One of San Francisco’s fine-dining mainstays has shuttered, in part due to unpaid taxes.
Mourad, run by the chef Mourad Lahlou, closed on Saturday after a decade of service, Eater SF reported on Monday. In an Instagram post, Lahlou cited “a bitter dispute with city officials” as one of the challenges facing the restaurant, and it seems that disagreement is because of property taxes the restaurant racked up during the pandemic, The San Francisco Standard reported.
Back in June, the city sued Mourad for more than $88,000, according to court documents viewed by the Standard. That total includes $63,000 in unsecured property taxes from 2022 and $25,000 in penalties and interest. Lahlou told the outlet that he was given 10 days to pay off the debt. When he wasn’t able to do so, city collectors emptied the restaurant’s operating account.
“We had payroll and vendors to worry about,” Lahlou said. “But [the city] didn’t give a fuck.”
In addition to the 2022 property taxes, tax records viewed by The San Francisco Standard also show that the restaurant has unpaid bills from 2020 and 2021, along with another one from 2022. Those debts add up to more than $50,000, the Standard noted. Plus, a 2024 bill for $64,000 became delinquent in early September. Lahlou said he became aware of that last week, leading to his decision to close Mourad.
Lahlou contends that he shouldn’t have to pay those taxes completely because Mourad was closed from March 2020 to May 2021 due to the pandemic, The San Francisco Standard wrote. He asked the city to lower the property’s value, as it currently reflects that of when the restaurant opened in 2014, Eater reported. Now the restaurant makes just 55 percent of what it brought in previously.
“We’re trying to survive,” Lahlou told Eater. “We’re trying to come out from a deep hole that is due to the pandemic and to the economics of the neighborhood. How can you not consider reevaluating the business and then assess the appropriate [amount]? We’re not trying not to pay taxes. We’re trying to just be fair to the business and to allow ourselves to have a shot at coming out of this, let alone having our hands tied behind our backs to pay penalties and interests and taxes from 2020.”
As for the city, Amanda Kahn Fried—the chief of policy and communications for the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector—told the Standard in an email that forcibly collecting taxes “is not a decision we take likely given the impact it can have on a business.”
