A New Hampshire restaurant that’s preparing to open has removed an exterior sign advertising its name over concerns that it sounded like profanity.
The name of the Vietnamese restaurant is Pho Keene Great. It is in a public building next to City Hall in the town of Keene and is a play on a type of soup, which is spelled P-H-O, but is pronounced “fuh.”
In a press release, the restaurant said its name is supposed to be a double entendre and that they “wanted it to be all the things that a business would need to engage its audience: catchy, memorable, creative, fun and to make it a conversation piece about Vietnam’s most famous comfort food, phở.”
City Manager Elizabeth Dragon said it’s intended to sound like profanity and that owner Isabelle Jolie didn’t get permission to hang any sign.
Jolie said she doesn’t think the name is offensive.
Dragon tells New Hampshire Public Radio the city wants Jolie to be successful, but that it has to strike a balance. – READ MORE