The name “Call Your Mother” came to Andrew Dana when a group of friends were sitting around riffing on things Jewish moms and grandmothers would often say. It stuck, and soon afterward, a friend designed a rotary phone logo for Dana’s first brick-and-mortar bagel shop, which opened in DC’s Park View neighborhood in 2018.
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The name might just as easily have been “Call Your Bubbi,” using the Yiddish word for “grandmother.” At least, that’s the idea behind a lawsuit filed this week by Dana and Call Your Mother co-owner Daniela Moreira against Bubbi Bagels—also known as Call Your Bubbi—a bagel shop that opened on the Jersey Shore last year.
Dana says he was first alerted when a neighbor texted him a picture of the shop and asked whether Call Your Mother had opened a location in New Jersey.
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Dana and Moreira have trademarked the phrase “call your mother” for use as a deli, café, or restaurant, plus the rotary phone logo. Their suit argues that the New Jersey shop’s continued use of the name Call Your Bubbi and a similar logo, even after a cease-and-desist letter sent in August, is “likely to cause consumer confusion and deception.”
“In Jewish culture, the terms ‘mother’ and ‘bubbi’ both denote a caring and nurturing Jewish matriarch,” their lawsuit reads. “For Jewish delis—whose brand narratives often center on tradition, comfort, and family recipes—both marks evoke the same core idea— a warm and loving (but also somewhat instructive or scolding) prompt to call your mother or grandmother, and to grab some coffee and bagels while you are at it.”
The Long Branch, New Jersey, shop bills itself as “Bubbi Bagels @ Wave Resort” on Google Maps and on its phone line recording, but still displays the name “Call Your Bubbi” on its website, and has used a rotary phone motif on its merchandise.
“This one, I would say, is a really close call,” says Josh Gerben, a trademark lawyer who wrote an online analysis of the suit. “I’m sensitive to the plaintiff in this case, because the connotation is so similar. As someone that has grown up in a Jewish culture, they’re very similar thoughts— this idea of Jewish guilt.”
Call Your Mother, which Dana and Moreira began as a farmers market stall, now operates 18 locations across the DMV— and six in Colorado. They cite Joe Biden’s 2021 visit to their Georgetown store as evidence that they have established national brand recognition.
Call Your Bubbi (or “Bubbi Bagels”) is owned by New Jersey restaurateur David Mizrahi, who did not respond to an email from Washingtonian. Reached by phone, an employee at the shop hung up when we asked about the trademark infringement lawsuit.
“We have no problem with the name ‘Bubbi Bagels,’” Dana says. “If the owner would talk to me I’m sure we could sort something out very quickly.”
Ike Allen covers politics, food, culture, and transportation in DC and writes the monthly Hidden Eats column for the magazine. He grew up in DC.
