Pizza Wars : What’s in a Name? If It’s ‘Tony’s,’ a Real Pie Fight

It can get ugly when a pizza war breaks out.

Take, for example, the brewing tensions between the owners of Tony’s Pizzaria in Ventura and Tony’s Pizza in Oxnard.

The battle is not over who has the spiciest pepperoni or the creamiest mozzarella but over who has the right to use the name.

Tony Barrios, owner of Tony’s Pizzaria in Ventura, got his anchovies all in an uproar when Tony Scottibelli opened Tony’s Pizza in The Esplanade mall in November.

Although the names are slightly different, Barrios, who has been in business on Thompson Boulevard for about 30 years, began to worry that his customers would confuse the two restaurants.

The World War II veteran got so concerned that he placed an ad in a local newspaper proclaiming his restaurant to be the “real” Tony’s Pizza and advised his customers not to confuse the two.

He even stamped his customers’ receipts with a message in blood-red ink that says, “I want to protect my good reputation from any other pizza place in Ventura County calling itself Tony’s Pizza.”

For his part, Scottibelli is so upset about Barrios’ activities that he doesn’t even want to talk about the pizza flap. But Gennaro Derviso, Scottibelli’s nephew and part owner of the Oxnard restaurant, is less reticent.

‘I’m sorry I’m laughing, but the whole thing is really funny,” Derviso said.

Derviso said some customers have asked if the owners of Tony’s Pizza in Oxnard are related to the owners of the pizza place in Ventura. But he said he doesn’t believe he is in competition with Barrios.

Besides, he said, pizza restaurants called Tony’s are about as common as cafes called Joe’s.

Although Derviso finds humor in the who-is-the-real-Tony controversy, he said he is tired of having to hear about Barrios’ complaints.

He said he has talked to Barrios about the matter several times and has told him that Scottibelli’s pizza chain has used the same name for more than 25 years.

Although Barrios does not have trademark rights to the name, Derviso said Barrios threatened to hire a lawyer to force Scottibelli to change his restaurant’s name.

“I told him, ‘You want to call your lawyer . . . do some legal action, go ahead, be my guest,’ ” Derviso said.

“There’s an old expression in Italy: Don’t wake up the dog that is sleeping,” he said. “We are the dog, and he has awakened us.”

While there’s been some tough talk on both sides of the pizza fight, there was one sign Thursday that the warring restaurateurs may be able to avoid any escalation of the battle.

When Scottibelli learned that the press was interested in the conflict, he called Barrios and warned him that any inflammatory remarks made to the press about his restaurant would lead to a lawsuit.

“I’m not in competition with him,” said Scottibelli, who owns a chain of five restaurants throughout Southern California. But he added that, if he gets upset, “I’ll lose my cool.”

Barrios heeded the warning and decided not to go any further with the pizza fight, at least for the moment, saying he could not afford a lengthy legal battle.

“I would rather let laying dogs lie,” he said.