"It's Now Great Northern Pizza Kitchen"

Brighton-Pittsford Post - <Article no longer online>

By Matt Ried

January 24, 2001

It's official, there's a new name for the Rocky Mountain Pizza Kitchen – Great Northern Pizza Kitchen. The name was the runaway winner in the popular Brighton eatery's name change contest.

The owners of the restaurant, Rob and Chris Desino, decided to change its name because they want to expand and perhaps eventually franchise the business. Their lawyer indicated there would be too many trademark issues using the Rocky Mountain name.

The Desinos came up with four names and started a contest in which patrons voted for their favorite. Prizes were also given away during a drawing at the end of the contest.

With more than a third of the vote between the four names, Great Northern easily outstripped its competitors.

However, Chris Desino said, not everyone was happy with the choice of names.

"We had a lot of people who wrote their own ideas in," he said.

The write-ins ranged from Pinnacle Hill Pizza Kitchen to "Dude, Where's My Pie?," a play on the popular movie "Dude, Where's My Car?"

The contest winners were drawn on Saturday. First prize was free pizza for a year at the restaurant. Second prize was a one-year membership to the Midtown Athletic Club. Third prize was a $250 gift certificate to Snow Country.

The name change will be phased in over the next few weeks.

"This week, we'll start answering the phone, 'Great Northern,'" Chris Desino said. "Then we'll start letting the employees wear the new T-shirts and then deal with changing the signs in a few weeks."

Great Northern Pizza Kitchen plans to open a second location in March or April.