We Suki Suki and the adjoining Qommunity food hall are no more in East Atlanta Village, at least in their present iterations, according to owner Quynh “Q “ Trinh. She retained the Qommunity space, dissolved that business, and rebranded it to Buford Hwy EAV and has taken on a new managing partner to run a business called Banh Mi 101. Trinh said she’s no longer handling day-to-day operations.
Qommunity and We Suki Suki closed abruptly on Feb. 28 after the businesses received an unexpected visit from the Environmental Health Division of DeKalb Public Health (DKPH). What transpired that day resulted in Trinh claiming she was selling the businesses to two current stall tenants and evicting two other stall tenants without notice.
The situation has since erupted into a tangled web of accusations, hearsay, and Trinh hastily proposing restaurant buyout agreements. Poke Burri, Lifting Noodles Ramen, and Las Tres Salsas remain in business.
How it began
Trinh said that on Feb. 28, DKPH inspectors walked into We Suki Suki during lunch. They “wanted to know how all of this works,” referring to how the businesses operate in the two spaces. She said the inspector never made the reason for the visit clear to her. Trinh said the DeKalb health department has “harassed” her and misplaced or incorrectly documented paperwork on file for her businesses for years. She blames continual personnel changes at DKPH and their lack of clear communication.
When contacted by Rough Draft on Feb. 29, a representative for DKPH said they visited to determine if the businesses had been miscategorized as restaurants. They suspected the spaces were operating as an “unlicensed shared kitchen.” Trinh said she holds permits from 2012 and 2015 for 477 and 479 Unit B Flat Shoals Ave. SE listing each space as a “permanent food service establishment.”
A shared kitchen – where multiple businesses operate and share equipment – must be inspected by the Georgia Department of Public Health’s Office of Environmental Health. It’s a multi-layered approval process. When inspected in the past by the county, the businesses received passing health scores. But, according to DKPH, they’ve had ongoing issues determining the correct permit status for the businesses for over five years. Further investigation by DKPH found that permits for the businesses were probably not in compliance with state guidelines.
DKPH said Trinh requested a variance approval at some point to operate a shared kitchen. The request was never approved. Trinh told DKPH she believed the variance was approved by “previous health officials.” Therefore, inspectors have been trying to “determine the validity” of Trinh’s claim and whether the businesses were operating beyond their permits, which requires multiple visits by the health department. The Feb. 28 visit provided inspectors with enough information to possibly move forward with a permit suspension.
They never asked Trinh to close the businesses because the investigation was ongoing and they wanted to discuss the matter further with her.
“Our goal was to get the owner in compliance with the food code, or if that was not possible, to issue a permit suspension until she was in compliance. It has been very difficult to get clear, consistent information from the owner,” the DKPH representative said.
Trinh said she’s been attempting to straighten out permitting for years with DKPH and since last Thursday’s visit. For two months prior to the Feb. 28 visit, she had been working with another inspector who is no longer employed at the department.
“I have attempted now 3 times since last week to talk with someone in charge of this matter at your organization but I have not heard back from anyone,” Trinh wrote in an email this week sent to DKPH in response to a 2022 email to the health department documenting permitting correspondence. “Please see the email below that will hopefully, in the least, show you my efforts through the years to work together in compliance and corroboration.”
Regardless of the permitting problems Trinh faces, the tenants involved in the Feb. 28 eviction from Qommunity said it doesn’t excuse what happened to them.
The aftermath
Qommunity stalls Tony’s Chicago Beef and Ruki’s Kitchen were swept up in the commotion on Feb. 28. Tony’s Chicago Beef owner Tony Kerr said it was a “chaotic” situation, resulting in Trinh telling him to pack up his stall and get out. He never spoke to the inspectors from the health department or knew why they were there until later.
“She kept saying that the health department was trying to shut us down. ‘They don’t understand I have a special permit.’ Something like that,” Kerr said of his communications with Trinh. “She told us to get out. But what does that mean for us? Do I get my deposit back? Then we get a text about changing the locks at 10 p.m. So I had to rush over there and grab all my stuff and was evicted in one night.”
Ruki’s Kitchen owner Ali Lemma wasn’t working at Qommunity until later in the afternoon on Feb. 28. Ruki’s handled dinner service at Qommunity where Lemma served Ethiopian food for the last two years. Lemma received several text messages from Trinh stating his stall was no longer in business at Qommunity and he needed to clear out his stall as soon as possible. Trinh claimed in the messages sent to Lemma that the health department had shut down the food hall.
