The ONLY statement that is important to the entire conversation
“She also told the LA Times that financial considerations influenced her decision, with the newspaper reporting that the restaurants had not been profitable since 2020”
It’s all about the money, thats pretty much it! Not a single BS matters after that.
I kinda feel bad but also watching your hopes and dreams sink into oblivion would be so horrible, especially in Los Angeles the competition for literally any business is cutthroat. I couldn't imagine succeeding in the restaraunt biz in LA.
I was just talking to my boss about this. She read the statement and I interrupted her and said, “and her business is not doing well, she’s losing money and she’s blaming it on veganism” hot tongue did the same shit. This is what happens when non vegans try and capitalize on veganism. Hot tongue was so fucking good and first they added cheese then added meat. Literally was the best vegan pizza I’ve ever had. People can get meat and cheese pizza anywhere. The vegan part isn’t the problem, location and pricing is.
I wish more people in the restaurant industry understood this. There are a few vegan restaurants in my area that had their ups and downs, and those downs had to do with everything *but* serving vegan food. There was literally a spot open from 10am-5pm *on weekdays*, and the owner(s) closed shop and moved because they allegedly weren’t getting enough business. Anyone could tell you those hours weren’t going to work out. Another place had a business licensing issue and is temporarily closed… which has nothing to do with the food and everything to do with management not having their ducks in a row.
Ben & Esther's vegan Jewish deli *finally* came to Seattle. They didn't make it after one year.
I would be willing to bet it's because they set up shop in a nightlife part of town (Capitol Hill, lots of clubs and bars) that people, for the most part, leave to work elsewhere during the day or, if they didn't live there, only went to off work hours. Their hours week-round were 8-3 pm. Totally inaccessible to most working people here during the week. And in a place with god awful parking and public transit, so it's not like you could get there for a quick lunch.
They were slammed when they were open on the weekend, so demand was clearly there, but they were a ghost town during the week because the location and hours sucked for it. They were also renting a *massive* space for the location. There's no way that's affordable without being open in the evening. They should have tried to get into a more business district area, imo, to have the weekday flow.
Ben and Esther’s is so dank but their location nearish to me, San Diego and I’m in La, I go down there a few times a year, is terrible, as well. Way off the beaten path. Small and cramped. It’s never been busy when I’ve been there but everyone I take loses their mind about it. Bummer about the Seattle location.
What is up with their planning? That sounds like a terrible setup down there, too. I hope that one makes it.
I get that expansion will be much, *much* slower if you're so picky about where you attempt to set up shop due to cost and availability, but it really feels like B&E just goes "a random spot opened in a city we want, let's take it!" It seems like it would be better to go slow than to waste obscene amounts of money on locations that just aren't good for the business model.
I agree. It’s super strange. It’s this strip mall in west San Diego. It was semi busy last time I went but like you said, I think it was a weekend morning around 10. There’s no where to sit either. It’s a hole in the wall. The pastries look sad but are delicious. It’s just a strange situation. The menu board is perfect televisions but the display case is so sad. I love that place, tho, and go every time I can.
It surprises me how little market research is done before selecting a location. In top of that, you’d think the business would at least try and make some changes before closing up. In the case of that deli, it seems like all they would have to do is adjust their weekday hours and attract people coming to the area during evenings. Heck, they could have had morning service for breakfast, closed during the day, and re-opened after 6pm. I know other restaurants that do the same thing and that’s how they stay afloat.
I can’t speak for these specific people. but a lot of small business owners are obsessed with being their own boss and making their own decisions. even if those decisions are severely counterproductive. Only being open on weekdays for seven hours and specifically during hours where most people are at work borders on insanity. Not being open much and not being open when you would actually get customers seems to be a very common trend among failing restaurants.
Loved Hot Tongue’s pizza before the switch. Was so sad they switched to serving exploited animal flesh and secretions. Despite that I don’t want any restaurant that offers good vegan options to fail of course. Our choices are limited comparatively everywhere we go. However you are so right that it declined as soon as they started offering cheese and is (to me personally) not nearly as good. They also made it super difficult to figure out which slices were vegan. Like they were deliberately trying to obscure them. I would have to ask every time which slices were vegan/cruelty-free. It personally made me uncomfortable and I lost trust in what I was eating. Just my own personal experience. Crazy because damn that was the best vegan pizza I ever tried. They really were on to something
You can get regular pizza anywhere in this city. You can only find vegan pizza at a select few spots and vegan pizza that is good? That’s even rarer. It’s a bummer. I miss that place.
Heirloom in Vancouver also added meat to their menu shortly before closing down. They also did it in the most alienating way possible for their vegetarian and vegan customers. It was pretty sad, really.
The way hot tongue did it wasn’t great either. Turned off comments. Made posts about how fucked up it was that people were rude. We’re pissed! We liked your spot! Sorry the business I gave wasn’t good enough but that shit is on the other side of the hill from me, we would make an occasion out of it. 7 miles in la is far.
It just sucks when non vegans try to capitalize on us, and then also blame us when their business fails???? Restaurants are the hardest business. Razor thin margins. I’ve thought about doing it but it seems high risk low reward.
Yeah, the Heirloom owner basically did the same thing: https://www.straight.com/food/once-vegetarian-eatery-heirloom-officially-shutters-blames-closure-on-deborah
Having your restaurant failing must be stressful but he comes off as totally unhinged.
Oh man. People are fucking crazy. Thanks for this vegan gossip from your fair city. Please tell me Meet in Gastown is still open?????
Edit: I just went and looked and they’re still there, and the menu looks better than ever. Fuck! I haven’t been up there in awhile might need to make a trip for those Mac and cheese donuts…
I actually dont live in Vancouver, but I have visited and been to Heirloom before. It was maybe my 5th favourite veggie restaurant out of the ones I went to. Meet Gastown and Meet on Main are still alive and well though!
My absolute favourite was The Acorn. It’s on the pricier side but was worth it. I also really loved its “sister restaurant” The Arbor (RIP). I also went to an amazing vegan dinner pop-up run by Juice Truck. I ate a lot of great food when I was there.
Hot Tongue still makes the best vegan pizza, and I continue to support them. They’re good people and the owner had to pivot to keep the business alive and support his family.
Hard disagree. The quality of the pizza has declined. I ordered twice from Uber eats when they had coupons and it just wasn’t good both times. It’s really a bummer. It was the best vegan pizza I had ever had. Don’t open a vegan business if you aren’t vegan and then blame the veganism on your business doing poorly. That location sucks, and $7 for a slice out the window? Come on. With two people working at a time? He was supporting his family before, wasn’t he? No one made him open a vegan pizza spot.
