The Melbourne cafe at the centre of a bullying controversy is facing a tough journey back to profitability as it struggles to separate itself from the tragic suicide of 19-year-old waitress Brodie Panlock.

Tribe Cafe, formerly Cafe Vamp, located in the inner city suburb of Hawthorn, recorded its best day of trade on Monday following last month’s court ruling that saw its former owner Marc Luis Da Cruz fined $250,000 for failing to halt the relentless bullying of Panlock, who later took her own life.

Amid a torrent of bad publicity, Michael DiMattina of the famous DiMattina restaurant clan purchased the business from Da Cruz for a knock down sum. DiMattina painted an “under new ownership” sign on the cafe’s window and continued to trade without any downtime.

But it seems locals have been slow to cotton on. In the weeks following the purchase, the cafe has been the target of abusive phone calls, a smashed front window, eggings, superglue in the locks and a vigilante leafletting campaign urging customers to “boycott Cafe Vamp”.

The cafe is also under fire on the iPhone application Foursquare. Visitors to the suburb are greeted with a “while you’re in the area, check out…” message featuring a report of the court case and a recommendation to avoid the premises.

Although the attacks have tapered off, and some regular customers have returned, marketing experts have questioned whether a change of ownership is enough to sever the cafe’s connection to its past.

On February 24, Stephen Downes from QBrand Consulting offered some free advice to Dimattina via his Twitter account:  “Never has an ‘Under New Management’ sign been more desperate or tragic than the one that has appeared at Café Vamp this week.”

DiMattina responded: “That’s a bit rough. How else can I communicate I’m the new owner and disassociate from the past? Happy to hear from you.”

Downes told DiMattina there was a crucial difference between re-opening and re-branding. “Sadly, some will interpret ‘Under new ownership’ as “same cafe, just a new owner” when you need them to think “totally new cafe”.

It seems DiMattina remains aware of the lingering opprobrium, Tweeting at Crikey‘s corporate PR specialist Trevor Young on February 24: “Trevor, Mr PR Warrior. I’m very new to Twitter but would love to connect with you as I have a particular PR issue!”

DiMattina defended his decision to maintain business as usual, telling Crikey he hadn’t closed the cafe because he wanted to maintain the wages of the cafe’s managers, none of whom had been involved in the bullying incident.

The last vestiges of the iconic Cafe Vamp signage were finally removed last Thursday and a new sign with the Tribe Cafe insignia will be erected soon to embed the new identity. “We’ve made a lot of headway in a short time…we have to rebuild this cafe from the ground up.”

DiMattina said his head chef had resigned last week and he was advertising the vacant position on Gumtree. He is also searching for another barista and sandwich staff with his family’s vaunted culinary network likely to be tapped for applicants.

Cafe Vamp’s arrogant culture, that included a sign advising patrons to “not complain about the noise” and Soup Nazi-style takeaway procedures, was likely to be softened to appeal to a new crowd.

“We’re going for a little bit of a Blue Train Cafe vibe and will welcome a wide range of demographics. It’ll be a completely different, we’re trying to recreate a bit of Brunswick Street in Glenferrie Road”.

Writing on the Justice for Brodie Panlock Facebook page, which is organising a petition to create an anti-bullying law, DiMattina maintained that the “change of ownership now removes ALL connection the cafe has to those responsible for this horrible situation.”

Meanwhile, Downes says that despite the branding faux pas, DiMattina should be given the benefit of the doubt by local residents as he begins to repair the business.