After 36 years in Uptown, Vietnamese restaurant Kinhdo will close Sunday
This is a brief history of Kinhdo, a Vietnamese restaurant in Uptown, Minneapolis. It was established in 1986 by the grandparents of the current owner, who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam.
Kinhdo in Uptown, a famous Vietnamese restaurant, announced last week that it would close on Sunday, April 30, after enduring a difficult year.
Jonathan Rowe, son of the owners, created a GoFundMe in February last year to save the restaurant's unpaid rent. The restaurant had never experienced this problem during its nearly four decades of operation. After the initial outpourings of support, the restaurant faced more challenges that led to the closure.
According to Rowe’s Thursday update, the restaurant’s heating unit failed in December. It was too expensive to repair. One of the restaurant's employees quit after three months of no heat.
"My mom decided that she did not want to do business with a landowner who had no regard for his tenants. She was in negotiation with the landlord for the termination of the lease. My mother hoped to close by the end of the summer. She discussed her exit strategy with employees. Unluckily, one employee quit. KinhDo already had a short staff, but my mother would not be able to run the restaurant without the help of that employee," Rowe wrote in the GoFundMe account, which now accepts donations to support the employees who have lost their job.
Rowe's grandfathers, who had immigrated from Vietnam to the U.S. in 1986, opened Kinhdo in Uptown. They operated the restaurant for almost 30 years, before passing it on to Rowe's mother Dathao Phan.