Vietnamese Restaurant Forced To Close Because A Neighbor Complained About The Smell
Restaurants close for a variety of reasons, from lack of customers to rising rent costs. Shockingly, a restaurant in Portland, Oregon, was forced to close this month because of the smell of its cooking.
The newspaper Willamette Week reports that Pho Gabo, a Portland Vietnamese restaurant, closed one of its locations because of complaints from an anonymous neighbor about the restaurant's smell.
“Due to the city’s and the neighborhood’s complaints about the smell of the food that we grill and the foods that we serve customers we are temporarily closing this location," read a sign taped to Pho Gabo's door.
The closure is the result of a months-long ordeal involving an unnamed neighbor who regularly filed complaints to the city about the odor coming from the restaurant. The person claimed that Pho Gabo was violating a zoning code that prohibits “continuous, frequent, or repetitive odors” that could affect neighbors.
"The city got a complaint from one of the neighbors that every time they come out, they can’t stand the smell of the grill and the meat," Pho Gabo owner Eddie Dong shared with Willamette Week.
In the year and a half since the city was contacted about the smell—the restaurant had previously been complaint-free for five years—inspectors have made a dozen visits to the restaurant. One inspector in particular noted that the restaurant smelled "like a wok dish," which seems normal for a Vietnamese restaurant.
With mounting unpaid fines from zoning code violations, Dong was forced to close the restaurant on February 3.
Despite the odor complaints, Pho Gabo had received many positive reviews from customers.
"This place has had reliably good, delicious, wholesome Vietnamese food. When I went today to grab some salad rolls, I saw this picture posted. I can’t believe this," wrote one Google user after discovering the restaurant had closed.
Other reviewers praised Pho Gabo for its "crazy good" and "extremely solid and delicious" food.
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