Planning a tropical vacation in Mexico’s Isla Mujeres? If you get homesick, we know where just where you should go.
Rooster, which serves breakfast, tacos and sandwiches off the coast of Cancun, may evoke déjà vu for St. Louisans familiar with restaurateur David Bailey’s downtown and South Grand brunch spots. The Mexican restaurant stole the name, logo and design from St. Louis’ Rooster about five years ago, and Bailey says he’s still considering legal action.
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“They totally ripped it off,” Bailey tells SLM. “My guess is they went to the website, liked what they saw and printed it all off.”
A friend even brought Bailey a plastic cup from the Mexican restaurant bearing the Rooster logo, which was created St. Louis design firm TOKY. The Mexican doppelganger differs with its St. Louis inspiration in only one small way: it replaces the “crepe.sandwich.cafe” description with “breakfast.lunch.cafe.”
“Apparently some enterprising restaurateurs wanted to open a breakfast place in Isla Mujeres this year, but didn’t want to go through the hassle of actually having to work with a design company,” TOKY president Eric Thoelke said in a blog post. “Pollo loco.”
If an American restaurant pulled the same stunt, Bailey says he would immediately take legal action, starting with a cease and desist letter. But with a restaurant across the border, things aren’t as simple. Bailey says he attempted to contact the restaurant years ago but hasn’t received a response.
“The laws of Mexico are not as stringent as they are here when it comes to that sort of thing,” Bailey says.
Bailey says taking legal action against the Rooster rip-off is “not off the table.”
Luckily, the Mexican Rooster seems to be pleasing its customers as much as the St. Louis Rooster restaurants do. Though it doesn’t have crepes like its namesake, tourists say the food at the Mexican Rooster is delicious. It’s cheaper, too—nothing on the menu at Mexico’s Rooster costs more than 112 pesos, about $7.
