The Name Game: foc i fum

Help me name my future restaurant! I'd love to hear what you think of some names I've come up with... and I'd be tickled if you'd share your suggestions for a name. EVERY DAY I'LL POST A NEW NAME. Please express your honest opinions in the poll and leave comments. Thanks for playing the Name Game!

Our sixth contestant (of seven) is foc i fum.

The Story:

foc i fum (pronounced foke-ee-foom) means "fire and smoke" in Catalan.

(Like imby, it's another name that I prefer in lowercase. I think it softens some of the implications that I discuss below).

Pros:

Catalan name: strong connection to my cooking influences from Spain and her Mediterranean neighbors.

Fire: wood-burning oven, located in the front by the window, is central feature of the kitchen design and the first thing you'll see as you approach the restaurant.

Fire=Phoenix: personal meaning of transformation, renewal, rebirth, rising from the flames and ashes.

When pronounced correctly, has both the coveted O (oh) and U (oo) vowel sounds that restaurateur's seek in restaurant names. You think I'm making this up? Look at Mario Batalli's restaurants: Babbo, Lupa, Casa Mono, Bar Jamon, Otto, Mozza. Or how about Zuni, Prune, Momofuku, Coco500, etc.? The shape of the lips when these two vowels are pronounced is simply delicious, like a kiss.

"Field to Foc" connection ;-)

Open kitchen: like it or not, we cooks occasionally bark "foc" (or something similar). And chefs *even nice ones like myself* occasionally fume, especially when servers are slow to pick up plates. This name may help excuse those gaffes to the diners perched at the counter.

Google search shows there is a wild looking Cirque du Soleil-style performance group called Foc i Fum in Ibiza. I find that funny.

Cheeky and irreverent.

Cons:

Perhaps a little too cheeky and irreverent: some similarity in pronunciation between foc and the aforementioned four-letter English word. Personally, I find this connection hilarious, but I have a twisted sense of humor. I like Fork in San Anselmo, The Good Fork in Brooklyn, and Manhattan's Momofuku (which means "lucky peach" in Japanese). None of them suffer from the close connection to f***. Nor does FCUK. If anything, they benefit. However, the restaurant will not be in the hipster Mission, it will be in family-friendly Noe Valley. So I'm hesitant. 

Difficult to pronounce and spell. This is a bigger problem than the similarity to f***. *sigh* I expect people will say "foce-ee-fumm" or "fock-eye-fumm" or something similar until they are taught how to pronounce it correctly. (Let me know how you thought it was pronounced and if it seems more difficult to spell or pronounce than Olallie or Bocarte).

No fum: it's a non-smoking restaurant (like every restaurant in California). And there won't be a meat smoker.

No connection to anything local or sustainability (except of course the pun above).

What do you think? Take the poll and leave your comments. And remember, each comment counts as a raffle ticket in a drawing for a free dinner for two at my future restaurant (scheduled to open mid 2008).

Helpful links:

The restaurant's concept
Suggested guidelines for comments
Suggest your own name idea here

Comments

[Jack]

foc e no

[Chilebrown]

Foc i fom, might be a winner for the crowd who sits in front of the "TV" allday and watches 'The Teletubies". You could keep your Pokey special as an appetizer.

[art]

You're thinking too hard.

[Anita]

Makes me think of "fee fi fo fum". I like the underlying idea but I feel it might be better if you could make it a one word name, and not so rhyme-y and singsongy.

[jen maiser]

this is one of my least favorite choices. let's go back to olallie and catalina. :)

[I-Chant]

I don't get this name, even after reading the explanations. My initial reading of it was "focky fuhm" which isn't very pretty. You bring up the sought-after "oh" and "oo" sounds but most of the restaurants you name have very comforting, soft surrounding consonants, and the "foc" is especially harsh sounding because you have to emphasize the final hard "k" sound. You'll get that soft, comforting sound with Olallie better than this name.

[rachel]

There are two places to vote showing up in this entry? Again, I like the meaning more than the sound, and the difficulty. I love seeing this process happen!

[Anita]

not very appetizing, is it?

[Adele]

My first impression upon seeing it is "This is some Latin phrase I should have learned but don't know, isn't it?"

Difficult to spell, difficult to pronounce... and the concept isn't that fantastic. Sorry. I don't like this one at all.

[Ken H]

have to echo the other comments... not doing it for me. i don't think "fire and smoke" would make a good name for a restaurant - so, i'm not sure that translating it into a language that people don't know and can't pronounce/spell is a great idea.

[acidspit]

looks and sounds like some sort of weird pagan curse word. That and it would probably be hell for your eventual graphic designers... but maybe that's just me. It just doesn't sound appetizing, and shouldn't a restaurant name be just that?

[Diane]

Hmmmmm...it's a bit dangerous to name anything with a phonic of "foc". I still remember staid, solid work colleagues collapsing into junior-high-school giggles every time we would go out to Fook Yuen for dim sum.

[Pim]

You cannot be serious.

Foc In No.

[Garrett]

No. It's just a short slip of the tongue away from "fuck-ee-foom."

[Silversara]

Hrm. Not crazy about this, and I tend to like irreverent humour ;) So far, my favourites are Bocarte and Catalina.

[Tracy]

Nope. I thought the 'fee fi foe fum" thing too, and the next line of course involves grinding bones to make bread, yick.

[Jesse Appelman]

I think you may be going for something too clever with some of these ideas -- if your restaurant name is going to have multiple meanings or connotations, they shouldn't require any explanation for your average diner (i.e., I would assume your target audience doesn't speak catalan!).

[JenR]

I get it, but.... no. Too easy to abuse (think unhappy guest or disgruntled employee talking to everyone they know). Plus, you want to give people a fighting chance to pronounce the name correctly - people could easily mess up all 3 syllables.

[cookiecrumb]

Aw, jeez, Brett.
Would YOU go to a restaurant named foc i fum? (I mean, in Noe Valley?)
A little too fickyfick. (Yo, Garrett. Shibby.)
I will dream (literally) up some "ooh" names. They might not be winners, but this is all good fun.
xx

[Ale]

Seriously???????

[brett]

All right. I confess. I added this one purely for my own amusement. Besides coming up with a name for my restaurant, one point of this game is to have a little fun. :D

[sam]

glad it was a joke, brett
foc i fi fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman
that's what it reminds me of
ref:
http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/early_childhood/nurse/fee/

[Ben]

I really want to like it.. I really do. But every time I read it I think

fockey fun?
fokie fooom?
...

[Ben]

foc-ing hell!

etc

[Jofre]

I think "foke" is not the best way to write the word "foc". It'd be better to write it "fock".