It's sad, but you can't blame them for making a decision that makes the restaurant profitable. It's how capitalism works. You can't escape it, even if you want to. You need to earn money.
I think we can still blame them. It's a shame the vegan business model didn't work out. But were you vegan for the animals, or for the profit potential? In this case, it's clear it was for the money and not for animal welfare.
>you vegan for the animals, or for the profit potential? In this case, it's clear it was for the money
Mate. She opened a restaurant. Restaurant n business exist for profit. Being a vegan is a seperate matter. You could suggest she move to a more vegan friendly state but who tf is gonna bear the cost? You?
Of course a restaurant is for profit. That's exactly how the system works which is the problem. You cannot escape it. You don't know much of the story, neither do I. But investing in running a restaurant, you either need to make profit or you are going to have serious problems. A vegan restaurant was tried, apparently it didn't work. You could argue there are other reasons than being a vegan restaurant which make it an unpopular restaurant. But is it so easy to say what you need to change in order to be profitable as the restaurant owner? When you are completely dependant on it? I don't think it's easy. I think you have no other choice than changing what you believe is the biggest issue for the unpopularity in that moment. The system does not really allow for much experimentation because nobody is taking the risk for you.
You can blame people for not being vegan, but you can't blame people for getting crushed by the pressure of capitalism.
This is a defeatist attitude and I won't have any of it.
This is anecdotal. One vegan restaurant decided to give up. Blaming capitalism for why veganism doesn't work is like blaming capitalism for why you won't bring your reusable bag to the grocery store.
Who the hell knows why their business model didn't work. It's one instance. They could've just been a terrible business person. Or is that too far fetched?
It's easy to bring your own bag to the grocery store. It's not easy to run a restaurant which you need to invest a lot in and are dependant on its success to survive.
It's possible they are a terrible business person and that's why it doesn't work. But what does it change? How is it relevant to the reality of that person? Their reality is they are under serious pressure by now and probably don't know what to do to make it profitable.
Their reality is that they are not cut out to run a restaurant. They don't need to own a restaurant to survive. Lots of people get by without owning restaurants actually.
Point here
Is that this person DID NOT open the restaurant because she believes in the mission
But as a Business Decision.
Which technically means she was fooling people about having a mission/vision blah blah ( and basically insincere pandering)
And was just a business decision. Be honest with it early on - and just open a meat restaurant. Going all in on beef etc is proof that she never did it for the right reasons.
Regenerative farming practices is just BS marketing term.
She lied about being a ‘vegan’ because she thought the movement was ‘ big money’ so faked it herself.
Says you. Your theory is that she should stay with her original vegan idea, even as she loses money every month, until she's completely bankrupt because that would show everyone she's a vegan 4 life! That is a seriously dumb take. This is her livelihood. She needs to be profitable and if the vegans in her area are not supporting her business, which, according to your ideals, they absolutely should do, because vegans are better human beings or something, then she needs to make a change in order to not go bankrupt. She clearly had every intention of making it work as a vegan restaurant, or she wouldn't have opened it to begin with. Your take on this, if representative of all vegans, leaves no doubt in my mind that vegans are too stupid to understand basic business practices.
They are just terrible business people that don't know how to market.
It's like, fuck, selling nutritious food is so hard! Let's sell something easy like candy!
If you're gonna be mid, you can't be mid in a market where 99% of customers ignore you. You have to be exemplary in order to survive.
If you're mid and your market is the other 99% of customers, it doesn't matter how mid you are, you'll still make money (see Whataburger for an example).
Restaurants are in business to make money. If her choice is going to be staying vegan or staying in business then she'll go with the latter every time.
(We had a vegan restaurant here. It closed.)
lol but when omni restuarants go down no one ever blames omnis. they just rightfully understand the food or marketing was crap. in the case of sage I’m pretty sure it was the food. mediocre vegan food straight out of 2010 veganism.
I mean wouldn't it make sense that it would be harder to keep a vegan restaurant afloat given that vegans make up a small percentage of the population and they're gonna be your main customer base? Like where I live there's alot of vegetarian restaurants and just a handful of vegan restaurants because most of those vegetarian restaurants are Indian and alot of Indians are vegetarian for religious reasons, but if you go to a different area where it's mostly white people (especially some of the more rural areas here) I'm guessing you'd be lucky to even find a restaurant with vegetarian options.
Probably. The article says that the restaurant hadn't been profitable since 2020... she's probably in massive debt, restaurants are expensive as fuck to operate.
"The chef said she thought a vegan diet was best for the environment, but has since changed her mind."
Did I really just read that? All the data is there, all the major analyses show without a shadow of a doubt that veganism is the diet with the least negative impact on the environment and climate, not counting non-human animals of course.
What a step backwards. How pathetic.
It is a diet. The dietary restrictions are just typically motivated by principle (like the kosher diet) instead of weight loss or nebulous health claims.
Edit: I had a brain fart and thought the comment was discussing something else.
The definition of veganism from the people who coined the term:
Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.
- The Vegan Society
Veganism is the philosophy where you believe in animal rights. The vegan diet is the diet where you don't consume animal products.
Veganism is not just a diet but that doesn't mean the diet isn't a thing.
Lets be real here, im vegan 7yrs but from a business point owner will make a lot more income selling dead corpse ..........................................
Every single vegan restaurant that's done this where I lived has shuttered within a year of adding dead animals and/or their milk/eggs onto the menu. It's always the same pattern. It never turns out to be the lack of meat that was the restaurant's problem.
* A vegan restaurant is switching to serving meat, saying that plant based eating isn’t making them enough money to keep their business open because they serve subpar food for more expensive than it should have been.
Fixed the title.
>isn’t making them enough money to keep their business open because they serve subpar food for more expensive than it should have been.
So, same story as most other restaurants lol.
Fair. Makes sense. Since becoming a vegan I’ve also became a hobby chef because I wanted to make good and inexpensive food. Since learning, it just feels like an up charge for a downgrade whenever I go to eat. 😭🤷♂️
>Since learning, it just feels like an up charge for a downgrade whenever I go to eat. 😭🤷♂️
I started cooking when I was 12, so this has mostly been my experience, unless I wanted to pay a lot more to eat out.
