Tofu Restaurant is abandoned

The tenants of Tofu Restaurant in The Bay Terrace shopping center have abandoned the property because they were unable to continue paying rent, said Mary Hughes, vice president of leasing at Cord Meyer Development LLC, which owns the property.
“Nobody expected that,” said Hughes. “They’ve always been good tenants.”
According to a notice posted on the doors of the now-closed restaurant, the tenants owed $104,904.38 in unpaid rent. The notice also showed that their monthly rent cost $24,332. Hughes noted that they had owed rent since the summer, but were making partial payments.
She speculated that after a grease fire over the summer of last year that shut the restaurant down for about a week, they were unable to recover from the loss of profit. They had to make repairs to their ventilation system, she said, further impairing their ability to pay.
Cord Meyer recently received a call from the restaurant manager, saying that they were not coming back.
The restaurant moved in to the shopping center in 1996, said Hughes. The company is currently marketing and looking for another establishment to replace Tofu’s absence.
“We’d love to replace it with another Asian style restaurant,” said Hughes.
The restaurant scored 27 points in its last health inspection on December 22, 2010, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene web site. It received several critical sanitary violations including letting cold food get too warm and not using an appropriate thermometer to gauge food temperature.
More seriously, on November 9, 2010, inspectors found evidence of mice in the restaurant, bringing its total score to 32 points. The higher the score, the worse a restaurant has performed.