Farmhouse Restaurant in Santa Rosa serves 72 different kinds of omelets, giant plates of hash browns, five-inch tall burgers and milkshakes. Forestville’s Farmhouse Inn is better known for foie gras, rabbit three ways, French Sauternes and having a 2011 Michelin star.
Now you wouldn’t think most folks would confuse the two, but a series of coupons issued by the Santa Rosa diner-style eatery has more than a few thrift-seeking gastronomes trying to cash in at Catherine Bartolomei’s Forestville restaurant.
It started several weeks ago when Bartolomei said she started getting calls from people wanting to use the other Farmhouse’s Buy One Get One 1/2 Price Entree coupons for dinner at her place.
Things escalated when another coupon ran on BiteClub, and Bartolomei said she was bombarded with calls from guests looking to take advantage of what they thought were fire sale prices at the haute Forestville eatery. Adding to the confusion, she says regulars kept asking when she decided to open a diner in Santa Rosa.
Admittedly, I too was taken by surprise when seeing the ads for the first time as well. For a good 15 minutes, I Googled the two, trying to figure out if they were related. You’ll end up with results for both if you type in “Farmhouse” and “Santa Rosa”. In fact, the Farmhouse Restaurant in Santa Rosa is owned by Carol Ferrari and Mike Berges who’ve owned the similarly-named Farm House restaurant in Sebastopol for 19 years.
If you’re keeping score, that’s three farm houses in a 25 mile radius.
For most of us, it’s mostly a giggle. But how the whole name game will play out is still anyone’s guess. Meanwhile, consider yourself warned that you won’t be able to pay for that glass of small production Russian River pinot and day boat scallops at the Farmhouse Inn with your coupon for a free beverage from the Farmhouse Restaurant.
Then again, sometimes all you want is a Coke and a cheeseburger. And I’d bet you there’s a coupon around somewhere for that.
Farmhouse Inn, 7871 River Road, Forestville, 887-3300
Farmhouse Restaurant, 3020 Santa Rosa Avenue, Santa Rosa, 595-1484
Farm House Restaurant, 7824 Covert Lane, Sebastopol, 823-2088
There is a big difference is people actually stopped and thought about it, but few do nowadays, and blame the establishments.
Farmhouse Inn is not the same as Farmhouse Restaurant, to put it mildly.
Yes it is the restaurant at the Farmhouse Inn.
People should exercise their brain a little bit more.
Years ago it was Zazu and ZuZu – Duskie and John had to change their name. And what about Wild Fox on Farmers Lane that had to change their name to Star…….Oy Vay.
Someone forgot to check for similarly-named restaurants in the area before naming their restaurant.
If this involved trademarked names of well-known corporations, or in one case I happpened to see recently – a celebrity-owned business, “cease and desist” letters and lawsuits would ensue. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen in this case.
If I’m not mistaken, a local cupcake business recently had to slightly change their name to prevent confusion with another business in the Bay Area. They mentioned this on their Facebook page.
It was Sift. And I believe it was about the whole Cupcakery thing — a company in Las Vegas.
Seriously, the two places are as different as chocolate cake and a banana.