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The owner of an açaí cafe on Sydney’s northern beaches, who claims a rival shop has “copied” her shop’s menu “almost word for word”, has called in lawyers.
Blessed Bowls in Freshwater made headlines on Thursday after posting an angry letter in its window accusing a nearby dessert shop, Mr Gelato by Matteo, of copying its menu.
Matteo Dominici, co-owner of Mr Gelato, strongly denied doing anything wrong.
“They have no right to say I copied them because everyone makes them (acaí bowls) very similar,” Dominici told Daily Mail Australia.
“There are a lot of places on the Strip that offer açaí bowls, but for some reason they’re against us, and I don’t know why.”
Matteo Dominici is co-owner of Mr Gelato by Matteo in Freshwater and Collaroy and denies his chain copied the Blessed Bowls cafe menu
Blessed Bowl founder Ella Rose Stevenson (above) took to Instagram to break her silence after her note accusing a rival company of copying her menu went viral.
A sign taped to the window of Blessed Bowls (pictured) went viral on Thursday for claiming its carefully curated menu had been ripped off by Mr Gelato by Matteo.
Blessed Bowlers founder Ella Rose Stevenson broke her silence on Friday in response to Dominici’s remarks.
“About a month ago it was disappointing to see that one of our neighboring businesses, Mr Gelato by Matteo, had placed a copy of our menu in their window and was selling exactly our products,” he began.
‘Both our acai bowls and our soft coconut products. The names, ingredients, sizes and prices were exactly the same.’
“Many businesses around the Northern Beaches sell great acai products and we love being part of that community, however, we have never copied anyone else’s products or menus and at BB we never will,” he added.
Ms. Stevenson claimed she has already hired a lawyer in an attempt to get Mr. Dominci to alter his acai menu.
‘People have also asked us why we put up the sign and didn’t contact our lawyers. Well, we did it.
“Our attorneys sent a letter to Mr. G a couple of weeks ago asking him to remove our menu from his window and stop selling our exact products,” he said.
Mr Gelato’s açaí bowl menu can be seen here
Blessed Bowl’s açaí menu seen here
Blessed Bowls has seven franchises in Sydney
Stevenson said the rival owner had not responded but now appeared to have changed his menu.
“We never wanted to stop Mr. G from selling acai or soft serve ice cream, but we had to just copy our menu almost word for word,” he fumed.
Mr Gelato’s açaí bowl menu offers several of the items that are also for sale at Blessed Bowls.
Some of the ingredients are listed verbatim, including the açaí Biscoff Bowl, the Brownie açaí, and the Snickers açaí.
“We offer a much larger selection of açaí bowls and they are named after the main ingredient, not because we have copied (Blessed Bowls),” Dominici told Daily Mail Australia of the similarities.
He decided to add the berry dessert to his menu three months ago after his young customers always asked him if it would work for them.
Matteo, owner of Mr Gelato, says there is enough business in Freshwater for other cafes to thrive
‘Açaí is fashionable and combines with ice cream. Of course I’m going to offer it to my clients,” she stated.
‘They are a great franchise; We are a small family business. I run this one and my sister runs the store in Collaroy,” she added.
‘If we are copying them, why have they opened another store near us in Collaroy?’
Dominici said there were enough businesses in the Lawrence Streep area for all the companies selling acai to thrive.
“There are businesses on the strip for everyone, so let’s give our customers what they want,” he said.