Trinh then told Lemma there were also complaints against his business for improper ventilation, which was causing respiratory problems in two other employees at Qommunity. He asked to see the complaints, which Trinh never produced. She also told him she’d be watching him on camera while he closed his stall and wouldn’t be on site because she was “intimidated” by his size and didn’t feel safe. Lemma said the text messages show Trinh “acting in a very erratic manner.”
Lemma and Kerr pushed back on Trinh about closing their businesses without proper notice. Their contracts with Qommunity don’t expire for months and stipulate that they must be given 30 days’ notice. Trinh told Rough Draft on Feb. 29 that she explained to Kerr and Lemma about shutting down to figure out the permitting snafu.
But in a group text message sent by Trinh, she informed vendors of filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, to speak to her lawyer about their contracts, and that her businesses and spaces were being handed over to new owners. She also threatened to kill them if they came near her “again.”
Screenshots of texts between Trinh and Lemma on Feb. 28, which were posted to Ruki’s Instagram account, show a tense exchange. The post ends with a screenshot of a group text sent by Trinh informing the chefs of the bankruptcy and the threat. Lemma said both he and Kerr were told by Trinh that they would not be getting their security deposits back. Later she claimed they would receive the money and would receive a letter from her lawyer explaining next steps.
Kerr said he and Lemma received a letter from Trinh’s We Suki Suki email account written in the third person, not from a lawyer.
Trinh sent the email to Kerr and Lemma on March 3 informing them she was dissolving Qommunity “effective immediately” due to a “health emergency.” The email stipulated that Kerr and Lemma provide proof of their “current off-premise authorized health-permitted food facility in which you prep off-site” for the return of their $1,500 security deposit.
Trinh said Lemma and Kerr have been “uncooperative” and without “proper paperwork to legalize their operations, their entire contract with Qommunity is null and void.”
Kerr said they never cooked off-site as it would be “against health code” and that Trinh was “trying anything to not give us our deposit back.”
What’s next?
While Kerr has since landed a temporary residency for Tony’s Chicago Beef at Bookhouse Pub on Sundays, Lemma said the rug was pulled out from under him on that Wednesday afternoon. He’s trying to figure out what’s next for Ruki’s Kitchen and faces an uncertain future. The East Atlanta Village and Atlanta pop-up communities have rallied around Lemma to help raise funds for him and to find a place for Ruki’s Kitchen to operate.
“I’m no longer in business there due to reasons out of my control. But people need to know what was going on with her and deserve some transparency,” said Lemma of posting the text exchange with Trinh to Instagram. “She says there were three complaints against my business. I asked for proof of complaints. There’s no complaints. Me losing my business there is based on her whim.”
As for the futures of We Suki Suki and Qommunity, an earlier Facebook post by Trinh claimed the family behind Las Tres Salsas would take over the banh mi shop. The restaurant operates out of the We Suki Suki space. Trinh named Ken Yu and Seven Chan of Poki Burri and Lifting Noodles Ramen as the new owners of the Qommunity space. However, these claims and the legality of the business transfers remain uncertain.
Legal limbo
Rough Draft reached back out to Trinh regarding the status of the bankruptcy filing and transfer of ownership of the businesses. Trinh said the bankruptcy lawyer she contacted couldn’t handle her case and recommended dissolving the businesses to make it easier for her to sell. That’s when she emailed Kerr and Lemma about the dissolution of Qommunity. She will no longer handle day-to-day operations and will assist the new owners with navigating permitting as she works to close the books on Qommunity.
As of March 5, Trinh said Las Tres Salsa was the legal owner of the 479 Unit B space and is re-permitting and subleasing the space from her until they can pay off the purchase price. According to Trinh, Chan and Yu could not agree on the purchase price for Qommunity.
When reached for comment, Chan said he and Yu have been working to understand the situation surrounding Qommunity since the Feb. 28 visit from the health inspectors. They said an official statement would be released when more information becomes available. Poke Burri and Lifting Noodles Ramen remain in business at the space.
Las Tres Salsas has yet to return a request for comment.
Trinh said she will retain the Qommunity space and rename it Buford Hwy EAV, which was the food hall’s original tagline when it was known as Global Grub Collective. She said a new managing partner will also operate a new business called Banh Mi 101, along with Eatavision, which is Trinh’s dinner and a movie company.
“I am no longer part of anything operational at either address and I am complying with whatever agency that needs me,” Trinh said.
Determining the permitting status of the Flat Shoals Avenue spaces remains ongoing by DKPH.