Kraken picks new restaurant name at practice facility following lawsuit from punk-rock bar

A new name has been chosen for the Kraken’s restaurant at its training center — one the team hopes won’t draw the ire of any more punk-rock establishments.

The “32 Bar & Grill” — run by Kraken consultant Mick McHugh, longtime owner of the former F.X. McRory’s Steak Chop & Oyster House in Pioneer Square — replaces the previously planned “Kraken Bar and Grill” name. Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke said in a news release Friday that the new name signifies the 32,000 fans who made season-ticket deposits in March 2018, followed by the NHL officially awarding its 32nd franchise to Seattle in December of that year.

Also, he noted, ice freezes at 32 degrees.

The change came after a $3.5 million trademark infringement and tortious interference lawsuit filed in April by the Kraken Bar & Lounge in the University District. The lawsuit claims the decade-old Kraken Lounge “remains one of the few dive bars left in the neighborhood and region” and added that its patrons cannot bear losing it “to a corporate-sponsored bar, devoid of personality and consumed by an investor mandate to extract premium prices.” 

The lawsuit claimed that because the team named itself “Kraken” last July, the lounge encountered new, confused customers who thought it was sponsored by the hockey team. Those newcomers, it added, wanted to remake the establishment into a hockey bar, alarming longstanding patrons who appreciate its “affordable food and drinks as well as cutting edge live music performances by well-known punk and metal bands.”

The lawsuit remains ongoing.

A response filed by the team in King County Superior Court last week denies it ever announced plans to open a restaurant under the “Kraken Bar & Grill” name as the lawsuit contends. It states that the team released information in April confirming McHugh’s involvement in a future planned restaurant tentatively named “Kraken Bar and Grill,” but nothing official had been announced and no use of that name is now planned.

The response also denies that the team’s use of the Kraken name has caused or is likely to bring about confusion with regard to the bar’s trademark rights. It states that the team has priority trademark rights to the name for hockey and related goods and services.

The 32 Bar & Grill, located inside the team’s planned $80 million training venue at Northgate Mall, will overlook two of the facility’s indoor ice rinks, where fans can watch the Kraken practice or take in games on one of 17 televisions.

A planned feature will be a “puck bar” — displaying pucks from around the world. The team is inviting fans to donate any pucks they have featuring emblems of teams from any level so as many as possible can be represented.

Pucks can be mailed to the team’s head office at 16 W. Harrison St., Ste. 200. Seattle, WA 98199, or dropped off at team stores at Chandler’s Cove and Bellevue. The Kraken can’t guarantee all pucks will be used, nor will it return those unused.