Effective way to get restaurant to change the name of a menu item.

Personally, I don't see what the problem is. You can mount a public campaign against them, but that may well have the opposite effect of drawing more attention to the matter. There's always going to be things in the world that you don't like or agree with. That is what the marketplace is for. You may not like pornography, but the reality is that there is a huge market for pornography. You may not like this sense of humour, but if it works for the restaurant – if there is a market for it – I do not see why they would change it. Thus, the best solution is to vote with your feet – and by your feet I mean your wallet. Don't patron the establishment. Write management a letter letting them know why you are not spending money at the establishment. Find a restaurant with a menu that doesn't offend you and spend your money there.

There's always going to be things in the world that you don't like or agree with Perhaps you missed the part where the restaurant compares its sauce to a vagina. For consumption. Barbecue is a particularly male world. The menu is making a joke 'hehehe we said pussy! On our menu! Pussies are delicious!' And you know what? In the right circumstances, they are. But not as a comparison to barbecue sauce. They are delicious in their own right and only to be enjoyed by those invited to partake. The offensiveness is not removed just because it's not a super super common term. Now. To actually answer the question. Yes, send an email to the owner of the restaurant. There is a small chance the name was suggested, maybe by the pit master or sauce guy. It's remotely possible the the owner doesn't know the meaning of the word. Give him the benefit of the doubt. Then onto social media.

Am I misreading the Google results, or is "Sweet Poontang" actually the name given to the sauce by the sauce manufacturer (http://www.bdgrilling.com/sauces.html), rather than a name hung on it by the individual restaurants? (I don't want to hotlink it.) I think the restaurants are just straightforwardly saying it's BBQ made with that brand of sauce.

The photos on their Facebook page feature of picture of the owner's young daughter, standing in front of the food truck menu board with her head (conveniently? ironically?) blocking out the offending word. Their urbanspoon page classifies the new brick-and-mortar joint as "kid friendly" and the whole vibe (aside from the sauce name and the daisy dukes in the logo for the sauce-and-rubs side of the business) seems to be more family-friendly/backyard barbecue than Hooters. The angle I would take would be to write to the owner and describe the awkward scenario of taking your favorite little (fictional if necessary) niece "who's just about your daughter's age" out to enjoy that great "family friendly" barbecue and facing the question: "what's a poontang, Aunt Maggie?"

Write a Yelp review, saying something like, it's a nice place, but too bad you could never take your family or a date there because they gave some of the dishes some pretty vulgar names. I doubt one Yelp review would touch off a ton of social media publicity. And, business owners can get crazy about bad reviews. I remember once I posted a bad review purely just to warn other people away from one place. It didn't even occur to me that anything might come of it, but they contacted me through the site and I actually got a few hundred dollars refunded. Pretty shocking.

Have you tried contacting the management directly? You don't have to be a jerk about it, just let them know that the menu item bothered you and that you think it could be bad for business. You could do this in person or through email if you can find one. If they're unresponsive, then I agree that Yelp is a good platform. I work for a small, local restaurant and we take Yelp reviews very seriously. But personally I wouldn't complain publicly without first approaching the management in private - give them a chance to respond, especially since it's a new place.

Kid friendly should include non-offensive names of the food, for crying out loud. Just calmly contact the manager/owner and express how much you like tye food but find the name offensive. Don't get mad, just tell them flatly how you feel.

Communicated with the owner today. It basically came down to him saying that the restaurant would call their products whatever they wanted and market it however they wanted. Which is fine. I don't disagree about him being able to name the product how he wants. I just wanted him to consider the context of having the product on a menu at a kid-friendly place. I don't actually think he thought about the context one little bit but that's up to him and I just won't go to the place. I'm not going to turn it into some kind of hate-filled fight or anything. (In the meantime, over the weekend somebody (not me) complained about the same issue on urbanspoon.) This bums me out because I really do like supporting local businesses. Thanks to everyone again for your answers. I think I was mostly wanting to get myself away from having a loud knee-jerk reaction.

Sweet Poontang BBQ is a dog whistle in bro-speak. If that marketing works for this place's target audience then I don't think you are going to get them to change it. Negative publicity at this point would be good publicity, because even in the unlikely event the masses gathered their pitchforks and converged on its physical or online site, they could just change the name and be the good guys. Your best bet, IMHO, is to work out if there is a [female, probably] market for this place that is potentially put off by the bro-speak. If there is, and you can make the case, then you can write or speak directly to them about the commercial impact of their marketing. Put simply, they are alienating an audience of x size. They would have to agree that the real missed audience existed, and that it outweighed the group of people for whom the Poontang name is part the appeal. I don't think you're going to succeed here, but if you want to give it a shot then I'd lay it out in commercial terms, politely, and add how much you and people like you would like to patronise their restaurant.