“Busy Chef” Busy Copying and Pasting?

By on July 6, 2007 2:14 pm in Food, Fun

Among the many oddities that we are aware of surrounding the “Corner of Cranberry” (and there are quite a few), one of the silliest is alleged “copyright and trademark infringement”. Though that’s probably not the case, we’ve actually received a couple of emails about this, and a commenter “Capulets” brought it up again:

Check this out, that coffee place Uncommon Grounds must be affiliated with Seattle’s Best Coffee in some way. On the Uncommon Grounds site it says this:
Brooklyn hasn’t always been the center of the coffee universe, in fact the city once served as much bad coffee as the rest of the country. That changed when a group of passionate coffee lovers started a revolution.

And on the Seattle’s Best site it says this:
Seattle hasn’t always been the center of the coffee universe, in fact the city once served as much bad coffee as the rest of the country. That changed in the early 70’s when a group of passionate coffee lovers started a revolution.

Actually, that entire blurb on the Uncommon Grounds website was taken from the Seattle’s Best website, not just the quote above. (note: looks like someone noticed the above comment and took down the copy. You can view the full blurb here) And this isn’t an isolated case of vigorous copypasting. When Busy Chef first came onto the scene, the language used both on the website and in emails sounded rather “Marketese” for such a small operation. So, we did a little research. The initial Busy Chef promo copy we received, and at one time on the website, seems to be taken directly from a business called Cena To Go, a prepared gourmet foods franchise based in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, the Busy Chef slogan printed across its shop window is just Cena’s “Only at Cena..can you see, smell, touch, feel and TASTE the difference!” slogan with the name replaced. I guess since there isn’t a copyright symbol next to it means it’s fair game.

After inquiring about the then new business at the end of March, an email we received from “Michael Burak, Director of Marketing” of Busy Chef was very suspicious. It turned out it was a slightly edited copy of Boston Market’s marketing factsheet. This is the first paragraph of the email:

The Busy Chef, is based in Brooklyn Heights, and its goal is to become a leader in the fast-casual restaurant category, providing time-pressed consumers with great-tasting, convenient meals and fresh bakery items. The company will translate its passion for fresh, great-tasting food into two distinctly different concepts. Busy Chef restaurants – will be noted for their easy, convenient, home-style meals and bakery items. The company also is partnering with leading supermarket chains to bring restaurant-quality, Busy Chef-branded meals so shoppers can enjoy the one-stop convenience of purchasing ready-to-heat meals at the same time they do their grocery shopping. Busy Chef is a wholly owned subsidiary of Busy Chef, Inc.

And from the Boston Market factsheet:

Boston Market Corporation, based in Golden, Colo., is a leader in the fast-casual restaurant category, providing time-pressed consumers with great-tasting, convenient meals. The company has translated its passion for fresh, great-tasting food into two distinctly different concepts. Boston Market restaurants – 630 locations in 28 states – are noted for their easy, convenient, home-style meals. The company also partners with leading supermarket chains to bring restaurant-quality, Boston Market-branded meals into the deli department so shoppers can enjoy the one-stop convenience of purchasing ready-to-heat meals at the same time they do their grocery shopping. Boston Market Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of McDonald’s Corporation.

The rest of the email follows a similar pattern. (What’s also interesting about that email blurb is that “Busy Chef, Inc.” actually should be “The Busy Chef, LLC“).

Also, the Busy Chef Cakes page, no longer linked to on the homepage, seems to be entirely ripped off from the Cakes page of Layers Bakery in Nevada. For instance, from the Busy Chef site:

We do not do SHEET CAKES. It’s just not what we do. We make ours round and with 3 layers sometimes 6 layers. If you need cake to feed a crowd, we suggest you get MORE THAN ONE! What a concept huh? You might even consider getting DIFFERENT KINDS so you offer a VARIETY.

And from the Layers Bakery site:

FIRST OFF, we don’t do SHEET CAKES. It’s just not what we do. We make ours ROUND and with 3 LAYERS, sometimes 6 layers (see coconut cake below). If you need cake to feed a crowd, we suggest you get MORE THAN ONE! What a concept huh? You might even consider getting DIFFERENT KINDS so you offer a VARIETY.

It all seems so silly to us: Why go through all this trouble for your nascent store to search, copy and paste from other existing businesses, when a simple “Hey, this is what we offer” would suffice?

In other news, Busy Chef appears to be opening a location in Crown Heights, according to an ad in rotation on brooklynpaper.com?

UPDATE: “Dan” from Uncommon Grounds contacted us with this response:

Uncommon Grounds is a co-branded retailer of Seattle’s Best Coffee. To become a retailer of their product, a business must undergo a thorough “screening” process. Furthermore, partners of Seattle’s Best are required to replicate – in many contexts including the web – certain graphics and language in their promotional materials. Much of this is provided on a CD, and is taken verbatim from their website, brochures and press materials. You may find all of this information on their website: http://www.seattlesbest.com/services/foodservice.aspx

We have found an example of this: Seattle’s Best Austin, however the Uncommon Grounds site was not executed in the same manner.

