The owners of Millie’s in Spring Valley are accusing the New York operators behind DC Greek hotspot Balos and its sister bistro Bar Angie of copying their merch, logo, menu items, and dining room design for a restaurant called Angie’s opening in Long Island this winter.
Marisa Casey, CEO of Georgetown Events Hospitality Group which operates Millie’s, says one of the first things that grabbed her team’s attention was a blue sweatshirt with a Jeep Wagoneer graphic posted on Angie’s Instagram page. The design is identical to the one that Millie’s has been using on its own merch since 2022. Angie’s also has an almost identical logo with the its name in white text over a navy blue background and white stars on either side.
“It’s just such a blatant rip-off, and it’s just so concerning and sad that these guys are local. They come to Millie’s all the time,” says Casey. “Apparently they gave our hostesses cookies a week or two ago.”
Millie’s owner Bo Blair adds that the whole thing has felt like an April Fools joke: “It’s kind of embarrassing for anyone, let alone successful restaurant people to copy basically an entire concept,” he says
The menus posted online also share many of the same dishes, from lobster quesadillas to grilled swordfish kabobs. Millie’s is particularly known for its frosé. Angie’s menu highlights its “notorious” frosé. Most striking: Millie’s offers a fried chicken sandwich with sweet pickles and honey dijon called Dionis, named after a Nantucket beach. The Long Island restaurant also has a fried chicken sandwich with sweet pickles and honey dijon called Dionis. Millie’s has a tomato sandwich with basil mayo on multigrain bread called Summer House after a Nantucket hotel. So does Angie’s.
Renderings of Angie’s dining room posted on social media show a similar navy and white color scheme with a mural listing different cities and how many miles away they are. Millie’s has the same mural at both its DC and Nantucket restaurants.
“Millie’s is one of our favorite places. We go there,” Angie’s and Balos co-owner Joe Ragonese says. But he notes they took down the Instagram post with the Wagoneer merch when they saw it was the same as Millie’s. “Talking to the marketing team, there’s restaurants out there that we think do a good job with this nautic feel that we’re doing, and they just kind of were playing with stuff,” he says. After Washingtonian inquired about similarities between the restaurants, Angie’s disabled its Instagram comments and then made its account private.
As for the logo? Ragonese says they’re open to changing it: “Is the logo close? Sure. Hey, we’re DC people at this point. We’re not looking to ruffle feathers. That’s something that we could play with if that’s something that they feel is close.”
Ragonese, however, pushes back on the idea that they’re ripping off Millie’s concept. “As similar as it gets is that it’s a nautic feel on the north shore of Long Island,” he says. “The place isn’t even a under construction yet; it just got demoed. It’s a work in progress.”
For the most part, Ragonese doubled down on Angie’s menu: “It’s 80 percent the Bar Angie menu mixed in with tacos, which nobody owns. Since the beginning of time, you see things that you like other places and you make an item better here and there.”
As for the menu items named after Nantucket landmarks: “I’d have to look at that. I don’t know. I understand where you’re coming from on that one. I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know.”
It wouldn’t be the first time the group has served menu items similar to other restaurants. Its new West End restaurant Bar Angie features a warm shrimp salad with beurre blanc and avocado that’s plated very similarly to Le Diplomate’s signature warm shrimp salad with beurre blanc and avocado.
“I have 40 items on a menu. We’re saying one is similar to a restaurant? Come on. I have a branzino on my menu. It’s the exact same as Limani’s. Should I say Limani took ours or we took theirs?,” Ragonese says.
While no one can “own” a dish, Casey says some of the ingredient combinations showing up on both Angie’s and Millie’s menus are not so generic, like seared scallop tacos with house slaw, bacon, and blue cheese.
“I feel for our chef,” Casey says. “We put a lot of time and effort and care and creativity into everything we do. So, yeah, we’re going to talk to our lawyers about it.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
