Lucky Peach magazine's parody has to be changed when steakhouse protests parody

The popular indie magazine Lucky Peach has been served with a cease and desist order for making fun of the Ruth's Chris steakhouse. According to a story in New York Eater, the steakhouse chain was apparently not amused by the parody whereby a one-night-only pop-up restaurant in New York's East Village was to be named Ruth Krishna's Tandoori Steakhouse. It was meant to be "an irreverent mashup of northern Indian standbys and steakhouse favourites". Pete Meehan of Lucky Peach explained why they chose to comply with the order.

"I figure that it's better to spend money on lunch and comic books and paying bills than it is on lawyers when you don't need to."

Among the other joke names the magazine had considered were: Luck E. Peach's Tandoori Steakhouse, Raj & Willensky's, House of Prime Indian Rib, Steak 'n' Saag, Goa-head Make My Steak, Priya Luger, Corporate Buzzkill Tandoori Steaks. A few of us were into the idea of taking a sponsored approach familiar to sports fans (Petco Park) or readers of overly long books of fiction (Year of the Trial Sized Dove Bar).

Ruth has now become Randy, as in Randy Krishna's Tandoori Steakhouse.