Le Cheval Evicted, Bids Adieu To Downtown Oakland Tonight

Tonight will be the last night of business for Vietnamese institution Le Cheval in downtown Oakland. According to owner Son Tran, his landlord Monica Ung has been trying to evict and close Le Cheval for quite some time now. Ung sued Tran and his partners for a breach of contract and recently won in court, so the restaurant will be evicted next week. A jaunt down memory lane shows Tran's mother Christine, who opened Le Cheval at 14th and Jefferson street in 1985. The family then signed the lease at its current location in 1994, so the closure here truly marks the end of an era on Clay Street. In the past week, Tran was forced to dissolve his LLC and lay off many employees, but there's a bit of a silver lining. Son's son Quan will open a wine bar and restaurant called LCX down the street in the next week. Some of the cooks at Le Cheval will be able to stay on and work there. And the family's Le Cheval restaurants in Berkeley and Walnut Creek will remain open as Son Tran looks to open another restaurant in Dublin or North Oakland. "I love Oakland," says Son. "We came here when the neighborhood was very very bad and we stuck with it."

[Photo: Flickr/brady frequent traveler and eater]