Author: Jan Shepherd, Globe Staff
Date: October 11, 2002
Publication: Boston Globe, Calendar

The choices can reflect history, family roots, food, geography, and longevity. Sometimes, a name is selected for simplicity. Other times, owners ponder many possibilities, like expectant parents naming a newborn.

With Legal Sea Foods, the name has it all: history, family, longevity, and no confusion about what's on the menu. Even though it's easy to remember, the "Legal" part often puzzles patrons. The company, however, turned it into a catchy slogan: "If it isn't fresh, it isn't Legal."

"Back in 1904, my grandfather, Harry Berkowitz, ran a neighborhood grocery store in Inman Square called Legal Cash Market, which meant he redeemed legal, government-issued cash stamps and did that into the mid-1940s," said Roger Berkowitz, president and chief executive officer of Legal Sea Foods. "When my dad [George] joined the business in the 1940s, he added a fish counter and then opened a fish market next door in 1950 and used Legal Sea Foods as the name to maintain the affiliation with the market."

After many years of offering takeout fish and chips, George Berkowitz added picnic tables to a newly purchased, 2,500-square-foot building in 1968. That eat-in area that his wife suggested evolved into a fish restaurant. Now, with George as chairman and Roger as president and CEO, the company has 26 restaurants along the East Coast. Eleven are in Greater Boston, including Braintree, Chestnut Hill, Cambridge, Peabody, Back Bay, and the Theater District.

With expansion, tinkering with a name could be tempting. "We would never change it, because we're in the fish business and the name says that," said Roger Berkowitz. "It's a point of identification and credibility. It's more central that I keep the name. For us, location is secondary. If you haven't a great name to build on, then location is the most important factor in opening a restaurant."

"Sea Foods" as two words also trips up spellers. "People are always trying to make it one word, but nuances like that make it interesting," Berkowitz said.

Family ties are woven into the name of Red's Eastside Grill in South Boston. The Boston firefighter's hat displayed over the bar belonged to Ed "Red" McGuire, a 35-year veteran of the city Fire Department who was seriously ill when his daughter, Maureen, and her husband, Ted O'Brien, were transforming a former fish market into their comfort food bistro.

"We wanted 'grill' in the name as a finishing touch and to convey that it's not a pub," said Ted O'Brien. Southport Grill was in the running as a name until they cooked up the idea of paying tribute to Red, whose fire station was a few blocks away. Red died soon after the Grill's debut in January 2000; his fellow firefighters had to put out a fire at the restaurant shortly after it opened, forcing a temporary closing for repairs.

In terms of the keep-it-simple recipe, an address doubling as the name has proven practical. Consider No. 9 Park, 75 Chestnut, Anthony's Pier 4, and Atlantic 101. One of the longest-running neighborhood restaurants in Dorchester, 224 Boston has used the address since it opened 15 years ago. When brothers Kevin and Greg Tyo bought the business three years later from Doug Danzey, they stayed with the name and the chef, Raymond Gillespie. They didn't want to tamper with the bistro's success, Kevin said.

Myths and folklore can inspire owners, such as those at the Blarney Stone in Dorchester, a name that pays tribute to the legendary stone in Ireland that brings good luck to those who kiss it.

Five years ago, Banshee owner Ray Butler tapped into Gaelic folklore after he bought the former Vaughn Tavern on Dorchester Avenue. In old tales, a wailing banshee appears when the death of a family member is nigh. That fact didn't bother Butler, because he said the banshee is a beautiful woman with flowing red hair.

"I guess she's so beautiful you don't mind leaving this world," said Butler.

The restaurant serves Irish-American pub fare, but Butler said his North End-style chef, Franco, turns his talents to Italian evening specials using veal, shrimp, and scallops.

At ethnic restaurants, names can convey the specialties of the house, such as Shanti: Taste of India in Dorchester and on Huntington Avenue, or Vietnamese restaurants incorporating "pho" in their titles. The traditional soup called pho is always part of the menu, whether it's the many Phos of Dorchester (Pho 2000, Pho So, Pho Hua Giang) or Pho Pasteur, which has five locations in the area. Sharing his Cape Verdean culture with a wider audience was the main factor for choosing Restaurante Cesaria, said Casimiro Barros, one of four co-owners. They came up with a list that reflected the island's music, art, and culture and tested them on various groups before settling on Cesaria, a woman's name, for the Dorchester restaurant on Meeting House Hill.

"Cesaria also reminds people of the popular Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evora," he said. Open since June 27, the restaurant serves traditional dishes from the Atlantic island off the coast of Portugal.

Name selection doesn't always proceed as planned. Steve Costa learned that the hard way six and a half years ago when he was hanging the sign for Cafe Porto Bello, the Italian restaurant he and co-owner Vincent Amato were opening in South Boston.

"Passersby stopped to tell me there was another restaurant with the same name just around the corner," said Costa. He was stunned to find out they were talking about Porto Bello on nearby Northern Avenue, even though he and his lawyer had checked state and city bureaus for names before filing incorporation papers.

"The other place got all the phone calls after we opened," Costa said. "I put our name in five categories in the phone book so customers would find us." He doesn't have to sweat that anymore. The other cafe was leveled about a year ago as part of development on Northern Avenue.

Here are other notable names and the stories behind them:

S&S 1334 Cambridge St., Cambridge. Opened in 1919, Ma Edelstein's place got its name from the maternal Yiddish command to eat and eat: "Es and Es." That saying became Americanized into S&S to appeal to all Cantabridgians. It worked, and the Inman Square restaurant has been a brunch mainstay for more than 80 years. "People kind of like our name because it's real," says Gary Mitchell, Ma Edelstein's great-grandson.




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