Popular Oakland pop-up run by 'Chef Smelly' shut down by Alameda County

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Chef Smelly, one of the East Bay's most popular pop-up chefs, was forced to cancel his regular Friday night event.

Chef Smelly's Creole and Soul Food has won multiple "best of" awards for dishes including Dungeness crab with garlic noodles and blackened prawns.

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But Chef Smelly doesn't have a brick and mortar restaurant.

For the past three years, he's been serving on Fridays at Complex nightclub in Oakland, until this week when the county visited Complex.

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"The owner was sent a cease and desist note, and with that note he could have lost his liquor license if he kept letting us use the kitchen for our pop-up restaurant," Chef Smelly, whose real name is Edward Wooley, explained.

Alameda County officials hope to establish a permit process for pop-ups by January.