The restaurant chain La Mafia Sits at the Table finally changes its name, and will be called La Famiglia Se Sienta a la Mesa. The movement takes place after the approval by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OPEM) of the trademark invalidation request promoted by the Italian Embassy.
The company already announced last March that it was contemplating changing its name as a result of a strategic reflection process initiated more than a year ago as a result of the process promoted by the institution. Furthermore, as it currently appears in the file, the application for the new name was already submitted then, and is currently being processed.
The brand seeks to distance its perception from the controversy regarding the name
Removing the perception of the brand from controversy would be one of the motivations for the change. “We give way to what is not a change, for us a word does not mean 25 years of history“, commented Javier Floristán, CEO of the company, according to Europa Press. “We went from La Mafia to the new name La Famiglia sits at the table. It is a new way of telling what we have always been and reflects what we are”.
In a statement, the brand assures that the change will accompany the evolution of the project and will help communicate its original identity and purpose. “For us, La Famiglia is not just about blood. They are also friends, colleagues, the close circle… We see it as everything that surrounds us, unites us, makes us feel at home and makes us happy.“; Floristán has expressed. “This new name reflects very well the essence of what we are and how we connect with the public that has been with us for more than two decades and chooses us every day. A place to meet, share and feel at home”.
The brand points out that it does not have the legal imperative to stop working under the previous name, but that the movement responds to “a strategic decision adopted from the conviction and vision of the company’s future, in coherence with its history and with the will to project its identity and evolution over its 25 years of experienceIn this sense, they consider that the new name maintains the DNA of the brand and its philosophy around creating real connections, belonging and sharing memorable experiences around the table.
He also points out that the new name is the result of the work carried out over the last year together with specialized consultancies, as well as a participatory and consensual process among its franchisees, partners and workers, whom it considers key figures in the growth and consolidation of the brand.
As confirmed reason.Why with the brand’s communication agency, the name change will entail a change in the visual identity that will mainly consist of adapting the new naming to the aesthetics that the branding agency Waka created for the company in May 2025.
The new name will begin to be implemented in the month of May, with the intention that the new logos will be deployed nationwide by summer. However, for a time both denominations will coexist as the adaptation work is carried out. The first restaurant with the new naming will be the one on Velázquez Street, in Madrid.
In the statement, the company assures that the restaurants will continue to operate normally, maintaining the focus on quality, customer experience and operational excellence.
The LMssLM group, to which the brand belongs, will not change its name, despite the fact that it is an acronym for The Mafia Sits at the Table.
The group will continue with its expansion plan for the next 5 years, which it presented last year along with its new image. Thus, it contemplates the opening of 30 new establishments for its different brands in this year, and the ambition of reaching 200 operations by 2028. For its part, now under La Famiglia sits at the table, the brand intends to consolidate itself in “casual dining” and position itself as the place in which to celebrate the extraordinary any day and at any time.
On the other hand, La Famiglia Se Sienta a la Mesa point out that they have tried to maintain an institutional dialogue with the Italian embassy, without it being possible to formalize a meeting so far. They also say they maintain administrative actions in relation to the OEPM and are evaluating “the appropriate legal actions in defense of its interests due to its consolidated record of registration and renewal during all these years”.
The legal battle of The Mafia Sits at the Table
Last March, the resolution of the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office was announced, which approved the nullity of the trademark, pointing out, as stated in the published documents, that it is contrary ““both to public order and good customs”. “The main name directly reproduces the name of a real criminal organization, whose activity does not constitute a remote or merely literary phenomenon, but rather a persistent reality.“, noted the organization.
The decision was a new chapter in a process that began on February 18, 2025, promoted from the Italian Embassy in Spain. Before that, ambassador Buccino Grimaldi had already expressed his disagreement with the company’s name. In September 2023, he criticized the sponsorship agreement established between La Mafia Se Sienta a la Mesa and the Casademont Zaragoza basketball team, pointing out that “the Mafia represents a criminal phenomenon.”
When submitting the application, Italy alleged that the trademark referred to a criminal organization, the Mafia, which operates not only locally in Italy but globally, including Spain. They also pointed out that the most common crimes of said organization are, among others, drug and weapons trafficking, organized crime, piracy, money laundering, corruption of officials or murders.
They alleged the right to freedom of expression and how the term “Mafia” is used in other industries such as audiovisual or literary.
For their part, the company argued that the contested trademark came from the recipe book “The Mafia sits at the table”, and they also alleged the right to freedom of expression and how the term “Mafia” is used in other industries such as audiovisual or literary and how the Spanish public identifies said term as an allusion to a cultural phenomenon, rather than to a criminal organization.
The OEPM resolution agreed to the nullity of the brand due to its identification with the mafia, whose activities, the text indicated, are “contrary to the ethical and moral principles recognized not only in all Member States, but in all democratic societies“And he added: “The fundamental moral values of the EU and the Member States also prevent the registration of these types of signs as trademarks and their commercial exploitation, since the registration of these marks would deeply offend and disturb not only the victims and their families, but also anyone who shares these universal values.“.
The office’s resolution was aligned with that published in 2018 by the General Court of the European Union following the invalidity request presented by Italy before the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which declared the invalidity of the European trademark.
