When Lindsey Tusk checked her inbox in January, she felt like the wind had been knocked out of her.
She received an email from Quince, the name of the three-Michelin-starred restaurant she and her husband Michael founded in San Francisco in 2003. There, they announced the launch of a series of “Michelin-worthy cooking utensils.'' “Made in Italy and used in Michelin starred restaurants around the world. ” The photo of a pot and knife strewn with tomatoes, shallots and garlic looked as if it had been taken from her restaurant's website. A 10-course tasting menu costs $360. Font at top of email looked familiar, right down to the Q swirl.
But Tusk's restaurants don't have a cooking utensil line. The company recently collaborated with knife maker Everett Noel to create a $470 custom steak knife, which is not expected to ship until June. When I looked at the task a little closer, I realized that the email was from a completely different company. That company is also a start-up called Quince, best known for its cheap cashmere.
“It was just amazing to me,” Tusk told Business Insider. “That's when it became very personal. It felt like a violation.”
This was not the Tusk family's first conflict. other Quince. The Tukes said they have been dealing with a one-star Yelp review and a Better Business Bureau complaint against the e-commerce brand for two years. The Tukes say the restaurant has received at least 15 returned items, ranging from sheepskin rugs to T-shirts, and that confused shoppers continue to call the reservation line asking about refunds. In December 2022, the restaurant announced the name Quince for the four-year-old startup (originally called Last Brand Inc., a name still used in some corporate filings). I sent a cease and desist letter asking them to stop using it. . The restaurant filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Last Brand in November.
In a February brief, the company asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, saying there are at least 117 companies in the U.S. that use the name Quince. The company acknowledged calling its cookware “Michelin-worthy” in “a single marketing email,” but said it had never used the phrase in any other marketing materials. Quince co-founder and CEO Sid Gupta said in a declaration filed with the brief that the company would be forced to stop using the name Quince for a year. , said it would cost more than $200 million, including lost sales, inventory and rebranding costs. .
“This lawsuit is without merit,” Zachary Bryers, an attorney representing Quince.com, told BI in a statement. “This restaurant charges hundreds of dollars for a lavish tasting menu and serves some of San Francisco's wealthiest residents,” Bryers added. “Quince.com sells affordable sweaters and linens to online shoppers.”
Tusk told BI that Rust Brands “continues to slowly expand our product line into our backyard.” She said Tusk said she and her husband took legal action because the potential for disruption and reputational damage was too great to ignore. Quince.com Knives includes her 4-piece stainless steel knife set for $49.90. The restaurant's brass-handled steak knives were featured in New York Times Style Magazine in January. Tusk said her husband was working with luxury cookware maker Hestan to develop a line of copper products, but that collection could be quite different from what Rust Brand sells. is said to be high. She recently discovered that Quince.com does restaurant marketing, offering her $7 off on DoorDash orders and wine club memberships through partnerships. She added that she recently discovered that.
“It feels like a very unequal situation where a venture capital-backed company comes in and becomes just a Goliath to our David,” Tusk told BI. “And that makes it even harder for us.”
Restaurant Quince has been in business for 21 years. years ago. This purveyor of contemporary California cuisine is the pinnacle of hyperlocal fine dining in San Francisco. It's the type of place that offers champagne carts and “freshly dug” potatoes. 20 acre organic farm located in Bolinas, California.
Quince is a startup also founded in San Francisco in 2020. In addition to a $50 cashmere sweater, the company gained attention for selling $60 silk skirts and 14-karat gold hoop earrings for less than $100. Quince CEO Gupta said the company is cutting costs by shipping directly from its factories to customers' homes. BI reported in December that the company was producing clothing in the same factories as its more expensive competitors. In 2023, Quince raised $77 million in Series B funding, one of the largest rounds in the industry this year.
The fruit quince is sour, hard, and looks like a lumpy yellow pear. The Tukes said they chose the name because, like running a restaurant, “the process of getting food ready is long and difficult.”