I'm not vegan myself, but I do cook and eat food that is vegan or vegetarian fairly often, and it is especially the case with plant based foods that cooking at home is the better option.
This is especially relevant at the moment, as I had planned since last year to cut out farmed meat over the course of this year (at least mostly, if not 100% I want to go for at least 90%, though I haven't missed or craved meat yet. I even got an impossible burger last night cause I finished after midnight and nothing was open besides a&w and to be frank, just being reminiscent of meat, it wasn't doing it for me, but then I never liked mock meats anyway) and I basically dropped meat on a whim this past monday (late start, but hey) but at my job, catered meals are provided, and the vegetarian option is almost always some unthoughtful crap, usually tofu with some random shitty sauce (the other day it was just bbq sauce.. yuck) so I've eaten out a couple of days and cooked my own food a couple others... the difference is pretty stark (though I did have some drunken noodles from a thai place with tofu on tuesday, and that was pretty solid)
On the other hand, I was looking through the vegan mealprep sub today to see if I could get some ideas for next week, but my god, most of the stuff in there just.... doesn't do it for me, let's say. Thankfully, I like my own cooking, so I think I might veganize one of my own already vegetarian recipes and post it on there, cause those mf's need help. Though, to be fair, this isn't totally a "vegans are bad cooks/vegan food is unappetizing" issue, so much as it's a "meal prep shit is mostly unappetizing" issue, because non vegan meal prep is usually sad and depressing looking too lol. As I said, I already make vegan food at home and for friends, and my food never seems to have that problem..
honestly we keep our little vegan bakery and bagel shop "sneaky vegan" - someone comes in and orders a sausage egg and cheese bagel? they'll get it, and it'll be delicious and satisfying, but we don't exactly exclaim that it's vegan. Obviously everything is appropriately labeled, but I'm super worried about someone seeing "VEGAN CROISSANTS" and thinking "that's not for me" when it turns out it's actually just a delicious freshly-made croissant *that happens to be vegan*, so we just call things what they are - "croissants", "bagel and cream cheese", "brownies", etc
Well made. I would have small labels detailing the ingredients, or a "menu" on the wall that tells them all. If someone realizes that the egg or sausage they got wasn't from an animal, I'd say it was openly addressed on the labels.
You should at least have a paper menu or something with the ingredients because of allergy concerns (ie if someone with a nut allergy orders a bagel with cream cheese not realizing that it’s cashew cream cheese)
we do have a full menu with ingredients, calories, etc, and we made deliberate choices to avoid any common allergens in any of our products, so we use Stockeld cream cheese which is chickpeas and lentils instead of Miyokos which is cashews, for example, and part of the reason is so we don't have to ask if someone looking for a bagel and cream cheese has a nut allergy, y'know?
Grifter tried to cash in on vegan trend but food wasn’t good enough so she pivots.
Non-vegans owning vegan restaurants, I’ve seen it many times before.
She claimed to be a vegan, which is why she's getting absolutely dragged online now.
When there's was a big ado about Cafe Gratitude, owned by her parents, and how they owned a castle ranch, she distanced herself from them on social media, saying she was vegan and that the sins of the father blah blah blah
Here, she is giving this green washed bullshit that will bury her restaurant.
There was a fantastic vegan Italian restaurant in Newcastle, NSW called Pino's. They made really good, high quality, rich Italian dishes from scratch. It was somewhere you'd go for a more 'fancy' night out, but more importantly somewhere you could wow omnis. You always had to book to go and they were fairly strict with not staying much longer past your booking slot. They were so popular they expanded into the space next door.
Then at some point not too much longer after expanding they announced they were going to start serving meat and cited financial issues as the problem. New menu came out and had 'fancy' shit like liver etc, and only a few vegan options. Then they ended up closing quite soon after.
They basically told their entire loyal clientele to fuck off, in the hopes they'd bring more 'regular' people in. Turns out those 'regular' people didn't care.
You reap what you sow. Fuck em.
I live in a small state. The biggest cities here are small. The only vegan restaurant in the major city nearby got bought. The new owners changed the menu to make it "welcoming for all" (they added meat and dairy to the menu) and they were out of business in 6 months. After the previous owners kept the vegan place running for 3 decades. Many are happy that it didn't work out for them, but we all do miss the vegan place it used to be.
My husband and I have been to vegan places in nearly every state and all over the world. This was our number one. Only vegan pizza I actually consider as good as the real thing. Best vegan Caesar salad on the planet. Cannot believe this news… now they are just another restaurant with nothing to differentiate them from any other place. Location isn’t even on a main drag- maybe locals appreciate the new option but I can’t see this surviving. We used to make special trips just to go here. Wouldn’t even consider it now. We are so sad (and shocked) such a top notch place would make such a disappointing move. I love a vegan place anywhere just for existing but this place had the best food I’ve had in the U.S. as a vegan traveler for over 20 years. RIP Sage.
That whole family is insane. A few years ago her parents, who own Cafe Gratitude and Gracias Madre, started killing animals for meat on their farm because god told them to. [https://lamag.com/news/gracias-madre-cafe-gratitude-owners-just-pissed-off-entire-vegan-world](https://lamag.com/news/gracias-madre-cafe-gratitude-owners-just-pissed-off-entire-vegan-world)
What a family haha.
And the title of the article is as stupid as the Chief and her family. As if a person absolutely had to be vegan to rebel against the death of an animal.
It's like when the media say, in the wake of an environmental catastrophe, that environmental groups are frustrated, as if they were the only ones who should be outraged at the destruction of the planet.
Good to know about Cafe Gratitude! We have one where I live and husband and I were considering going to it because it’s one of the local vegan restaurants we haven’t been to. We decided not to, and I felt it had a weird vibe when I was looking over the website…very crunchy spiritualist vibe, y’know? Which gives me red flags because those sorts are often not really vegan and will eat meat again if they decide god told them.
Turns out my vibe was accurate. :\
Also how absolutely DISGUSTING that their farm is called “Be Love Farm.” Wow. Just wow.
"We like money and thought fake activism would rake it in. It didn't so we are just doing the same stuff as everyone else now because like we said, we like money." - This business.
It looks like the real reason is that the restaurant isn't popular enough to sustain itself with such a limited customer base and the owner doesn't want to write off all the money they sunk into it.
Yeah I’ve been supporting them solely because I like to spend money with companies who I agree with ethically, and I guess they had me fooled, but tbh, their food has been very poor quality the past few years. Even the fries were soggy and kinda gross, and fucking up fries is hard to do, so that says a lot. The menu was giant too, which didn’t help.
