Totti logo.Instagram/@missdoublebay@missdoublebay is not the only one who can see the similarities. Justin Hemmes,chief executive of Merivale,owner of Totti’s,said he’s aware of the Paris restaurant. “Don’t they say ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’? I’m not sure I agree with that.”
The mega Aussie hospitality group opened its first Totti’s in Sydney’s Bondi in 2018,and the empire now stretches from Sydney’sCBD andRozelle toLorne in Victoria. Its menu,created by executive chef Mike Eggert,features pastas,an array of antipasti and its most famous dish,itswood-fired puffy bread. While Totti in Paris doesn’t have a pouffed bread on its menu,it features a number of similar dishes such as tiramisu,burrata and schnitzel.
Merivale executive chef Mike Eggert (left) with Lorne Hotel executive chef Matt Germanchis in front of the Totti’s sign.Hugh DavisonThis is not the first Australian restaurant this has happened to. David Thompson’s seminal Sydney 1990sDarley Street Thai eatery had an imitator in Asia.
Laura Dalrymple,co-owner of ethical butcherFeather and Bone,has outlets in Sydney’s Marrickville and Waverley,but not overseas. “I have people say ‘I just went to your store in Hong Kong’. No,you didn’t.” Feather and Bone opened in Sydney in 2006,while the Hong Kong Feather&Bone opened in 2015.
Dalrymple wrote to its owners without success. “I didn’t have the resources (at the time) to pursue it,and we hadn’t trademarked our brand outside Australia,” she says.
Dishes at Totti in Paris.Instagram/ @missdoublebay “The international trademark is key,” says Sydney restaurateur George Nahas,who owned Paddington’s Fat Duck Cafe in Olympics-era Sydney. He decided to repurpose the name and open Fat Duck Rotisserie Kitchen at Darling Quarter in 2011. The Fat Duck also happens to be the name of British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant in England.
“He[Blumenthal] had the international trademark,so we had to change the name. It was really costly. Everything had to go,right down to the receipt rolls (with the name on them). The only people who make money are lawyers.”
Good Food has reached out to Totti in Paris for comment.