Busy Chef spokesman Michael D. Burak answered us as well:

I am an avid reader of your blog, and your recent email was forwarded to me just moments ago. As you know we are small start-up business, and do not have big budgets for a full marketing and web design staff.

One of our employees designed our initial site, and provided copy. Including copy for me as well. Her intention was one of good, and it is my fault for not looking into this before posting.

We have removed all of the said text from our site, and apologize to you and the community for this mistake.

In starting a new business you learn allot, and we hope that we can regain your trust and business going forward.

On another note, Uncommon Grounds which is a wholesale customer of ours, and is not owned or operated by us in any way, is affiliated with Seattle’s Best Coffee, and it’s parent company Starbucks.

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  • beth

    This makes me feel icky.

  • siggy

    I’m confused don’t you cut and paste things from other websites every day and paste them on this site? What’s the difference?

  • http://brooklynheightsblog.com Qfwfq

    This whole copy/paste thing sounds eerily similar to the “cigar bar” bogus sign from April. In fact, it’s almost exactly the same thing.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    Siggy – The difference is attribution. Anything that’s cut and pasted into a top post here is identified either by quotation marks or block quoting (i.e. narrower margins and line spacing), and the source is identified. Images are similarly identified as to source. We do not lift text or images from other sites and present them as our own.

  • graciouspeacock

    It may well be that both these new companies cut and pasted from other large corporations–I never heard if the blogger confirmed whether there’s any affiliation. But if no, don’t you think that a lot of other small budget companies save themselves the leg work and money of paying someone to market their new places by appropriating the language of the big fish out there? Is it really such a cardinal sin? I, for one, welcome these two additions to the north heights. Uncommon Grounds is the first original, fun and casual place to come along in a long time……and the neighborhood, with a new influx of litigous types coming in all the time it seems (!!) could use a little character and charm.

  • legal eagle

    Here are a couple of arguments for you, graciouspeacock: pick the one that suits your fancy.

    1. “Layers Bakery” of Nevada isn’t exactly big fish. Your theory that it’s OK to steal someone else’s copy as long as you’re stealing from someone who can afford it requires you to make some arbitrary distinctions about who can afford it – I’m sure Layers Bakery would beg to differ with you.
    2. Would it really have been too hard to spend 30 minutes writing their own copy? Maybe it wouldn’t be Madison Avenue quality, but hey, the stuff they stole isn’t either. Maybe their real sin is stealing low-grade marketing material?
    3. Don’t you think that a lot of other small budget companies save themselves the leg work and money of paying someone to supply their new places by appropriating the food of the big fish out there? Is it really such a cardinal sin? Heck, it should be the right of all new restauranteurs to load up at least one or two vanloads of free produce, flour, cooking oil etc. from a “big fish” restaurant out there. I’m sure Noodle Pudding or Henry’s End would be glad to let their new neighbors have the run of the basement to take what they feel like.

    Look, I’m not arguing that anyone go to jail here over this, but you’ve got to wonder what other corners the “Corner of Cranberry” crew are cutting if they play loose and fast (and sloppy) with stealing text from other restaurants’ websites.

  • Capulets

    Gracious – that is the most retarded rationale I’ve ever heard. (With apologies to the truly mentally handicapped, who should not be lumped in with the likes of that comment.)

  • Capulets

    Legal – Yes, one only has to think of Chinese toothpaste to get the picture.

  • steve

    Does anyone remember the name of the little store that used to be where Uncommon Grounds is now? They had wonderful bread there . . . “Sullivan Street Bakery,” which I now have to go all the way to Garden of Eden to get (I know, the walk is probably good for me).
    And speaking of the North Heights (and do we say, “No He” or “Neights,” and if the latter, why not N’eights, as in nor’easter?), all my friends stubbornly refuse to go to the Henry Street Ale House, which I want to check out. What are some of the major selling points for that pub . . . good burgers, excellent beer, fun crowd? What are their specialties?

  • http://brooklynheightsblog.com Qfwfq

    Henry Street Ale House is a great place to relax, unwind. I love the burgers — some feel they can be inconsistent, but I never experienced that yet. Good sweet potato fries, good beer. Some love the mac n cheese. The crowd is fairly chill. Good place to go if you’re meeting up with someone, or want a fairly quiet place to hang with friends. Not much else to it.

  • hawianshirts

    Pete is in my opinion the best bartender in the Heights! I think he’s been at the Ale House since it opened.

  • Nigel

    Qfwfq is right about Henry St. Ale House. Aces on the sweet potato fries and burgers, a decent beer selection (for the neighborhood), great mac & cheese. I recommend the burrito too. The specials don’t change often, but they’re usually good. The Elvis-esque bartender is friendly and often plays great “oldies” music. Oh, and cute waitresses!