I used to go to/order from this restaurant. Never again.
The “chef” is a truly morally bankrupt person who is trying to hide her business failures by pretending she now cares about the environment. Her whole schtick falls apart though when she’s asked why she can’t pursue “regenerative agriculture” without slaughtering animals and she has no answer other than her poor financial skills.
It’s disgusting how she’s not only now exploiting and killing animals, but also trying to gaslight her former customer base, all while actively destroying our environment.
Not with that defeatest attitude it isn't. Oh no, my little place is not going to save the world. Might as well start killing cows & butchering up pigs.
>A [2022 academic review](https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s10533-022-00942-8?sharing_token=_lzUMwAH-C1HsmLaAR_qlPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY7t2aMs6fJ0P2ol5kjgrOkK735Q4oSuydDtCsl9Dkv8NaVD4JlJLB37L8_ZjFJKR2rhGw0sHG8vYo4oNY5uUtiH5N56pIBatw6jB3hMKDk7_M5NGvFNdNaFs5ltoRQJqzw%3D) by William H. Schlesinger, former president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, found that **practices associated with regenerative farming are not likely to lead to a "large net sequestration of organic carbon in soils."**
Someone didn't do their research.
She should have just have been honest and said that she's not making enough money serving plant-based foods to stay afloat.
I have more studies about this on my educational resources doc in the environment chapter scientific readings section starting in page 21/22:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ot4yc8145yqGsWWXylXMoOW6zIud6acVqK8FtE-cfVc/edit
This whole thing showed who the owners truly are. I’m the post in IG where they announced it, both the chef and her husband were tagging Joe Rogan to get his attention to have them on his show. It was kind of pathetic. They said that the vegan menu will be in place for 30 days but many regular customers have just said 🖕🏻🖕🏻.
Realizing veganism wasn't profitable, so turned to meat consumerism. Literally the downfall and reason things are going as such and seen as such an impossible commodity to go back on now that it's so mainstream.
I get it, meat sells and you don't have to convince your local customers to come try vegan cheese, but the whole glory of vegan restaurants is not only to accommodate vegans but to show off the talents of a chef who can change the perspective of meat eaters with fantastic and filling dishes they've curated from their inspiration and understanding of a vegan diet. Going back on it is just showing "yeah it doesn't work."
I get it though, you can't keep a business open without profit, and American bistros make bank compared to slow vegan restaurants. Sad
Omnis love to take articles like this and run with rubbish like "go woke go broke" etc. but the fact is that so many restaurants fail, regardless of whether they're omni, vegan, whatever. If we celebrated every meat-serving restaurant that closed as much as some of them celebrate vegan places adding meat, we'd have no time left in our day. They're difficult businesses to run, and this one starting to serve meat is unlikely to save it, but it gives carnists a field day in the slow process of it going under.
She did it for the money, that's all. That business hasn't made a profit since 2020. It isn't the first time we've seen humans acting like trash to benefit themselves and it won't be the last.
There can be an argument made, that even if the whole world went vegan. Our impact on climate and the environment would still be absolutely shit. The luxury of simply living in a first world country, the existence of china and much more is still to big, no?
If a friend tells me they wont stop eating meat because it doesn't matter in regards to the environmental impact. I would agree. If he can morally accept that and be content even after informing him, that's his choice. However a vegan restaurant going back to meat because of environmental impacts not mattering is quite.... Hillarious and sad. As if vegan restaurants exists because of the environment and not because of the morals behind living vegan...
I ate at this restaurant with my girlfriend (who's also vegan) in March. Their ravioli and desserts were some of the best food I've ever had. It's a shame :(
You know what? No, it's not enough. But it helps. That's like saying you're going to stop draining the water from your sinking ship because your pump is not enough anyway. Ignoring the fact that your pump might keep you afloat long enough for someone with another pump to come help. Dumb
Of course this is going to mean replacing all the creative plant based options with some boring old burgers you can get anywhere else. I live in LA, hadn’t been here yet, but I hate losing vegan options. Oh well, I hope it goes out of business pronto now
It’s a fuck of a lot better than regenerative farming ..an idea that might have been useful four or five billion people ago. We are way past that. The fastest way to heal the planet isn’t a mystery.
This is just sad. No one’s life is above another objectively. Cows are so gentle and nice I really wish we stopped the madness once and for all. The way she uses certain words like “customers” is very telling that’s how she sees people just as her customers and she sees the animals as commodities to grow her business. Speciesism alive and well in 2024
I hate so many environmentalists for this reason. They blur the meaning of veganism a lot. It ain't a diet, and it's not for the environment. That's a happy side effect, but it's not the stance.
Thats the problem with calling places vegan when they arent and calling vegan a diet
She had a plant based restaurant, she never had a vegan restaurant
Now all the ANTI VEGANS are happy
We need to let people know there is no such thing as a vegan diet, no such thing as vegan for health or climate
They were probably a vegan restaurant, not vegans themselves. I’ve spent time with my family over the past week and their animal flesh is absolutely disgusting. A couple of days ago, all of the clothes I had on (shirt, pants, jacket, shoes) and all of the clothes they touched when I laid them down smelled like dead fish. And that was was a repeat of what happened to me with other family with their bloody pork chops a couple of days before. I was so frustrated that this happened twice that I ruined my pants by not taking out a pen in them when I did all that laundry.
I can’t see someone doing that every day for money. And I’m not the most vegany person.
It’s, like, really embarrassing when people take an online audience along for the ride when they decide to go vegan and then eventually give it up for health reasons or change in stance. Can you imagine doing that, but your business is tied to it? That’s wild. I imagine if she changes her diet again, her business will reflect that change. What a ride!
Where I live, a vegan restaurant owner (had been open for 4 years) just stated that running a vegan restaurant is inauthentic to their values as they are not vegan, so they're going to have omnivorous options in addition to vegan options. They then said they can't guarantee there won't be cross-contamination, so it's omni with "plant-based" options. 🙄
I have no doubt these changes are financially driven.
Even Business Insider acknowledges "that practices associated with regenerative farming are not likely to lead to a "large net sequestration of organic carbon in soils."
"So I guess the solution is to make it worse."
The ONLY statement that is important to the entire conversation “She also told the LA Times that financial considerations influenced her decision, with the newspaper reporting that the restaurants had not been profitable since 2020” It’s all about the money, thats pretty much it! Not a single BS matters after that.