Lindsey Tusk said it was “shocking” to see the e-commerce startup launch a line of cookware products three months after the restaurant filed its lawsuit.
leslie williamson
The e-commerce startup was initially called Last Brand. However, during beta testing, customers found the name confusing, Gupta said on a 2021 episode of the podcast “Stairway to CEO.” For the official launch in 2020, the founders changed the brand's name to Quince, a play on the word “quintessential,” which refers to a brand that sells luxury necessities, said Gupta. But in the same “Stairway to CEO” episode, Mr. Gupta revealed another inspiration.
“Off the record, we were eating at a sister restaurant in San Francisco called Quince, a three-star Michelin restaurant, and we really liked the name,” Gupta said. “So we said, if it's good enough for his three-star Michelin restaurant, it's good enough for us.”
Business soared as e-commerce sales exploded during the pandemic. In November 2021, Mr. Gupta announced that sales had increased 15 times year over year. The company advertised aggressively, including a big push on social media and a national television campaign in 2023 about its “cheap and expensive” products. The startup currently sells everything from wine glasses and electric kettles to hardshell suitcases.
“There's huge potential for home businesses,” Gupta told beauty publication Glossy in 2022. “Plus, it resonated with our customers and the transition was easy,” he said.
As the startup grew, so did the confusion between the two brands.
According to the restaurant's complaint, a one-star review targeting the startup was posted on the restaurant's Yelp page in December 2022. Five Better Business Bureau complaints targeting the startup were incorrectly filed against restaurants. Even banks appear to be confused, with online shoppers calling a restaurant's reservation line in December after the bank incorrectly listed Quince's phone number and address on a receipt.
Daniel Page, the restaurant's operations manager, told BI, “If the name is the same, this won't be the first or the last.” But, he added, “It's really annoying and weird to see restaurant information next to a bill from a completely different company.”
The start-up company dismissed the restaurant's suit in a counter-preparation. It said the package was sent to the restaurant because of a “FedEx clerical error” and that the misclassified reviews were “immediately” moved to the Quince.com profile. Additionally, the company said the logos are similar only because the plaintiffs imitated the appearance of the Quince.com logo in a 2023 redesign, “not the other way around.” (Tusk said the restaurant's new logo was developed in collaboration with a branding agency during the pandemic.) Changing the e-commerce brand name would “shut down Quince.com's operations and result in the loss of hundreds of employees.” jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue would be at risk,” the brief says. annual sales. “
“Rare and isolated instances” of disruption do not justify the restaurant's request, the startup argued in its brief. “Quince.com promotes its brand through television, newspaper, YouTube, and social media advertising,” the brief said. “In contrast, Plaintiff's restaurant is only located in San Francisco and caters to wealthy foodies.”
Part of the confusion appears to be that the two companies are approximately two miles apart. Tusk worries that the startup's deep pockets could wipe out her restaurant. She says that when people Google her for Quince, the startup dominates the first few pages of search results, and the restaurant is limited to a “footnote.” Page told BI that every time she opens Instagram, she sees another ad for Quince clothing.
When Quince.com launched its cookware line, “it became very personal,” Tusk said. “It felt like a violation.”
Quince.com
The Tukes sent a cease-and-desist letter to the startup in December 2022, followed by another letter last September announcing that it had received a federal trademark registration. “Quince” refers to catering and culinary events. Tusk said it was “shocking” to see the e-commerce startup double down by launching a cookware product line three months after the restaurant filed the lawsuit.
The restaurant is not the only one that has accused Rust Brand of infringing its intellectual property. Yeti filed a lawsuit against Rust Brand in 2022, alleging that Quince sells insulated cups that closely resemble its trademarked tumblers. The lawsuit was settled out of court last February. Ugg's parent company Deckers sued Rust Brands in 2023 after Quince began selling mini boots that looked strikingly similar to Uggs. Quince denies trade dress or patent infringement, and the lawsuit remains unresolved.
For now, restaurant Quince continues to deal with confused customers. Page said one of her regulars asked her if she had started a clothing brand. Tusk said she just wanted to get away from something she couldn't vouch for.
“We know we are outnumbered, but we had no choice left,” Tusk told BI. “What do we do?”
