r/Eugene • u/RottenSpinach1 • Sep 19 '24
Da Nang Eugene is closing Food
From their Facebook page:
"Aye Da Nang Gang! It has been quite the journey old friends, and we appreciate you all sticking by us through thick and thin. After 10 years in the game, it’s time for us to hang up our hats. We can’t express enough gratitude for your support of this little lemonade stand over the years! We were blessed by many opportunities this business and community has given us. It was a true honor to serve you all, and we’ll miss you all. Thank you for all the lasting memories. We will continue to be open until the end of this month. This for the Eugene location, our Bend cart will be operating still. Please come use your gift cards and vibe with us one last time!"
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u/hoffsta Sep 19 '24
Dang man! I hope it’s not because they went broke after moving locations. Wish they would have stayed at Oregon Wine Lab, it was packed everyday.
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u/Puddles22 Sep 19 '24
It’s sad all these places are closing. Let’s hope for new restaurants and not more dispensaries. We have enough
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u/Least_Difference_905 Sep 19 '24
Guess it depends on what the people want
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u/washington_jefferson Sep 19 '24
Dispensaries are like mini markets in the West Eugene/Whit areas. Two too many in 10 block radius.
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u/kiwijuno Sep 19 '24
Aren’t they same owners as Same Same, which is also closing? Such a bummer!
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u/OculusOmnividens Sep 19 '24
Not even businesses can afford the rent. Look at all the empty storefronts all over town.
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u/Aolflashback Sep 19 '24
It’s so gross, on an economic and social level. The city does nothing, either, and just lets these buildings sit, “unoccupied” (ya know), graffiti and trash all around them while other businesses try to keep their business attractive, inviting, and safe.
Not to mention the apartments and homes that are surrounded by these shite, “empty” businesses. (So awesome when ‘luxury’ apartments boast ‘close to downtown restaurants and businesses!’ Like WHAT?).
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u/CommercialGur3015 Sep 19 '24
What is the city supposed to do in circumstances like this? I agree they've massively dropped the ball with land use policies and development incentives, leading to high rents a housing market that has far outpaced earnings, but many of the other conditions are macro and national.
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u/WoeVRade Sep 19 '24
They are supposed to cut administrative overhead and unnecessary regulations, taxes, and fees, get the damn homeless out of the business hubs and storefronts, and stop nickle-and-diming every business who already is getting their blood drained by never-ending increases to their insurance premiums because of the crime rates. Stop coddling drug addicts and start coddling business owners who actually provide jobs and opportunity for the community.
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u/CommercialGur3015 Sep 19 '24 edited Sep 19 '24
I still think most of these things are tied either to housing or national and even global trends. You can't police your way out of pervasive economic disparity. We'd just be spending ever increasing sums of public money on bigger and bigger jails and more and more cops. Doesn't sound like a nice society to me.
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u/Aolflashback Sep 19 '24
There is a lot the city can do/enforce. National/state rules and laws don’t necessarily supersede city laws, look at tenant rights or worker rights, for example.
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u/CommercialGur3015 Sep 19 '24
What tenant and worker rights laws at the city level would help fill vacant storefronts?
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u/Aolflashback Sep 20 '24
What? That’s not what I said, I was using those as examples of rules/laws that differ from nation vs. city. Hence the “for example.”
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u/Casdoe_Moonshadow Sep 19 '24
They also own Same Same which is closing. I guess they are getting out of the food business entirely.
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Sep 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/mangofarmer Sep 19 '24
Bend is pro-business and growing rapidly. Eugene is stagnating and becoming less attractive.
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u/PixiePanicMarket Sep 19 '24
Bend, Portland Ashland feel like Eugene is on fire.
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Sep 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/PixiePanicMarket Sep 19 '24
Definitely feels that way. I know things are bad all over the country ATM but Eugene is especially feeling like a ghost town. My group hosts events and pop ups but there's hardly any venues or people left to host at. Wildcraft is leaving, The Comic shop moved to 5th Street most of the places around downtown are shut down or hardly ever open. Anyways I degrees just a little tangent.
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u/duck7001 Sep 19 '24
Bottom line, Eugene is not business friendly. Just look at our complete lack of hotel rooms as an example. We have very low vacancy and still cant get more hotels to open due to the permits departments red tape. This happens in countless industries in the area but the City takes no proactive approaches to make the process easier…. So businesses move.
Eugene is where mediocrity comes to thrive.
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u/PixiePanicMarket Sep 19 '24 edited Sep 19 '24
Yep I have to agree with you. Eugene is basically just a ghost hippie town at this point. There's nothing to keep folks here other than if they have family, or are lucky enough to have been grand fathered in with cheaper rent before they hiked it up to basically the same price as Portland (give or take). There's good folks here not shitting on our community but when there's no downtown in a metro that's better 200k-400k (depending on how far you consider the Eugene Springfield metro to count as) there's something wrong.
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u/duck7001 Sep 19 '24
Basically we need to start electing people who can get shit done, not Progressives who were in charge some random ass non profit that gives them zero insight into the needs of the local economy.
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u/pirawalla22 Sep 20 '24
Do people think there aren't enough hotel rooms here? Didn't we add a ton of hotel rooms before the track and field championships?
