Oppressive Rent Increase = 25 Year Old Business CLOSED!
A Farewell to Sophal and Tevy Nhep
Sophal and Nevy Nhep greeted scores of past customers and served “one last meal” to long time customers like these two women in front of their new Food Service truck replacing their Best Steaks and Gyros business at Chicago Crossings (Franklin Avenue/Chicago Avenue Intersection).
BY PETER MOLENAAR
Best Steaks and Gyros, an original tenant at the Chicago Crossings mall, due to an oppressive rent increase, is now CLOSED after 25 years. That the proprietor had achieved iconic status in the neighborhood, as was evidence by the gathered farewell throng on Friday September 15th.
One wonders how Sophal and Tevy met, given the exodus from war torn Cambodia in 1975. Phal would do a stint as an engineering student at the University of Minnesota before the couple reared their three children in Burnsville, MN while Phal was working as a production manager at the Bremer Corporation.
Why the move to this “neck of the woods?” Phal”'s answer: “I wanted to be my own boss!”
As for the farewell, we were numerous nationalities and every skin tone, all bound together by the presence of Sophal and Tevy.
Love was in the air.