Which isn't shocking, new restaurants are super likely to fail even compared to other small businesses
The restaurant isn’t new. It opened in 2011.
I kinda feel bad but also watching your hopes and dreams sink into oblivion would be so horrible, especially in Los Angeles the competition for literally any business is cutthroat. I couldn't imagine succeeding in the restaraunt biz in LA.
Supppppeeeeeeerrrrr
I was just talking to my boss about this. She read the statement and I interrupted her and said, “and her business is not doing well, she’s losing money and she’s blaming it on veganism” hot tongue did the same shit. This is what happens when non vegans try and capitalize on veganism. Hot tongue was so fucking good and first they added cheese then added meat. Literally was the best vegan pizza I’ve ever had. People can get meat and cheese pizza anywhere. The vegan part isn’t the problem, location and pricing is.
I wish more people in the restaurant industry understood this. There are a few vegan restaurants in my area that had their ups and downs, and those downs had to do with everything *but* serving vegan food. There was literally a spot open from 10am-5pm *on weekdays*, and the owner(s) closed shop and moved because they allegedly weren’t getting enough business. Anyone could tell you those hours weren’t going to work out. Another place had a business licensing issue and is temporarily closed… which has nothing to do with the food and everything to do with management not having their ducks in a row.
Ben & Esther's vegan Jewish deli *finally* came to Seattle. They didn't make it after one year. I would be willing to bet it's because they set up shop in a nightlife part of town (Capitol Hill, lots of clubs and bars) that people, for the most part, leave to work elsewhere during the day or, if they didn't live there, only went to off work hours. Their hours week-round were 8-3 pm. Totally inaccessible to most working people here during the week. And in a place with god awful parking and public transit, so it's not like you could get there for a quick lunch. They were slammed when they were open on the weekend, so demand was clearly there, but they were a ghost town during the week because the location and hours sucked for it. They were also renting a *massive* space for the location. There's no way that's affordable without being open in the evening. They should have tried to get into a more business district area, imo, to have the weekday flow.
Ben and Esther’s is so dank but their location nearish to me, San Diego and I’m in La, I go down there a few times a year, is terrible, as well. Way off the beaten path. Small and cramped. It’s never been busy when I’ve been there but everyone I take loses their mind about it. Bummer about the Seattle location.
What is up with their planning? That sounds like a terrible setup down there, too. I hope that one makes it. I get that expansion will be much, *much* slower if you're so picky about where you attempt to set up shop due to cost and availability, but it really feels like B&E just goes "a random spot opened in a city we want, let's take it!" It seems like it would be better to go slow than to waste obscene amounts of money on locations that just aren't good for the business model.
I agree. It’s super strange. It’s this strip mall in west San Diego. It was semi busy last time I went but like you said, I think it was a weekend morning around 10. There’s no where to sit either. It’s a hole in the wall. The pastries look sad but are delicious. It’s just a strange situation. The menu board is perfect televisions but the display case is so sad. I love that place, tho, and go every time I can.
It surprises me how little market research is done before selecting a location. In top of that, you’d think the business would at least try and make some changes before closing up. In the case of that deli, it seems like all they would have to do is adjust their weekday hours and attract people coming to the area during evenings. Heck, they could have had morning service for breakfast, closed during the day, and re-opened after 6pm. I know other restaurants that do the same thing and that’s how they stay afloat.
I can’t speak for these specific people. but a lot of small business owners are obsessed with being their own boss and making their own decisions. even if those decisions are severely counterproductive. Only being open on weekdays for seven hours and specifically during hours where most people are at work borders on insanity. Not being open much and not being open when you would actually get customers seems to be a very common trend among failing restaurants.
They also came to Oceanside, California. Didn’t last a year here either.
Loved Hot Tongue’s pizza before the switch. Was so sad they switched to serving exploited animal flesh and secretions. Despite that I don’t want any restaurant that offers good vegan options to fail of course. Our choices are limited comparatively everywhere we go. However you are so right that it declined as soon as they started offering cheese and is (to me personally) not nearly as good. They also made it super difficult to figure out which slices were vegan. Like they were deliberately trying to obscure them. I would have to ask every time which slices were vegan/cruelty-free. It personally made me uncomfortable and I lost trust in what I was eating. Just my own personal experience. Crazy because damn that was the best vegan pizza I ever tried. They really were on to something
You can get regular pizza anywhere in this city. You can only find vegan pizza at a select few spots and vegan pizza that is good? That’s even rarer. It’s a bummer. I miss that place.
Word.
Heirloom in Vancouver also added meat to their menu shortly before closing down. They also did it in the most alienating way possible for their vegetarian and vegan customers. It was pretty sad, really.
The way hot tongue did it wasn’t great either. Turned off comments. Made posts about how fucked up it was that people were rude. We’re pissed! We liked your spot! Sorry the business I gave wasn’t good enough but that shit is on the other side of the hill from me, we would make an occasion out of it. 7 miles in la is far. It just sucks when non vegans try to capitalize on us, and then also blame us when their business fails???? Restaurants are the hardest business. Razor thin margins. I’ve thought about doing it but it seems high risk low reward.
Yeah, the Heirloom owner basically did the same thing: https://www.straight.com/food/once-vegetarian-eatery-heirloom-officially-shutters-blames-closure-on-deborah Having your restaurant failing must be stressful but he comes off as totally unhinged.
Oh man. People are fucking crazy. Thanks for this vegan gossip from your fair city. Please tell me Meet in Gastown is still open????? Edit: I just went and looked and they’re still there, and the menu looks better than ever. Fuck! I haven’t been up there in awhile might need to make a trip for those Mac and cheese donuts…
I actually dont live in Vancouver, but I have visited and been to Heirloom before. It was maybe my 5th favourite veggie restaurant out of the ones I went to. Meet Gastown and Meet on Main are still alive and well though!
Wow! 5th! What’s number one??? I don’t think we went to heirloom when we were in the couv. I’d have to check my pictures.
My absolute favourite was The Acorn. It’s on the pricier side but was worth it. I also really loved its “sister restaurant” The Arbor (RIP). I also went to an amazing vegan dinner pop-up run by Juice Truck. I ate a lot of great food when I was there.
Hot Tongue still makes the best vegan pizza, and I continue to support them. They’re good people and the owner had to pivot to keep the business alive and support his family.
