The craft cocktails have names like the Straight Razor and Hot Towel Margarita.

Conversation pieces include a red barber chair from the 1950s and a striped barber pole near the entrance, which has no other signage and is tucked away down an alley.

But the owners of this bar in Omaha were told by the state of Nebraska that they could not name the establishment, which occupies the same space where their father cut hair for decades, the Barber Shop Blackstone.

Why?

Because they were not licensed barbers, according to the Nebraska Board of Barber Examiners, which told the owners that the “barbershop” moniker was trademarked, along with the signature barber pole.

So this week the bar’s owners, threatened with “civil and criminal consequences,” temporarily renamed the business the Censored Shop Blackstone while their lawsuit against the state, filed in February, plays out in federal court.

“I never, in a million years, thought the state Board of Barber Examiners would come after us,” Mike DiGiacomo, one of the owners, said in an interview on Wednesday.

Nebraska’s attorney general, which is representing the board in the lawsuit and is also named as a defendant, declined to comment on the case. The office referred to a brief it filed in March protesting the bar’s naming, which it said violated Nebraska’s Barber Act.

“Barbering is an ancient and proud profession, and their symbols have long been reserved for their sole use for the benefit of public health and safety,” the brief said. “Plaintiff has chosen to use these symbols in a knowingly deceptive fashion that violates Nebraska law and infringes on the Barber Board’s trademarks.”

Mr. DiGiacomo, 53, and his siblings opened the barbershop-themed establishment in March 2025 in Omaha’s Blackstone District, in a building that for roughly 30 years housed DeComo’s Hair Fashions, the salon of their father, Don DiGiacomo, who died in 2022 at age 88.

For years, the DiGiacomos operated an Italian-themed speakeasy in the space, then rebranded it last yearto pay tribute to the man known as “Don the Barber.” (Technically, the family patriarch was a cosmetologist, not a barber, the younger Mr. DiGiacomo noted.)

“People loved it,” he said. “Everything was going great.”

Until about a month later, when Mr. DiGiacomo said he received a certified letter from the Board of Barber Examiners, Nebraska’s licensing authority for the profession.

“It has come to our attention that this business markets itself using the barber shop title, barber poles and images of barber poles,” Kenneth J. Allen, the board’s director, wrote. “This letter is to inform you that such practices violate Nebraska law and invite you to amend the business’s advertising.”

Nine days after that, Mr. DiGiacomo responded to the board, saying in a letter that the bar was not intending to provide barbering services or apply for a license. In the letter, he said his family’s business was hoping to discuss a resolution about using the name and its marketing activities.

“When I opened that letter, I was in shock,” Mr. DiGiacomo said of the initial notice, adding that he had sought and received approval from Nebraska’s secretary of state to use the Barber Shop Blackstone name.

The secretary of state’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. A business recording search on the office’s website showed that the trade name was registered on March 10, 2025, and canceled on April 25, 2025, though it was unclear whether the state had canceled it.

Last June, Mr. DiGiacomo received another letter from Board of Barber Examiners, vowing to initiate legal proceedings against his business if it did not make changes.

“We reiterate that violations of the Barber Act carry both civil and criminal consequences,” the letter said. “Litigation can be an expensive and time-consuming process. The Board is obligated to defend the Barber Act and its trademark.”

The bar’s owners resorted to legal action of their own, accusing state officials in a lawsuit filed in February in U.S. District Court in Omaha of infringing on their First Amendment rights by blocking the “Barber Shop” name.

The owners are being represented by the First Amendment Clinic at the University of Nebraska College of Law. On Tuesday, the Institute for Justice, a national nonprofit public interest law firm, said that it was joining the legal fight on behalf of the bar’s owners.

“The government can regulate a business’s name to protect consumers from fraud or confusion, but it doesn’t have a free hand to take words out of the dictionary and put them under the control of a state board,” Robert McNamara, the group’s deputy litigation director, said in a statement.

Maura Scali-Sheahan, the chief executive of the National Association of Barber Boards of America, said in an interview on Wednesday that the organization supported the actions of Nebraska officials.

“It’s about keeping the integrity of the profession alive,” she said.

The drinking establishment in Omaha is not the first speakeasy to adopt such a moniker. In Sydney, Australia, the Barber Shop has been voted the country’s “best gin bar” for four consecutive years, according to its website. It’s hidden behind a working barbershop.