A restaurant owner is suing Oregon's largest city over what his attorneys are calling biased and "selective enforcement" of an odor code, which ultimately drove his restaurant out of business.

Eddie Dong and his Vietnamese restaurant Pho Gabo were treated differently because of "their race and/or national origin and because their business activities reflected such characteristics," according to a lawsuit filed Dec. 11 in Multnomah County, which includes Portland.

The $2.4 million lawsuit names the city of Portland, where Dong owned and operated Pho Gabo from 2018 until early 2024. He also has two other locations elsewhere in Oregon that remain open.

The city declined to comment on the pending litigation in an email Dec. 13 to McClatchy News.

The lawsuit centers on an "odor code" passed in 1991 that banned "continuous, frequent, or repetitive odors" that could be detected for more than 15 minutes a day, the suit said.

The city council in November approved updates to the code, according to the city's website. But as originally written, the code "provided no standard for what constitutes an odor or any other direction to ascertain how an entity could comply with its requirements," and, "if taken literally," would mean "virtually any restaurant that cooked food on location" was in violation, the suit said.

Pho Gabo's odor code trouble started in March 2022, when an anonymous citizen filed a complaint with the city saying Dong's restaurant repeatedly produced grilled meat smells, the lawsuit said. The person then filed several more formal and informal complaints over two years, "including at least four voicemails, at least one monthly complaint observation log, and at least one email," according to the lawsuit.

Before that, Pho Gabo didn't have any complaints on record with the city, the suit said.

The city started odor inspections at the restaurant in September 2022, and it issued a notice of violation on Sept. 29, after an inspector "determined that repeated odors were being emitted in violation of the Odor Code," according to the lawsuit.

Over the following months, Dong and Pho Gabo "frequently engaged" with the city and took steps to get rid of any "detectable odors," the lawsuit said.

From April through early June of 2023, inspections turned up no odor issues, the lawsuit said. Then on June 10, an inspector reported odors at noon, and Dong and Pho Gabo were warned that "continued odors would result in fines," according to the suit. The anonymous complainant also was encouraged "to log their observations," the lawsuit said.

In November, fines started piling up, with inspection notes framing the smells "as 'like a Wok dish,' 'like a WOK [sic] meal,' and 'smells from the wok.'" the lawsuit said.

Meanwhile, Dong and Pho Gabo took steps to cut down on any odors, including consulting with contractors, having the air filtration and exhaust system professionally cleaned, exploring an upgrade to the filtration system, making changes to its schedule for preparing and grilling meat, and preparing and grilling meat and other "aromatic" food elsewhere and then bringing it pre-cooked to the Portland location, according to the lawsuit.

This led to "various costs and a decline in food quality and sales," and the city continued issuing fines and the anonymous person's complaints kept driving inspectors back to the restaurant, the lawsuit said. The city said the fines would keep being issued until Dong and Pho Gabo put in a new, costly air filtration system, but there were no assurances from the city that the cycle of complaints and fines would stop, according to the lawsuit.

Eventually, the city paused odor code enforcement after public outcry, but it didn't rescind prior fines or reimburse Dong and Pho Gabo, the lawsuit said.

"In a last-ditch effort to save his business, Mr. Dong simply asked (the city) for minimal assurances that (he and the business) would not be subject to the selective enforcement of the Code in the future," but the city wouldn't agree, according to the lawsuit.

Dong shuttered the location in early 2024, although his lease runs until January, the lawsuit said. Despite the restaurant's closure, the city issued a fine on March 1, the suit said.

Dong's attorneys are seeking $2.4 million, citing not only Dong's financial losses but also "grief, public shame ... anger, mental anguish, anxiety, and loss of personal or professional reputation" suffered as a result of the city's actions.