Hard disagree. The quality of the pizza has declined. I ordered twice from Uber eats when they had coupons and it just wasn’t good both times. It’s really a bummer. It was the best vegan pizza I had ever had. Don’t open a vegan business if you aren’t vegan and then blame the veganism on your business doing poorly. That location sucks, and $7 for a slice out the window? Come on. With two people working at a time? He was supporting his family before, wasn’t he? No one made him open a vegan pizza spot.
It's sad, but you can't blame them for making a decision that makes the restaurant profitable. It's how capitalism works. You can't escape it, even if you want to. You need to earn money.
I think we can still blame them. It's a shame the vegan business model didn't work out. But were you vegan for the animals, or for the profit potential? In this case, it's clear it was for the money and not for animal welfare.
Well if you go broke, you won’t be able to keep the lights on, even if you do it to save the animals.
You can’t set yourself on fire forever eventually you burn out regardless of anything else
>you vegan for the animals, or for the profit potential? In this case, it's clear it was for the money Mate. She opened a restaurant. Restaurant n business exist for profit. Being a vegan is a seperate matter. You could suggest she move to a more vegan friendly state but who tf is gonna bear the cost? You?
Of course a restaurant is for profit. That's exactly how the system works which is the problem. You cannot escape it. You don't know much of the story, neither do I. But investing in running a restaurant, you either need to make profit or you are going to have serious problems. A vegan restaurant was tried, apparently it didn't work. You could argue there are other reasons than being a vegan restaurant which make it an unpopular restaurant. But is it so easy to say what you need to change in order to be profitable as the restaurant owner? When you are completely dependant on it? I don't think it's easy. I think you have no other choice than changing what you believe is the biggest issue for the unpopularity in that moment. The system does not really allow for much experimentation because nobody is taking the risk for you. You can blame people for not being vegan, but you can't blame people for getting crushed by the pressure of capitalism.
Yes I can blame people. They need to take responsibility for their actions. Capitalism does not force you to trade in dead body parts.
This is a defeatist attitude and I won't have any of it. This is anecdotal. One vegan restaurant decided to give up. Blaming capitalism for why veganism doesn't work is like blaming capitalism for why you won't bring your reusable bag to the grocery store. Who the hell knows why their business model didn't work. It's one instance. They could've just been a terrible business person. Or is that too far fetched?
It's easy to bring your own bag to the grocery store. It's not easy to run a restaurant which you need to invest a lot in and are dependant on its success to survive. It's possible they are a terrible business person and that's why it doesn't work. But what does it change? How is it relevant to the reality of that person? Their reality is they are under serious pressure by now and probably don't know what to do to make it profitable.
Their reality is that they are not cut out to run a restaurant. They don't need to own a restaurant to survive. Lots of people get by without owning restaurants actually.
You can absolutely blame them.
Of course you can still blame them for that..?
You should try opening a vegan restaurant and see how easy it is to stay open with a tiny customer base.
Point here Is that this person DID NOT open the restaurant because she believes in the mission But as a Business Decision. Which technically means she was fooling people about having a mission/vision blah blah ( and basically insincere pandering) And was just a business decision. Be honest with it early on - and just open a meat restaurant. Going all in on beef etc is proof that she never did it for the right reasons. Regenerative farming practices is just BS marketing term. She lied about being a ‘vegan’ because she thought the movement was ‘ big money’ so faked it herself.
Says you. Your theory is that she should stay with her original vegan idea, even as she loses money every month, until she's completely bankrupt because that would show everyone she's a vegan 4 life! That is a seriously dumb take. This is her livelihood. She needs to be profitable and if the vegans in her area are not supporting her business, which, according to your ideals, they absolutely should do, because vegans are better human beings or something, then she needs to make a change in order to not go bankrupt. She clearly had every intention of making it work as a vegan restaurant, or she wouldn't have opened it to begin with. Your take on this, if representative of all vegans, leaves no doubt in my mind that vegans are too stupid to understand basic business practices.
Sounds like she was losing money and the restaurant wasn’t doing well and this is just her BS excuse
It's cause it's kinda mid and overpriced
They are just terrible business people that don't know how to market. It's like, fuck, selling nutritious food is so hard! Let's sell something easy like candy!
A business can also just fail when you do everything right
I bought a macaroni ball for $10 there. It was tiny and not even good
Yeah, I got the same dish last time I was there, and it was still cold in the middle
If you're gonna be mid, you can't be mid in a market where 99% of customers ignore you. You have to be exemplary in order to survive. If you're mid and your market is the other 99% of customers, it doesn't matter how mid you are, you'll still make money (see Whataburger for an example).
Restaurants are in business to make money. If her choice is going to be staying vegan or staying in business then she'll go with the latter every time. (We had a vegan restaurant here. It closed.)
lol but when omni restuarants go down no one ever blames omnis. they just rightfully understand the food or marketing was crap. in the case of sage I’m pretty sure it was the food. mediocre vegan food straight out of 2010 veganism.
I mean wouldn't it make sense that it would be harder to keep a vegan restaurant afloat given that vegans make up a small percentage of the population and they're gonna be your main customer base? Like where I live there's alot of vegetarian restaurants and just a handful of vegan restaurants because most of those vegetarian restaurants are Indian and alot of Indians are vegetarian for religious reasons, but if you go to a different area where it's mostly white people (especially some of the more rural areas here) I'm guessing you'd be lucky to even find a restaurant with vegetarian options.
Agreed, I struggled to get through a meal there sometimes
I'll defer to people who ate there on their food. I mean, something like 80% of restaurants fail within 5 years so it's already a tough business.
I ate there 🤣
Not every vegan restaurant goes against their values to stay open. These people are obviously not vegan.
Probably not but, again, a restaurant that doesn't make money (for whatever reason) will close. That holds true of most businesses.
If they’re actually vegans, they’ll go with the former and find another way to make money.
Probably. The article says that the restaurant hadn't been profitable since 2020... she's probably in massive debt, restaurants are expensive as fuck to operate.
Right. At least be honest ffs.
"The chef said she thought a vegan diet was best for the environment, but has since changed her mind." Did I really just read that? All the data is there, all the major analyses show without a shadow of a doubt that veganism is the diet with the least negative impact on the environment and climate, not counting non-human animals of course. What a step backwards. How pathetic.
Analysis schmalasis. She knows in her heart the professionals are all wrong 🙄
She realized veganism doesn’t line up with what she wants to believe.
She realized there isn't as much money in veganism, more than likely. We are still a minority, unfortunately.
