Café Mezo, a Mediterranean restaurant and bar in Midtown that opened in January, is catching heat from the owner of competitor Café Intermezzo in a lawsuit over the businesses’ similar-sounding names.
Dunwoody-based European Coffeehouses Worldwide LLC, which owns three Café Intermezzo restaurants in metro Atlanta, including one at 1065 Peachtree Street in Midtown, filed a trademark lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta on July 18. The company is seeking damages and Café Mezo’s profits.
Efforts were being made Wednesday to reach the owners of Café Mezo for comment. Efforts also were being made to reach European Coffeehouses for comment.
In its suit, European Coffeehouses claims Café Mezo is “using a confusingly similar trademark,” namely its name, in marketing, advertising and on social media, causing harm to Cafe Intermezzo’s business.
In addition to its restaurant at 11th and Peachtree in Midtown, Café Intermezzo has locations in Dunwoody and at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The Midtown location, less than a mile from Café Mezo, opened in March 2013 after being relocated from the Brookwood area, where it had been since 1987.
Café Intermezzo features international menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and boasts more than 100 desserts and a variety of coffee and alcoholic beverage selections.
Café Mezo, located at 794 Juniper Street in a space that previously housed The Fifth Ivory piano bar, serves Mediterranean lunch and dinner.
European Coffeehouses said it sent Café Mezo two letters and “numerous follow-up emails” requesting that it drop the “Café Mezo” name, which it said is likely causing consumer confusion.
European Coffeehouses also said Café Mezo is benefiting from “longstanding goodwill and fame” that Café Intermezzo has built since opening its first restaurant in Dunwoody in December 1979.
In its 19-page lawsuit, the company also said the Café Mezo name also “is likely to dilute the distinctiveness” of the Café Intermezzo name.