  • shannon

    One way or another, all of this posing (’cause that’s what it really is, seriously, no decent small business with a worthwhile product to offer is going to go out of business by writing their own, to-the-point copy) is just highlighting the fact that their food is d-i-s-g-u-s-t-i-n-g. No Joke. Everything I had struck me as if it were made by a thirteen year old who had never cooked before, but had just gotten a “fancy” new cookbook for their birthday and wanted to try it out on their friends. UNcooked fish in…butter, not seasoned butter, just flavorless microwaved (yet internally raw) fish in melted butter. Quiche made up of all cheap biscuit dough and no room for filling.
    What I find disturbing is that it’s really seeming like an investor who has found business models that work and is just trying to conjure up cheap fabrications with out any of the substance. All the way down to the plagiarized websites.

  • lori

    uncommon grounds is great. but they get their food from busy chef, and you’re right – it’s pretty bad.

  • emma

    I like the food at Uncommon Ground, and the vibe is cool.

  • landy

    i am still not buying the “not the same owners” bit. Both Busy chef and oven are using or at least were using uncommon grounds credit card machine. I’ve heard of restaurants lending things to each other but it’s usually not payment.

  • p

    really…what is your collective problem, anyway? do you know what a bunch of a-holes you sound like?
    if the restaurant sucks or isn’t to your liking (and I’m sure that not much is), then DON’T PATRONIZE them.
    yes, the copying and pasting stuff is really shady. just don’t go there. and stop complaining. get out more and be nice.

  • Capulets

    This is hilarious.

  • poptheglock

    these bashers need to get a life. the fact that the highlight of your month is sitting on the computer finding similarities, or direct copies, whatever you wish to call it, of quotes should ring a bell that your lives are quit pathetic. as for me i don’t do PC. so just shove it and go take your kids to the playground or something, that seems to me more important than sitting at home bashing on new places run by extremely hard working motivated people. LOL. this has to be the most absurd load of crap i’ve read. stop getting your panties in a twist over something that has NOTHING to do with you. why not be pro-active and support your neighborhood? No, i would rather sit on my ass and bust on a new place with an innovative idea. let me help you right your next blog: WHY NOT PUT A STARBUCKS AT EACH ONE OF THESE LOCATIONS?

  • Capulets

    There’s nothing innovative about Busy Chef. Not even the name.

  • MasieMae

    reserach closer, there was one in bay ridge!

    what a fantastic case of keyboard courage we have here.

  • ew

    have to agree with poptheglock. i come into brooklyn a couple of times a week from suffolk county and stop into busy chef and bring something home each time ,i have yet to dislike anything i have taken home to eat from there ! innovative name ? i googled it and there are a few concepted companies by this name from one that basically chops and preps for you to go home and cook yourself to basically a personal chef. could it be businesses don’t last on this corner as is suggested is because people like homer and his buddies bash them ? most interesting to me is the fact you people don’t realise maybe, the more you bash the business the more people will be curious and check it out and any press is better than no press !

  • Slopes

    EW and Maise are 100% correct. I personally know the Chef from my days in Burlington Vermont and he’s a terrific guy. I should really stop by the shop and show him my support. Y’all should too.

  • Janey

    The Busy Chef is a great place and the people there are amazing. The concept is wonderful and is a great addition to the neighborhood.

    Perhaps there should have been more research into the issue of “copy and pasting,” seeing as how nothing used was trademarked nor copyrighted, and the fact that according to “Dan” their promotional lingo is clearly set for them.

    I feel it is important to support local businesses and welcome them into the community rather than run them down and try to put their name in the dirt.

    It is a shame that there wouldn’t even be a mention as to the nature of the business, how one sided could this have been?

  • No One of Consequence

    I think that the objections are coming from the perspective that the re-use of copy from other businesses is a short-sighted attempt to fool the clientèle into thinking that these are unique and well-thought out establishments No one likes to be a sucker.

    Sorry, Michael, but I have a hard time buying the excuse that an employee has any responsibility for lifting the language from other websites. These were your positioning statements and you should have inquired where they came from or provided your own. It’s not that hard, big-budget or none at all. Just provide an honest detailing of what service you provide.

    Having produced numerous commercial websites, I suspect that said employee was advised to use the language from Boston Market and Layers Bakery as examples and that no follow-up examination took place.

    Regarding “starting a new business,” I thought that the principles were all seasoned restaurant professionals?

    Best of luck to you, but as an avid reader of this blog, you should also know that much scrutiny [undue or not] is given to new businesses [especially restaurants] in this neighborhood and particularly at “Corner of Cranberry” (exactly why, I am not sure). Hope you can put this all in the past and provide a quality product.

  • Homer Fink

    And with that eloquent comment from NOOC, I think we should bid this thread adieu.

    Consider it locked.