It’s Pi vs. Pi. Two restaurants called Pi are set to open in downtown Denver.
Pi Kitchen + Bar opens today on the ground floor of the new Hilton Garden Inn at 14th and Welton. The hotel and restaurant are owned by Stonebridge, a big hotel operation based in Denver.
Seven blocks away on Larimer Square, Bill Ward plans to open Pi, a low-key NYC pizza lounge, in a subterranean space beneath Bistro Vendome.
Ward was advised this week to change the name – through Christopher Parent, an attorney with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s Intellectual Property & Technology Group. In other words, a big gun.
Ward says he registered the name with the secretary of state last year. But that may be beside the point. He doesn’t have the cash to fight for the Pi, no matter how you slice it.
A quick search on the Internet reveals that the world is knee-deep in Pi restaurants, from Detroit to Cork, Ireland, from Pittsburgh to Seattle. Go figure.
Pi Kitchen + Bar will serve up high-end fusion food. Ward’s Pi will serve pizza – specializing in after-hours, late-night pies.
After an initial conversation Wednesday about the Pi controversy, Parent said he would talk to his clients to see if they wanted to comment. He did not return phone calls later in the day.
“They’re trying to bully the little club boy,” says Ward, who also owns Slim 7 on Larimer Square. “At this point I’m not doing anything. But I’m not worried. They want to be like this, we’ll be like that. I have a few great ideas.”
Nowhere near here
It’s exciting that Eddie Murphy is coming to Denver in October for two weeks to shoot scenes for his movie “NowhereLand.”
But jeez, is Denver going to look like “NowhereLand”?
The title “actually has nothing to do with Denver,” says Colorado Film commish Kevin Shand.
That’s a relief.
The website describes the plot: “The story … involves a struggling executive whose daughter offers him the keys to a wonderful new realm. This 6-year-old allows him to enter her imaginary paradise, thereby bringing him an inner peace he had never known before.”
The filming will be in the metro area – adding some excitement to our October cityscape. “We’re jazzed,” says Shand.
Celebrities in my soup
Get out your bibs.
Concerts for Kids’ annual Celebrity Waiter funder terrorizes Elway’s again on Sept. 28.
This year the celeb roster includes Norm Clarke from Vegas; John Oates from Aspen and of Hall & Oates fame; Jim Benemann; Ed Greene; Kelli McGannon; Dahlia Weinstein; KC Veio; and our own Opie, Jake Schroeder.
City spirit
Sightem: CNN’s Anderson Cooper at Colorado Springs Airport on Sunday – saying he’s “on assignment” … The crew from the Tim McGraw/Faith Hill tour filling up the buses with organic goods from Whole Foods in Cherry Creek on Tuesday … Faith/Tim at Cry Baby Ranch shopping up a cowboy storm Tuesday. … Sez who: “No matter how bad it gets, I’m rich at the dollar store.” Jason Love
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at .
