April 07--By now, you may have heard that Thai Dang, founding chef and partner at Embeya (564 W. Randolph St., 312-612-5640) is no longer with the restaurant he helped create.
Dang, however, said he wants to make it clear why he left: He was fired. He was escorted from the restaurant.
"As a minority owner, I had no control," Dang said. "Attila (Gyulai, the majority partner) had the right to fire me, and he did. I walked into my own restaurant, he sat me down and said, 'I'm going to let you go.' A business breakup is like a horrible divorce."
Gyulai, for his part, won't discuss the reasons for the breakup, except to say, "It's a big city, and I wish him the best. I think we'll all be doing really well."
Gyulai closed Embeya after dismissing Dang; he said the restaurant will reopen April 16 with a new chef, "someone really awesome," whom he declined to name. Dang said the restaurant closed because the entire kitchen staff walked out in protest of Dang's dismissal.
Dang, understandably, is very upset. He was just 27 when Embeya (the name is a variation on Dang's childhood nickname) opened in September 2012.
"In three years, I learned to be a great chef," he said. "Here I was, making a mark, I trusted him, and this is where I am now. I'm being erased from something I worked very hard for, and invested my family's money. I believed in what I did; I never thought it would come out this way."
Now, Dang is looking for another opportunity.
"This city has shown me love, I love Chicago and this is home to me," he said. "Like anything else, what I've learned is not to think about the fall, but how I'm going to get back up."
pvettel@tribpub.com
