There are restaurants that confuse us by having unmarked locations, chaotic setups, and multiple rooms with different purposes.

Then there are those that confuse us just by having names. Specifically, names that sound so much like other restaurant names, they seem almost designed to mix us up.

The most famous of these conflicts arose three years ago when Marché, the late Pike Place Market French classic from Daisley Gordon, and Restaurant Marché, the Bainbridge Island French classic from Greg Atkinson, opened within months of each other. At the time Akinson told me he registered Restaurant Marché as an LLC and Gordon registered Marché as a DBA, so the similarity was never flagged.

Gordon, not able to lure enough diners, closed Marché in February.

So case closed on Marché mayhem...but not so other potential mix-ups. Take the Fat Hen, a tiny and careful food boutique in Ballard, and the Little Red Hen, a rollicking country dance hall with karaoke and line dancing near Green Lake. Both are open weekend mornings—one for speck Benedicts with levain toast, the other for chicken fried steak and eggs. This makes the inevitable mix-ups a particular shock. “We’re not really the same customer base,” understated a Fat Hen waiter.

Then you’ve got your Pie (sweet and savory handheld pies in Fremont and the Seattle Center Armory)/Serious Pie (Tom Douglas pizza, now in three locations)/Humble Pie (environmentally sensitive pizzas at the gateway to the Rainier Valley) trifecta. Your Pink Door (the Italian cult fave in Pike Place Market)/Red Door (a Fremont pub)/Triple Door (a downtown club) trio. The special dilemma besetting the guy who thinks he’ll know the name of the dinnerhouse when he hears it—but was it Brimmer and Heeltap (Korean fusion on one side of Ballard) or Brunswick and Hunt (farm-to-table on the other)? Or the one who knows he’s meeting a friend somewhere involving a goat—but was it a Fainting Goat (gelato in Wallingford) or a Stumbling Goat (bistro on Phinney Ridge)?

And why are Seattle goats so frail? (And, since we’re in the barnyard…may I please ask again why we have so many restaurants named after pigs?)  

At their worst, such mix-ups may tempt us away from our regimens. Woe to the guy who’s aiming for the gluten-free Coffee and A Specialty Bakery at the Western Avenue edge of Pike Place Market and ends up at a Specialty’s Café and Bakery (multiple locations) instead—where gluten, in cookies and breads, is pretty much the point. Or the one who wants the celiac-friendly Capitol Cider, and ends up instead down the hill at the steaks-and-starches theme park, Capital Grille.

But names don’t get much closer than Hudson and Hudson Public House—the former, a Georgetown comfort-food bar owned by the folks who have Smarty Pants; the latter, an all-ages Wedgwood gastropub owned by the folks who have Collins Pub. Sure there are similarities, both featuring micro-local fan bases, a beloved burger, delightful amounts of booze.

But please don’t be the guy who brings his kids to Hudson in Georgetown, or comes for brunch to Hudson in Wedgwood. Because that guy gets disappointed.

Know other local restaurants with similar names? Chime in below.