Blog

Bodega, known for its breakfast sandwiches, burritos and burgers, is opening its first location in Sunnyside in 2022. (Provided by Behind the Apron Media for Bodega)

After two years in business, Bodega was slapped with a cease and desist.

The cult brunch favorite in Denver’s Sunnyside neighborhood has changed its name to Odie B’s after a Kansas City restaurant called La Bodega sent it a legal notice, Bodega owner Cliff Blauvelt told The Denver Post.

“It’s just one of those things, you get it in the mail, you look at it, your heart drops and it breaks and you don’t know what to do,” Blauvelt said.

Bodega, located at 2651 W 38th Ave. in Sunnyside, received the letter a few months ago from La Bodega, a tapas restaurant that has been open since 1998 and is hundreds of miles away in Kansas City, something Odie B’s pointed out online. The Kansas City location has had the “bodega” trademark for the past 26 years and is seeking a percentage of sales if Blauvelt decides to keep its original name, he said. After asking several lawyers, Blauvelt realized he couldn’t win this and ultimately decided a rebrand was best.

“I put my own home up as collateral to open this restaurant against a loan, so I can’t pay anyone a percentage of the sales, if I use a word,” he said.

Bodega is known for its hearty breakfast sandwiches, as well as its burritos and burgers (which made The Denver Post’s list of favorites). Blauvelt grew up in Sunnyside and wants to offer the neighborhood a light and playful, not pretentious, breakfast and lunch spot. Blauvelt plans to open a second location in RiNo this fall.

And it’s not the only Denver business bearing the Bodega name. There’s an international snack shop called It’s a Bodega and a newly opened sliced ​​cheese restaurant called Big Apple Bodega.

“It’s hard enough running restaurants and it’s tragic when other independent operators try to get you too,” Odie B’s wrote on Instagram. “Although change can be nasty and cause heartache, we have finally leaned into it. While we happily exist in Denver with a few other bodegas, we’d like to branch out and end all the confusion as we grow.”

Odie B’s is a nod to the golden era of hip-hop and one of Blauvelt’s favorite groups, the Wu-Tang Clan. It also stands for Old Denver Bodega (ODB), and Blauvelt has made sure it stands alone in the United States Patent and Trademark Database. He plans to quickly trademark the name in the future, “lesson learned,” he said.

The restaurant painted a new sign, redesigned its menus and updated all of its social media, website and marketing materials — a rebrand that Blauvelt said cost “close to $10,000 to nail everything down.”

Blauvelt attributes the brunch spot’s growing success and viral moments on TikTok and Instagram to La Bodega’s interest in the Denver restaurant.