Shawn Walchef did not get the name right the first time. Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. It took five tries to land on the name that now anchors everything from restaurants to media to social platforms. Each change came with lessons that most operators only learn the hard way.
“I thought naming was just a creative exercise,” Walchef said. “I didn’t realize it would shape everything that came after.”
When Walchef took over an existing breakfast restaurant in 2008, the goal was expansion. Add a liquor license. Add dinner service. Add a sports bar. But there was a problem hiding in plain sight. The name. The restaurant was called Country Choice. It worked for breakfast, but it did not work for where the business was going.
The First Try
The first rename came quickly. California Comfort Restaurant and Sports Bar was descriptive and intentional, built around clarity and search. Walchef wanted people to know exactly what the business was. A restaurant. A sports bar. Comfort food. California style. But customers do not talk like that, and the name proved too long to travel.
“The longer the name, the harder it is to share,” he said. “If people can’t repeat it easily, they won’t.”
So California Comfort Restaurant and Sports Bar became Cali Comfort. The shift was immediate. Radio ads worked better. Word of mouth improved. People could say the name without stopping to breathe. Recognition began to build, and the brand finally started to stick.
As the business evolved, the name had to evolve with it. Barbecue became the focus, not just part of the menu but the mission. Cali Comfort turned into Cali Comfort Barbecue, a name that carried the brand for nearly a decade through growth, awards, and a growing reputation across San Diego.
But expansion exposed another issue. As new locations and ghost kitchens rolled out, clarity mattered more than ever. Friends joked that the name sounded like a mattress store. One friend in particular would not let it go.
“He kept telling me we don’t sell mattresses,” Walchef laughed. “It was funny. But it also stuck.”
Shortening The Name
Eventually, the decision became obvious. Comfort was vague. Barbecue was not. The name was shortened again, this time to its final form. Cali Barbecue.
The impact went far beyond the sign on the building. Social handles, Google profiles, Yelp listings, and media brands all aligned under one clear identity. Cali Barbecue Media followed naturally. One name. One handle. One place people could find the brand wherever they looked.
“When you own the name, everything compounds,” Walchef said.
How To Get The Name Right
That clarity revealed the real risk many operators overlook. Names that mean something deeply personal can still work against growth if they are hard to pronounce, remember, or share. Meaning matters, but memorability matters more.
“If people can’t remember it, you’re making it harder on yourself,” Walchef said.
The lesson is simple, even if it is not easy. Choose clarity over cleverness. Choose memorability over sentiment. Choose a name that people can share without explaining.
A restaurant name is not just branding. It is infrastructure. Get it right, and everything downstream moves faster. Get it wrong, and you may spend years fixing it.
Walchef knows because he did. Five times.
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