Will Shepherdstown coffee company Lost Dog have to change its name? Photograph courtesy of Flickr user ohmeaghan.
Lost Dog Coffee in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and Lost Dog Cafe in Arlington have
coexisted for 16 years without any problems. But something has clearly changed.
Last Wednesday, Garth Janssen, owner of Lost Dog Coffee, received a cease-and-desist letter from the law firm Driscoll
& Seltzer on behalf of its client Lost Dog Cafe. The letter demands that Janssen stop
using the Lost Dog name.
“I felt like puking when I got it,” says Janssen.
The letter implies that Lost Dog Cafe’s owners, Ross Underwood and Pam McAlwee, only
recently learned of Janssen’s business. But Janssen says throughout the years, he
has served employees from the Arlington restaurant visiting Shepherdstown who have
joked about the two enterprises’ similar names.
Janssen can only guess why Lost Dog Cafe sent the cease-and-desist letter, since he
says its lawyer, Richard Driscoll, didn’t offer much of an explanation when the two
spoke on the phone.
“He was really curt with me,” says Janssen. “He said, ‘You might as well just do this,
because my client’s got the capital and we’ll pursue this. You don’t have a leg to
stand on.’”
Janssen says his coffee shop’s inclusion in The Washingtonian’s Best of Shepherdstown feature in July may have triggered the riff, since he says Driscoll alluded to the fact that
recently, too many customers have been mistaking Lost Dog Cafe for Lost Dog Coffee.
Janssen also speculates that the Arlington restaurant’s sudden sensitivity about the
shared name may have something to do with its recent expansion. According to its website,
Lost Dog Cafe opened a second location in McLean last year and a third outpost in
South Arlington in January, and plans to open a fourth location in Dunn Loring this
summer. (By comparison, Janssen and his teenage sons, along with four employees, run
his small shop in Shepherdstown.)
Reached by phone, Driscoll said he had instructed his clients not to speak to media.
Asked if he could explain why Lost Dog Cafe’s owners are taking action now after so
many years of peacefully coexisting with Lost Dog Coffee, Driscoll said, “It’s not
that I can’t. It’s that I decline to.”
Janssen isn’t going down without a fight. He has launched a campaign to protect his
business. With the help of a friend, he set up the website lostdogcoffee.us, which
contains information about the feud with Lost Dog Cafe, including a copy of the cease-and-desist
letter. In explaining his campaign on the website, Janssen writes: “To beat up on
a local company when no harm is being done is outrageous.”
Shepherdstown’s Lost Dog Coffee Receives Cease-and-Desist Letter From Lost Dog Cafe
The Arlington chainlet is taking legal action against the similarly named coffee shop.
Lost Dog Coffee in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and Lost Dog Cafe in Arlington have
coexisted for 16 years without any problems. But something has clearly changed.
Last Wednesday,
Garth Janssen, owner of Lost Dog Coffee, received a cease-and-desist letter from the law firm Driscoll
& Seltzer on behalf of its client Lost Dog Cafe. The letter demands that Janssen stop
using the Lost Dog name.
“I felt like puking when I got it,” says Janssen.
The letter implies that Lost Dog Cafe’s owners, Ross Underwood and Pam McAlwee, only
recently learned of Janssen’s business. But Janssen says throughout the years, he
has served employees from the Arlington restaurant visiting Shepherdstown who have
joked about the two enterprises’ similar names.
Janssen can only guess why Lost Dog Cafe sent the cease-and-desist letter, since he
says its lawyer, Richard Driscoll, didn’t offer much of an explanation when the two
spoke on the phone.
“He was really curt with me,” says Janssen. “He said, ‘You might as well just do this,
because my client’s got the capital and we’ll pursue this. You don’t have a leg to
stand on.’”
Janssen says his coffee shop’s inclusion in
The Washingtonian’s Best of Shepherdstown feature in July may have triggered the riff, since he says Driscoll alluded to the fact that
recently, too many customers have been mistaking Lost Dog Cafe for Lost Dog Coffee.
Janssen also speculates that the Arlington restaurant’s sudden sensitivity about the
shared name may have something to do with its recent expansion. According to its website,
Lost Dog Cafe opened a second location in McLean last year and a third outpost in
South Arlington in January, and plans to open a fourth location in Dunn Loring this
summer. (By comparison, Janssen and his teenage sons, along with four employees, run
his small shop in Shepherdstown.)
Reached by phone, Driscoll said he had instructed his clients not to speak to media.
Asked if he could explain why Lost Dog Cafe’s owners are taking action now after so
many years of peacefully coexisting with Lost Dog Coffee, Driscoll said, “It’s not
that I can’t. It’s that I decline to.”
Janssen isn’t going down without a fight. He has launched a campaign to protect his
business. With the help of a friend, he set up the website lostdogcoffee.us, which
contains information about the feud with Lost Dog Cafe, including a copy of the cease-and-desist
letter. In explaining his campaign on the website, Janssen writes: “To beat up on
a local company when no harm is being done is outrageous.”
Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 and was a senior editor until 2022.
Most Popular in News & Politics
What It Felt Like for a Virginia Marching Band to Win Metallica’s Contest
What’s IN and OUT in DC Restaurant Trends for 2024
Introducing 8 of DC’s Most Stylish
Best of Washington 2023: Things to Eat, Drink, Do, and Know Right Now
Washingtonian Magazine
May 2024: Great Getaways
View IssueSubscribe
Follow Us on Social
Follow Us on Social
Related
13 Major Concerts and Music Festivals in the DC Area This Spring
Mary Timony on Her Emotional New Album, “Untame the Tiger”
The Beatles in DC: A New Exhibit in Maryland Looks Back on Early Beatlemania
Northern Virginia High School Wins Metallica’s Marching Band Competition
More from News & Politics
Democrats and Republicans Pass Balls, Not Bills, at Congressional Soccer Game
3 New Memoirs by Prominent Women
Everything You Wanted to Know About Urban Bear Sightings but Were Afraid to Ask, Because Who Wants to Get That Close to a Bear?
Rockville Police Are Searching for Culprits of a $4,500 Pickleball Paddle Heist
Dozens of Vintage Planes Will Fly Over the National Mall This Saturday
PHOTOS: “Rupaul’s Drag Race” Queens Work It at the National Mall
Meet the NIH Detectives Cracking Medicine’s Toughest Cases
5 of DC’s Most Interesting Ideas for Revitalizing Chinatown