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u/duck7001 Sep 20 '24
There literally are not enough hotel rooms. Anytime there is an event, everything sells out.
Example, Ohio State fans bought all the hotel rooms in eugene the weekend of that game, over a year ago.
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u/Much-Repair6278 Sep 19 '24
One thing no one talks about is how the traditional weed market used to help keep these businesses afloat. There was a lot more cash being thrown around at small restaurants when everyone was making good money growing and slanging packs
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u/Zaliukas-Gungnir Sep 19 '24
I never went there, but it is always sad when small businesses go away. I have had a few friends liquidate or sell businesses to move out of states in the last few years. Unfortunately that takes jobs with them, as they will more than likely be opening new businesses in their new home states and hiring people there.
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u/GameOverMan1986 Sep 20 '24
Fire Marshall is applying new rules to food carts on January 1st. Might see many close, depending on how/if they enforce.
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u/Mimosa_13 Sep 19 '24
Nooo! They are an all time fave of mine. Must go before the end of the month. I will miss them.
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u/IPAtoday Sep 19 '24
Most restaurants here just aren’t really that good tbh, and especially don’t justify the high prices. Even in a normal economy, most restaurants close within the first couple of years. I never tried DaNang so can’t speak to their situation specifically. I rarely eat out now just because it’s so damn expensive. But when I do it tends to be Mexican food trucks which are about the last decent value left around here.
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u/CommercialGur3015 Sep 19 '24
Part of the problem is the expectations the restaurants have to cater to. You can only be so good when a third of your patrons are boomer yokels who've been eating the same 5 meals for 30 years.
I remember kung fu bistro used to have to remind people like 3 times that their chicken dish had bones in it because so many people complained or sent the dish back. And people complained to the staff that their traditional Sichuan dishes had too much oil.
Not hard to think maybe Eugene doesn't deserve better food.
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u/IPAtoday Sep 19 '24
Kung Fu Bistro was a fave. Very sad to see them go. They did a pickled chilies dish that was 🔥
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u/refriedgreens22 Sep 20 '24
One of the most unsanitary kitchens in Eugene. Their health dept scores were always terrible. Good riddance to these types of restaurant owner/hacks who can’t make the effort to serve safe food.
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u/LongjumpingSyrup1365 Sep 19 '24
You can really see this on the FB foodies page. Complaints about prices, service, portions. People’s expectations are really out of whack!
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u/IPAtoday Sep 19 '24
Really? I left that group because it was such a Hooray for Everything page. People going on about their mediocre spots as though they were world beaters.
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u/bowls4noles Sep 19 '24
Favorite food truck in Eugene
What's the next best Vietnamese spot????
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u/mangofarmer Sep 20 '24
There’s no good Vietnamese in Eugene anymore. Vietnam 1 is the “best” and it’s not very good.
Gotta go up to Portland for the real deal.
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u/pirawalla22 Sep 20 '24
Everybody wants to say this is a result of taxes or supply chain issues or "Eugene's terrible business environment" or "terrible restaurant environment" or wage laws or government regulation. Maybe it is!
But also, sometimes people just decide to move, or change businesses or refocus their businesses. I don't know these people; maybe they just want to live full time in Bend. Maybe they are planning a new venture in Eugene. Nobody here yet seems to have any insight into that.
A restaurant in my neighborhood that I absolutely loved closed a few years ago and I remember a similar thread happening on this sub. But it was closing because the owner was retiring. I'm sure he also found the restaurant environment tough and probably didn't love taxes and regulations, but he also had a successful restaurant for many years, and a new one opened in the same spot a few months later that is still there. I am not worried that Eugene is going to run out of food trucks or restaurants, even despite how hard a business it is.
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u/crazyscottish Sep 19 '24
What…….?!
OMG.
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u/crazyscottish Sep 19 '24
Oh. They are keeping their Bend location.
Looks like they’re living full time on the desert side of the cascades
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u/Sane-Philosopher Sep 20 '24
Can’t say I blame them
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u/uwfan893 Sep 24 '24
I just moved back to Eugene from Bend. Bend sucks too in most of the same ways Eugene does, except that it's fuckin freezing half the year. Better here.
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u/Internal-Month9675 Sep 20 '24
Danangit! I really love their food and the staff are always so friendly
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u/666truemetal666 Sep 23 '24
Man I really love their food but this is the second time in a week I ordered online and they wereeither closed or just didn't make my food.... probably the 6th time in a year. Maybe stuff like this is why. If I didn't live around the corner I would of gave up already
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u/No_Appointmentz Sep 20 '24
They were overpriced and overrated to begin with. Banh mi sandos are supposed to be cheap because the ingredients in it are cheap. Those types of sandwiches should NEVER cost more than five bucks. Some folks out here are taking advantage of the current price gouging climate within the food service industry. Volume sales will always outperform high ticket sales in the long run
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u/mangofarmer Sep 20 '24
Bahn Mi haven’t been under $5 for 3-4 years. Even An Xuyen in Portland is $6.50 now.
Restaraunts are literally going out of business. It’s not price gouging, it’s inflation.
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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '24
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