A calzone restaurant on O Street that has changed names twice and owners once reopened Thursday after the company that owns it sued its former franchisees.
D.P. Dough is a restaurant chain that establishes restaurants near college campuses and markets itself to college students with late-night food delivery services, according to . After a change of ownership, the location is reopening, said D.P. Dough Vice President Jason Griffin.
“Lincoln's been a great market for us for about four years now,†Griffin said. “So the decision was easy. For us it was just a matter of making sure that we could secure a location to continue operating and serving calzones there.â€
The location of the D.P. Dough restaurant, at the corner of Centennial Mall and O Street, was a D.P. Dough franchise before becoming a restaurant called Misfits on O under the same owners. The owners and former franchisees were sued by the chain for allegedly violating their noncompete agreement.
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A parent company of D.P. Dough, Calzone King LLC, sued Midwest Dough Guys, LLC, in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
The lawsuit alleged that Midwest Dough Guys signed an agreement with the D.P. Dough franchise to open locations in Lincoln, Kearney and Manhattan, Kansas.
The franchisees then filed for bankruptcy twice in 2023 and both filings were dismissed, according to the lawsuit. D.P. Dough alleged in the lawsuit that the bankruptcies meant Midwest Dough Guys had defaulted on the franchise agreement.
Midwest Dough Guys then opened Misfits on O in the same location after receiving a termination notice from D.P. Dough, according to the lawsuit.
The former owners of Misfits on O, who are also the owners of Misfits Bar & Grill, did not respond to several requests for comment.
Calzone King alleges that the Misfits on O location utilized the same equipment, employed many of the same people, utilized the D.P. Dough service mark on social media and used recipes from when the location was a D.P. Dough franchise.
The court prohibited the company from selling calzones within 15 miles of 1442 O Street and ordered the removal of the D.P. Dough service mark from the Misfits on O Facebook page, according to .
Griffin said there are multiple claims and suits in different courts. The case in Lincoln came to an initial resolution when the former franchisees came to an agreement with the franchise where they walked away from the location, Griffin said.
“That allowed us to speak directly with the landlord and make a deal with the landlord,†Griffin said. “So they sort of just waved the white flag on that one.â€
The new D.P. Dough reopened, not as a franchise, but instead as a corporate affiliate, in the same location, said Griffin, who is part of a team supervising the store’s initial launch.
Mike Mancuso was an undergraduate student when Lincoln's D.P. Dough was still a franchise.
“I was really disappointed when I saw that it closed to do that rebrand, because obviously it's just a fun place to go,†Mancuso said. “The food was good. Everyone went with their friends. It was open pretty late.â€
Mancuso said he has already been back to D.P. Dough since it has reopened.
The Manhattan, Kansas, location has also reopened, but the location in Kearney is not reopening at this time, Griffin and Eric Cook, the company CEO, said Thursday during the reopening of the Lincoln store.
Griffin said he has been in Lincoln for about a week to get ready for the reopening.
“Everywhere I go, where I wear a D.P. Dough shirt, everyone's asking if we're coming back,†Griffin said.
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