Mark Brinkerhoff got his first job at 13 years old, working in the men’s locker room at the Castle Pines Golf Club.
Now 41, he’s found himself embroiled in a legal conflict with the überexclusive club that once employed him over a hummingbird logo.
“Unfortunately, it’s not a fight we were looking for,” Brinkerhoff said. “It’s one that found us.”
The Brinkerhoff family has owned La Loma, a Denver Mexican institution, since the 1980s with locations in downtown Denver and Castle Rock. Mark and his father William Brinkerhoff also opened Sierra Restaurant, an upscale wood-fired grill, in 2017 in Lone Tree’s RidgeGate Commons. And last year, they debuted Caldéro, featuring Southwestern fare, in McGregor Square.
Mark and his wife Jo recently decided to branch off on their own to open their first solo project in Castle Rock. In 2022, they bought a 2.5-acre lot between La Loma and the Starbucks at the Promenade at Castle Rock and started construction on a bar and restaurant last summer.
They plan to open The Brinkerhoff, an upscale steakhouse, and Bar Hummingbird at The Brinkerhoff, a cocktail lounge and events venue, at 6373 and 6371 Promenade Parkway by the end of the year.
“The Brinkerhoff is a way to honor my heritage and pay homage to the American spirit,” Mark said. The cocktail lounge, on the other hand, is a nod to his wife Jo’s roots in Chihuahua, Mexico. The hummingbird is a “symbol of love and hope in the face of adversity” in Mexican culture, he added.
But this summer, after nearly $7.5 million spent and near the end of construction, Mark and his wife were slapped with two cease-and-desist letters from Castle Pine Golf Club. “They told us they would sue us if we proceeded,” Mark said.
Castle Pines Golf Club, located four miles away from The Brinkerhoff and Bar Hummingbird at The Brinkerhoff, uses a hummingbird in its logo. The private club owns a federal trademark registration for the hummingbird design under “country club services,” while Bar Hummingbird at the Brinkerhoff falls under the “bar services” category, according to legal documents.
Mark and Jo originally planned to call their cocktail lounge and events venue Bar Hummingbird but added “at The Brinkerhoff” to the title after receiving the first cease-and-desist letter from Castle Pines Golf Club in May this year “to try to be conciliatory with them,” Mark said. They said they made Mike MacAdams, Castle Pines Golf Club’s vice president and chief financial officer, aware of their plans. And in June 2023, the Castle Rock Town Council held a public hearing to approve a $500,000 economic incentive loan to facilitate the development and construction of the “hummingbird event center.”
“…We have held numerous discussions with Mr. Brinkerhoff to discuss our concerns and try to resolve the issue,” Castle Pines Golf Club’s MacAdams wrote in a statement to The Denver Post. “We were surprised and disappointed that he opted to file a lawsuit against the Club rather than working together to find an amicable solution. The Club will continue to protect its registered Hummingbird trademark as it is one of the most recognized brands for hospitality and golf in the Castle Pines/Castle Rock area and worldwide.”
Bar Hummingbird at The Brinkerhoff’s logo includes the name and a singular watercolored hummingbird with wings outstretched. Castle Pines Golf Club’s logo features two hummingbirds in profile view with no words.
Even so, Mark and Jo received a second cease-and-desist letter from Castle Pines Golf Club last month, demanding that the couple stop using the hummingbird image in connection with “bar services,” or legal action would be taken.
So in order to protect themselves from the lawsuit threat, they filed a complaint with the Denver District Court this month to receive a declaratory judgment that the Bar Humminbird at the Brinkerhoff logo does not infringe or dilute the Castle Pines Golf Club logo.
“We tried to have some discussions with them to find some amicable resolution, but they were very resistant to any of that and we were under threat of, you know, abandon what you’re doing or face legal action,” Mark said. “This was the hand we were forced to file.”
“This isn’t backed by Mark’s dad or his family,” Jo added. “This is everything we have that we’ve put into this project on our own. We had to go through a bunch of hoops to do this by ourselves, and we want to fight for this because we don’t need any more hurdles to jump over.”