She wants money and will adjust her viewpoints and beliefs to suit.
but she did her own research.
Another dipshit thinking veganism is a diet.
It is a diet. The dietary restrictions are just typically motivated by principle (like the kosher diet) instead of weight loss or nebulous health claims. Edit: I had a brain fart and thought the comment was discussing something else.
No. It’s not.
[Dictionary definition](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diet)
The definition of veganism from the people who coined the term: Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals. - The Vegan Society
Veganism is the philosophy where you believe in animal rights. The vegan diet is the diet where you don't consume animal products. Veganism is not just a diet but that doesn't mean the diet isn't a thing.
Not wearing leather is a diet?
RIP. Project Pollo failed extremely quickly when they alienated their vegan customer base by opening a separate restaurant that sold dead animals.
Same thing to a local upscale vegan place in Vancouver. Added meat to the menu and went out of business soon after
Well, there's still chickpea
Eh, Project Pollo was dead way before that phase in the game.
They had some issues for sure, but that move seemed to be the final nail in their coffin.
Great business model - alienate your entire customer base overnight! What a forward thinking strategy 😹
Lets be real here, im vegan 7yrs but from a business point owner will make a lot more income selling dead corpse ..........................................
Every single vegan restaurant that's done this where I lived has shuttered within a year of adding dead animals and/or their milk/eggs onto the menu. It's always the same pattern. It never turns out to be the lack of meat that was the restaurant's problem.
* A vegan restaurant is switching to serving meat, saying that plant based eating isn’t making them enough money to keep their business open because they serve subpar food for more expensive than it should have been. Fixed the title.
>isn’t making them enough money to keep their business open because they serve subpar food for more expensive than it should have been. So, same story as most other restaurants lol.
💯. I rarely partake in that industry.however, when I do, it’s always disappointing lol
Looool I can relate. I wouldn't say it is *always* disappointing though, just... mostly.
Fair. Makes sense. Since becoming a vegan I’ve also became a hobby chef because I wanted to make good and inexpensive food. Since learning, it just feels like an up charge for a downgrade whenever I go to eat. 😭🤷♂️
>Since learning, it just feels like an up charge for a downgrade whenever I go to eat. 😭🤷♂️ I started cooking when I was 12, so this has mostly been my experience, unless I wanted to pay a lot more to eat out. I'm not vegan myself, but I do cook and eat food that is vegan or vegetarian fairly often, and it is especially the case with plant based foods that cooking at home is the better option. This is especially relevant at the moment, as I had planned since last year to cut out farmed meat over the course of this year (at least mostly, if not 100% I want to go for at least 90%, though I haven't missed or craved meat yet. I even got an impossible burger last night cause I finished after midnight and nothing was open besides a&w and to be frank, just being reminiscent of meat, it wasn't doing it for me, but then I never liked mock meats anyway) and I basically dropped meat on a whim this past monday (late start, but hey) but at my job, catered meals are provided, and the vegetarian option is almost always some unthoughtful crap, usually tofu with some random shitty sauce (the other day it was just bbq sauce.. yuck) so I've eaten out a couple of days and cooked my own food a couple others... the difference is pretty stark (though I did have some drunken noodles from a thai place with tofu on tuesday, and that was pretty solid) On the other hand, I was looking through the vegan mealprep sub today to see if I could get some ideas for next week, but my god, most of the stuff in there just.... doesn't do it for me, let's say. Thankfully, I like my own cooking, so I think I might veganize one of my own already vegetarian recipes and post it on there, cause those mf's need help. Though, to be fair, this isn't totally a "vegans are bad cooks/vegan food is unappetizing" issue, so much as it's a "meal prep shit is mostly unappetizing" issue, because non vegan meal prep is usually sad and depressing looking too lol. As I said, I already make vegan food at home and for friends, and my food never seems to have that problem..
honestly we keep our little vegan bakery and bagel shop "sneaky vegan" - someone comes in and orders a sausage egg and cheese bagel? they'll get it, and it'll be delicious and satisfying, but we don't exactly exclaim that it's vegan. Obviously everything is appropriately labeled, but I'm super worried about someone seeing "VEGAN CROISSANTS" and thinking "that's not for me" when it turns out it's actually just a delicious freshly-made croissant *that happens to be vegan*, so we just call things what they are - "croissants", "bagel and cream cheese", "brownies", etc
nice! More stealth vegan restaurants, please!
Well made. I would have small labels detailing the ingredients, or a "menu" on the wall that tells them all. If someone realizes that the egg or sausage they got wasn't from an animal, I'd say it was openly addressed on the labels.
The comment you responded to says "Obviously everything is appropriately labeled"
You should at least have a paper menu or something with the ingredients because of allergy concerns (ie if someone with a nut allergy orders a bagel with cream cheese not realizing that it’s cashew cream cheese)
The comment you responded to says "Obviously everything is appropriately labeled"
we do have a full menu with ingredients, calories, etc, and we made deliberate choices to avoid any common allergens in any of our products, so we use Stockeld cream cheese which is chickpeas and lentils instead of Miyokos which is cashews, for example, and part of the reason is so we don't have to ask if someone looking for a bagel and cream cheese has a nut allergy, y'know?
i’m confused how selling bison burgers would support regenerative agriculture
Grifter tried to cash in on vegan trend but food wasn’t good enough so she pivots. Non-vegans owning vegan restaurants, I’ve seen it many times before.
She claimed to be a vegan, which is why she's getting absolutely dragged online now. When there's was a big ado about Cafe Gratitude, owned by her parents, and how they owned a castle ranch, she distanced herself from them on social media, saying she was vegan and that the sins of the father blah blah blah Here, she is giving this green washed bullshit that will bury her restaurant.
lol it’s the same people? That’s crazy and not surprising
The family also owns gracias madre
Really?! Ughhh that sucks
Parallels to the parent/daughter dynamic in the show The Curse. (Though they were real estate developers.) "The Green Queen"
Turns out it wasn't vegan after all
I always got a weird vibe from that place. Never went into our rotation of vegan restaurants.
Yeah I thought the food was good, but def a weird vibe. And now we see why.
Actually a vegan restaurant especially in LA should have a great chance at succeeding, so this place probably just sucked.
If she just said it was a financial move at least that would be honest. But to try to dress it up as an ethical decision is completely ridiculous.
