Sydney northern beaches acai bowl menu war turns ugly as Blessed Bowls, Freshwater owner calls in lawyers over ‘copycat’: Mr Gelato by Matteo says it did nothing wrong

The owner of an açaí bowl cafe on Sydney’s northern beaches who claims a rival store “copied” her store’s menu “almost word for word” has called in lawyers.

Blessed Bowls in Freshwater made headlines on Thursday after posting an angry letter in its window accusing a nearby dessert shop, Mr Gelato by Matteo, of copying its menu.

Matteo Dominici, co-owner of Mr Gelato, strongly denied he had done anything wrong.

‘They have no right to say I copied them, because everyone makes them [açaí bowls] so similar,” Mr Dominici told Daily Mail Australia.

“There are a lot of places on the strip [that] offer açaí bowls, but for some reason they’re against us – and I don’t know why.”

Blessed Bowl founder Ella Rose Stevenson (above) took to Instagram to break her silence after her note accusing a rival company of copying her menu went viral

A window sign at Blessed Bowls (pictured) went viral on Thursday for claiming the lovingly curated menu had been ripped off by Mr Gelato by Matteo

Blessed Bowlers founder Ella Rose Stevenson broke her silence on Friday in response to Mr Dominici’s statements.

“It was disappointing then about a month ago to see that one of our neighboring businesses, Mr. Gelato by Matteo, had a copy of our menu in his window and was selling exactly our products,” she began.

‘Both our acai bowls and our coco soft ice cream products. The names, ingredients, sizes and prices were exactly the same.’

“Many businesses around the Northern Beaches sell great acai products and we love being part of that community, but we have never copied each other’s products or menus and at BB we never will,” she added.

Ms Stevenson claimed she had already hired a lawyer in an attempt to get Mr Dominci to put his acai menu on the table.

“People have also asked why we put up the sign and didn’t contact our lawyers. Well, we did.

“Our lawyers sent a letter to Mr. G a few weeks ago asking him to remove our menu from his window and stop selling our exact products,” she said.

Mr. Gelato’s açaí bowl menu can be seen here

Blessed Bowl’s açaí menu can be seen here

Blessed Bowls has seven franchises in Sydney

Ms Stevenson said the rival owner had not responded but now appeared to have changed his menu.

“We never wanted to stop Mr. G from selling acai or soft serve, but we had to draw the line by copying our menu almost word for word,” she fumed.

The açaí bowl menu at Mr Gelato offers a number of items that are also available for purchase at Blessed Bowls.

Some ingredients are listed word for word, including the Biscoff Bowl açaí, Brownie açaí and Snickers açaí.

‘We offer a much wider range of açaí bowls and they are named after the main ingredient, not because we have copied them [Blessed Bowls],” Mr Dominici told Daily Mail Australia of the agreements.

Three months ago, he decided to add the berry dessert to his menu after his young customers kept asking if he served them.

Mr Gelato owner Matteo says there is enough business in Freshwater for other cafes to flourish

‘Açaí is the trend and goes well with gelato. Of course I’m going to offer it to my customers,” he said.

“They’re a big franchise; we are a small family business. I run this one and my sister runs the store in Collaroy,” he added.

“If we copy them, why have they opened another store near us, in Collaroy?”

Mr Dominici said there was enough business on the calm Lawrence Streep strip for all the businesses selling acai to flourish.

“There’s something for everyone to do on the strip, so let’s give our customers what they want,” he said.