Well, at least the ‘confusion’ will go away now. Next Door in Loveland was being sued to change its name by the owners of The Kitchen Next Door Community Pub, citing trademark infringement; that ‘Next Door’ is too similar to their own name. Oh brother. Speaking of brothers...

Kitchen Next Door at Union Station
Dave Jensen, TSM
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Next Door has been in Loveland, and only Loveland, for about three years; The Kitchen Next Door Community Pub opened their first location in Boulder in 2011. They now have locations in Fort Collins, Boulder and Denver. The Kitchen Next Door was co-founded by multi-millionaire Kimbal Musk, whose brother created PayPal.

The folks at the Kitchen Next Door received a lot of negative feedback in regards to the lawsuit. That’s not hard to imagine, as Lovelanders can be a loyal bunch! To be fair, Musk and his staff DID feel bad about having to sue; plus, with Musk’s wealth, they could have tied the case up in the courts, driving Next Door’s owners into bankruptcy. The Kitchen Next Door didn’t want to come across as the big bad guy; so the two owners sat down at Next Door in Loveland, broke bread, and came to a settlement.

Nobody’s talking about what the settlement is exactly, all that we know is that the Loveland business will change its name.

Next Door’s naming contest will award the winner dinner-for-two once a week for a year, at the newly named establishment! The submission deadline is Sunday March 22, with Next Door selecting a new name within two weeks after that. They’ll rebrand the restaurant soon after.

Here are our suggestions:

Twin Owls Downtown. The owners of Next Door used to own/operate the Twin Owls Steakhouse in Estes Park, before selling it to open their new place in downtown Loveland. Of course, by trying Twin Owls Loveland, they’d probably get calls from the Estes Park place that they no longer are affiliated with.

The Rialto Bridge Café. Next Door is right next door to the Rialto Theater Center. The Rialto Bridge is the official name of the newer construction that’s attached to the old Rialto; Next Door being a part of that new construction from 2012.

Small Shoes. At one point, where Next Door now stands, a shoe shop called 'Quality Shoe Repair' used to exist- for over 30 years. Since Next Door is known for their tapas (smaller portion menu items), this could be a great, cute, throwback name.

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