This pho restaurant is closing and the internet is not happy about it

A popular pho restaurant is closing Thursday and customers are already in mourning.

Pho 75 is at McKinley Avenue and First Street in the Mayfair Shopping Center. It’s often suggested when people ask for recommendations of where to get a big bowl of the Vietnamese soup made with noodles, meat, bean sprouts and other toppings.

A sign on the restaurant’s door announced the closing.

It says: “To Our Valued Customers, We are sad to inform you that after 26+ years in business, Pho 75 will be closing its doors. The last day will be January 18, 2018. We hope that you will join us for one last bowl of pho until then. We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your loyal patronage.”

Customers are sharing their disappointment on Facebook posts.

“It’s been sad. A lot of people have been coming in crying,” said owner Kim Vo.

She said the restaurant is closing “because of a lease dispute with the landlord. The landlord didn’t want to renew the lease with the owner.”

The landlord, however, said there’s more happening behind the scenes that he declined to share.

Pho 75’s lease expired Dec. 31 and center owner Ted Caldwell gave the restaurant an extra month. They have known for six months that the lease was expiring, he said.

“If my plans for the space do not work out, I may be willing to consider reopening negotiations with the Pho 75 family,” he said.

Caldwell has owned the center since 1980 and rebuilt parts of it – including a whole new building after one burned – and expanded the parking lot.

This story was originally published January 17, 2018 at 11:14 AM with the headline "This pho restaurant is closing and the internet is not happy about it."