A new name for a familiar Corktown bar causes some controversy. The name was going to be "Hoffa's Hideout: a Place to Disappear," but that didn't set well with some folks.
Jimmy Hoffa disappeared more than 40 years ago, but his legacy lives on, just not in the form of a restaurant.
Casey's Pub on Michigan Avenue in Corktown had been known to be a proud blue-collar hang out.
Earlier this week, the new owner of Casey's Pub told a food blogger, they're turning it into a taco fusion place and changing the name to "Hoffa's Hideout: A Place to Disappear."
Restaurant owner Matt Buskard said, "Hindsight being 20/20, that tagline, I can definitely see where a lot of people thought that was disrespectful and a dig. That's not what I intended, that's not what I wanted."
Buskard owns Bobcat Bonnie's which is next door.
He was sad to hear the pub was closing so he decided to takeover with a menu change.
Matt is keeping all their employees and wants to keep their customers, many who are firefighters and electrical workers.
"What represents the union, what represents those workers, that energy and that's where we came up with the whole idea of Hoffa's Hideout."
Matt reached out to a Hoffa family representative to get permission to use the name.
"My problem was maybe I got a little too excited. Put the name out there too fast before getting approval," he explained. "The second we heard they weren't comfortable with that name, we immediately dropped it."
People took to social media calling the name disrespectful and tasteless.
"To hear people so negative and to hear all comments, it's hard because I genuinely want to make those people happy."
Matt even received death threats.
"Stuff that happened to Jimmy Hoffa is going to happen to me," he said.
He doesn't want to sweep the controversy under the rug, but Matt does want to make sure people understand that he is sorry and wants to move on from this.
"We are still going to target the union, we are still going to try to keep it exactly what it was, just with a different name."
So what will the name be?
Matt's not sure yet but it won't be controversial at all.
He needs to come up with something soon since they plan on opening mid-November.
