate arguments about which passage could be adapted to the name.

    But that’s maybe a little too English Majory for the average bar duffer.

    I still think ‘The Tavern Formerly Known As The Dubliner’ would be catchy.  You gotta figure Prince ran it by his lawyers when he had his record label dispute, so there must be some kind of precedent on the books.  And, of course, people just kept calling him ‘Prince’.

12. says:
    13 Apr 2006  at  08:46 pm | #

    So the symbol would be like a pint glass with an arrow pointing out the right side at a 45 degree upward angle?

13. Bearman says:
    13 Apr 2006  at  11:12 pm | #

    Whatever you call it, it is still the same poor service, slow kitchen, mediocre food that the Old Dubliner was.  Went there last week and the experience was no better than the old one.  Go to drink and hang out but don’t plan to eat a meal there.

14. forner dub manager says:
    16 Jul 2006  at  04:29 am | #

    not that anyone reads this anymore, but I’m bored -

    it’s an odd ohio law that a new business cannot claim the name (or similar name) of a pre-existing business in the same building without prior consent.  Apparently it was an open and shut case - quick and easy.

    As a former manager of the dubliner, I can now safely say that I officially hate Mike Kull and all his practices, not only am I out close to $1000 but I’m currently being affected by my/his relationships with other companies.

    Also - as a Mike hater - Molly Malones is total crap.  The Dubliner may never have been the 5 star restaurant some expected it to be, but I’ve yet to even have a 1 star experiance at the new place.  The staff seems uneducated about the place, food, drinks, history, newness - the food is below sub-par, the ambiance is crap, is it a sports bar or an irish pub or a typical college bar or a sit-down restaurant? It doesn’t fit.  It was the worst idea to put another irish pub there - make up your own identity.

15. Monica says:
    16 Jul 2006  at  09:08 am | #

    Well just to be accurate it really depends on how the restaurant was sold. FOr example if the restaurant was sold along with its good will than maybe the name was included. That really happens all of the time particularly in those kinds of transactions.

16. Brendan says:
    16 Jul 2006  at  03:58 pm | #

    From a customer’s perspective (only) I liked the old place - and I suprisingly like the new place.  They both have a good neighborhood feel.  The ambiance at Molly’s isn’t quite the same, but the food is better.  My wife and I have had about five meals, four of which were excellent.  And we’re picky.  Maybe we just got lucky.  They did just recently lose their chef, so who knows where the quality will go from here.

    Time to leave behind the bad blood from the Dubliner experience.