Menu beef: There's only one John's Roast Pork
Owner John Bucci's customer noticed a "John's Roast Pork Sandwich" on a menu in Maryland. The spinach suggested that something was up.
John Bucci of John's Roast Pork seems relieved over a quick resolution to his beef with an alleged pork purloiner.
One of his customers, visiting the MaGerk's Pub & Grill location in Bel Air, Md., noticed a "John's Roast Pork Sandwich" on the menu. The description (screen-grabbed below) called it "another Philly classic" and described its build on a sesame seed roll with spicy sauteed spinach, raw onion and aged provolone.
Bucci said the ingredients confirmed that MaGerk's was referring not to some generic "John" but to the signature item at his shop on Snyder Avenue near Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia.
"It had spinach," Bucci told me. "That was the dead giveaway. I am the only one who [routinely] puts on spinach instead of broccoli rabe." Bucci says he finds broccoli rabe too bitter.
(Would his allegation be rabe-bery, rather than theft?)
In email correspondence between his lawyer and MaGerk's on Monday, the sports bar described the name as an "homage" and offered to change the menu, Bucci said.
A MaGerk's rep said the word "John's" was dropped from the menu. MaGerk's other locations - in Baltimore as well as Fort Washington and Horsham - did not use the "John's" name on menus.
This isn't the first time an out-of-town restaurant borrowed the name of a Philly food. Pete Ciarrocchi of Chickie's & Pete's is famous for siccing his lawyer on eateries that use "Crab Fries" on the menu; he trademarked the term in 2007.