More than 50 years ago in Southern California, a plumbing disaster filled a small screen as Fred Petragallo worked. “We need a brain surgeon!” one of the TV cartoon characters called as a sink overflowed, and the other replied, “No, we need a drain surgeon.”

When Petragallo moved to Richland and started his own drain service, repair and cleaning business, he called it exactly that: The Drain Surgeon.

The plumbing business has been around since 1974, and Eric Drury, current owner and close friend to Petragallo’s family, says there’s never a slow time of the year. 

When Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business staff compiles the public records section each month, sometimes a name listed on the business licenses will prompt a smile or a laugh.

The ones that catch our attention include puns, clever phrasing, unique spellings or just plain silliness. 

Choosing a name is a key part of launching a business. The Governor’s Office for Regulatory Innovation & Assistance’s Small Business Guide has advice for new business owners to consider: whether the name will work well in graphic design, whether the name is used elsewhere, and whether it will appeal to potential customers. 

Business names with a bit of levity check the box of appealing to customers.

We decided to take a closer look at some of the unusual and often humorous names used by businesses around the Tri-Cities.

Juan Ramirez thought the phrase “9-1-Juan” would make a funny, catchy name when paired with his work in pest control as an infestation often is an emergency for those who call for his services.

Owned and operated by Ramirez, 9-1-Juan Pest Control has been working to eradicate pests — spiders, bed bugs, cockroaches, mice and more — since June 2023. 

The name clearly has caught people’s attention as several have snapped photos of his truck, which is wrapped in 9-1-Juan’s logo, Ramirez said.

Juan Ramirez, owner of 9-1-Juan Pest Control, stands ready to respond to pest emergencies outside of his truck. 

| Photo by Rachel Visick

Another business also embraced a pun for its name, riffing on the phrase “black magic” with the establishment of Back Magic a year ago.

Owners Ned Stratton and Trevor Anderson sell back support pillows and other back-related products to local physical therapy offices and doctors. Anderson, who also is a physical therapist, gave Stratton a homemade pillow before the business was formed that he can attest had magical effects on his back.

Similarly, Positivi-Tea LLC’s punny name reflects owner Dyanna Corona’s sunny personality as well as her business: making and blending herbal teas. 

Though this name didn’t make her original list, a friend recognized its potential when Corona decided to put Positivi-Tea on a business card. She said it was “kind of like a happy accident.”

The puns don’t stop at the business’s name, either. Some of the teas, each with colorful, handwritten labels, boast names like, “Aller-Ease Tea” and “Boost The Immuni-Tea.”

Positivi-Tea LLC isn’t the only beverage-based business with a homophonic name. Cafenated, pronounced like “caffeinated,” is a coffee shop at 507 Ninth St., Benton City.

The cafe caters to however customers prefer to get their caffeine, from coffee to energy drinks.

Alex and Kylie Weber initially wanted to open their coffee shop when the pandemic was in full swing, creating a space where people could work from home. 

Though the cafe’s March 2023 opening was post-pandemic, “we kind of wanted to emphasize that it’s going to be a cafe in the sense that it’s not just rushing to come in, getting your coffee,” Alex Weber said.

Fast and Curryous had a different goal: the name of this Indian food truck is a play on the popular action movie series about street racing, “Fast and Furious,” said David Stenoien, one of the business owners, “but we also want to serve our food fast, and it’s curry.”

When Stenoien came up with the name, he said his partner Kavita Patel-Stenoien found it silly, but now “it’s kind of growing on her.”

Established in 2017 and found at a few regular spots each week, the food truck serves creative fusion foods that give the name an extra layer of dimension: it’s “curry-us.”

Owner Diana Michel chose a business name that represented her feelings (a hot mess) as she figured out the scope of her new venture. Hot Mess Ink Press creates cups, tumblers, shirts, apparel and custom orders by transferring designs onto various products using heat and pressure — the ink press part.

Though the business has evolved since its start in September 2023, most of its products, including those made for other local businesses, “still revolve around some form of printing and ink and some form of heat to transfer” the designs.

Heather Haigh, owner of Laughing Elephant Yoga and Wellness, sought a joyful name for her business. 

For her, it was an elephant, an image that had followed her since childhood, that brought that joy.

Because, as Haigh said, “Why not laugh more?”