A confusing fact about the Original Joe's brand in the Bay Area is that it actually belongs to two unrelated families — and if you bring in other "Joe's" restaurants in Marin and elsewhere, the picture is murkier.

The original Original Joe's in San Francisco has long been divorced from its once closer cousin in San Jose. But now that the San Jose Original Joe's has gone on the market, it's conceivable the brand name could be unified once again, though no one has suggested yet that this will happen.

As the Mercury News is reporting, Original Joe's in downtown San Jose just celebrated its 70th birthday, and the brothers who own the restaurant have decided to sell and retire. Brad Rocca, who at 68 is two years younger than the restaurant, and his brother Matt Rocca, 70, say they have no plans to close the restaurant, and they are looking for a buyer "who loves Joe’s as much as we do to take it into the next generation."

Their father, Louis Rocca Jr., was the son of one of the original owners of Original Joe's in San Francisco, which opened in 1937. Louis Rocca Sr. opened the San Jose restaurant in 1956 for his son to run, and it was ultimately purchased by his sons, who worked there since they were teenagers, in 1980, serving a similar — though different — menu of Italian-American classic cuisine as the San Francisco and Daly City restaurants. (The SF and Westlake branches are now owned by John and Elena Duggan, who are also third-generation owners, descended from Rocca's SF partner, Croatian immigrant Tony Rodin.)

A few years later, the Roccas sold their share of the San Francisco and Daly City restaurants to the Duggan family, and they've been separate operations from the San Jose restaurant ever since.

The Chronicle's resident historian Carl Nolte retold the whole Original Joe's saga last month, which includes the devastating 2007 fire that destroyed the original Taylor Street location in the Tenderloin, and the brand's resurrection by the Duggans in North Beach in 2012, followed by a splashy renovation of the Daly City branch, and the opening last year of a new Walnut Creek Original Joe's.

The siblings have also expanded the brand with Little Original Joe's, opening a small, takeout-focused location in West Portal, followed by a buzzy Marina location that opened in 2024.

Wouldn't they want to reunite the businesses and bring the San Jose location back into the fold? We'll have to wait and see.

Just to avoid confusion, Marin Joe's in Corte Madera, which always had similar branding, has never been related to Original Joe's, and was owned by a different family altogether who sold it to new owners last year. It remains closed for a major renovation. Also, San Rafael Joe's? No relation.