State Serves Up Exception For First Bank Of Pizza ‘No One Has Ever Come In Here Thinking This Was A Bank’

A pizza parlor in this small town had government officials scratching their heads this month.

They were not sure what to do about the First Bank of Pizza, a restaurant with the word “bank” in its name - a clear violation of Idaho law.

Fortunately for Zana Sherman, the pizza parlor owner, the answer was nothing.

She recently received a letter from the secretary of state’s office promising not to prosecute her for violating a statute that prohibits the use of “bank” in a business name if the business is not a national bank.

Sherman’s dilemma started when she applied for her yearly beer and wine licenses in early December. Her county application came back with a form for her to fill out called a “Certificate of Assumed Business Name.”

She sent it in and was soon notified the parlor’s name would not work because it violated state law. “No one has ever come in here thinking this was a bank,” Sherman said,

She hired an attorney and contacted Moscow Republican Rep. Tom Trail. After a flurry of letters to at least three state government offices and the Latah County commissioners, Sherman received her beer and wine licenses in the mail, as well as a letter promising no prosecution.

“If they were going to get stinky, I was going to pull out the dictionary and tell them exactly how many meanings of bank there are,” she said.

Sherman has owned the 21-year-old pizza business since 1988 and the building it is in since 1995.

It used to be home to the First Bank of Juliaetta, which was founded at the turn of the century, before it became the town’s post office and then the pizza parlor.