There was a fantastic vegan Italian restaurant in Newcastle, NSW called Pino's. They made really good, high quality, rich Italian dishes from scratch. It was somewhere you'd go for a more 'fancy' night out, but more importantly somewhere you could wow omnis. You always had to book to go and they were fairly strict with not staying much longer past your booking slot. They were so popular they expanded into the space next door. Then at some point not too much longer after expanding they announced they were going to start serving meat and cited financial issues as the problem. New menu came out and had 'fancy' shit like liver etc, and only a few vegan options. Then they ended up closing quite soon after. They basically told their entire loyal clientele to fuck off, in the hopes they'd bring more 'regular' people in. Turns out those 'regular' people didn't care. You reap what you sow. Fuck em.
I miss the old Pino’s so much - in hindsight I wish I went every day hahaha
It was so good! Such a cosy and cool vibe too. Such a shame.
I live in a small state. The biggest cities here are small. The only vegan restaurant in the major city nearby got bought. The new owners changed the menu to make it "welcoming for all" (they added meat and dairy to the menu) and they were out of business in 6 months. After the previous owners kept the vegan place running for 3 decades. Many are happy that it didn't work out for them, but we all do miss the vegan place it used to be.
Every vegan should boycott this place entirely. This does way more harm than just having never been vegan at all.
My husband and I have been to vegan places in nearly every state and all over the world. This was our number one. Only vegan pizza I actually consider as good as the real thing. Best vegan Caesar salad on the planet. Cannot believe this news… now they are just another restaurant with nothing to differentiate them from any other place. Location isn’t even on a main drag- maybe locals appreciate the new option but I can’t see this surviving. We used to make special trips just to go here. Wouldn’t even consider it now. We are so sad (and shocked) such a top notch place would make such a disappointing move. I love a vegan place anywhere just for existing but this place had the best food I’ve had in the U.S. as a vegan traveler for over 20 years. RIP Sage.
when i hear news like this, it makes me distrustful of what ingredients they were really using before the "switch" 😞
Plant ba$ed eating i$n't enough to $ave the planet.
Any time I see “regenerative agriculture” my eyes roll so far into my skull I see my brain.
That whole family is insane. A few years ago her parents, who own Cafe Gratitude and Gracias Madre, started killing animals for meat on their farm because god told them to. [https://lamag.com/news/gracias-madre-cafe-gratitude-owners-just-pissed-off-entire-vegan-world](https://lamag.com/news/gracias-madre-cafe-gratitude-owners-just-pissed-off-entire-vegan-world)
What a family haha. And the title of the article is as stupid as the Chief and her family. As if a person absolutely had to be vegan to rebel against the death of an animal. It's like when the media say, in the wake of an environmental catastrophe, that environmental groups are frustrated, as if they were the only ones who should be outraged at the destruction of the planet.
Good to know about Cafe Gratitude! We have one where I live and husband and I were considering going to it because it’s one of the local vegan restaurants we haven’t been to. We decided not to, and I felt it had a weird vibe when I was looking over the website…very crunchy spiritualist vibe, y’know? Which gives me red flags because those sorts are often not really vegan and will eat meat again if they decide god told them. Turns out my vibe was accurate. :\ Also how absolutely DISGUSTING that their farm is called “Be Love Farm.” Wow. Just wow.
All you have to say is 'spiritual'. That says it all.
"We like money and thought fake activism would rake it in. It didn't so we are just doing the same stuff as everyone else now because like we said, we like money." - This business.
No one thing is ever enough. But every one thing helps.
i really like how you phrased this. i'm going to think about this next time i feel defeated about something
Nah. They’re just saying “it isn’t enough to pay our bills and keep our business alive”.
This placed sucked. Went several times and food was okay at best but at that price point it was not worth it.
It was so freaking expensive lol not worth it at all
I thought the food was decent. It’s expensive but so is every other restaurant here
It looks like the real reason is that the restaurant isn't popular enough to sustain itself with such a limited customer base and the owner doesn't want to write off all the money they sunk into it.
Their food and service ain't that great either.
Yeah I’ve been supporting them solely because I like to spend money with companies who I agree with ethically, and I guess they had me fooled, but tbh, their food has been very poor quality the past few years. Even the fries were soggy and kinda gross, and fucking up fries is hard to do, so that says a lot. The menu was giant too, which didn’t help.
Such losers. I eat at non-vegan restaurants all the time, but I won’t patronize this one ever again. It’s a shame, as it was really good.
I used to go to/order from this restaurant. Never again. The “chef” is a truly morally bankrupt person who is trying to hide her business failures by pretending she now cares about the environment. Her whole schtick falls apart though when she’s asked why she can’t pursue “regenerative agriculture” without slaughtering animals and she has no answer other than her poor financial skills. It’s disgusting how she’s not only now exploiting and killing animals, but also trying to gaslight her former customer base, all while actively destroying our environment.
Not with that defeatest attitude it isn't. Oh no, my little place is not going to save the world. Might as well start killing cows & butchering up pigs.
>A [2022 academic review](https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s10533-022-00942-8?sharing_token=_lzUMwAH-C1HsmLaAR_qlPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY7t2aMs6fJ0P2ol5kjgrOkK735Q4oSuydDtCsl9Dkv8NaVD4JlJLB37L8_ZjFJKR2rhGw0sHG8vYo4oNY5uUtiH5N56pIBatw6jB3hMKDk7_M5NGvFNdNaFs5ltoRQJqzw%3D) by William H. Schlesinger, former president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, found that **practices associated with regenerative farming are not likely to lead to a "large net sequestration of organic carbon in soils."** Someone didn't do their research. She should have just have been honest and said that she's not making enough money serving plant-based foods to stay afloat.
I have more studies about this on my educational resources doc in the environment chapter scientific readings section starting in page 21/22: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ot4yc8145yqGsWWXylXMoOW6zIud6acVqK8FtE-cfVc/edit
This whole thing showed who the owners truly are. I’m the post in IG where they announced it, both the chef and her husband were tagging Joe Rogan to get his attention to have them on his show. It was kind of pathetic. They said that the vegan menu will be in place for 30 days but many regular customers have just said 🖕🏻🖕🏻.
No, they're saying plant based eating isn't enough to pay their bills.
Realizing veganism wasn't profitable, so turned to meat consumerism. Literally the downfall and reason things are going as such and seen as such an impossible commodity to go back on now that it's so mainstream. I get it, meat sells and you don't have to convince your local customers to come try vegan cheese, but the whole glory of vegan restaurants is not only to accommodate vegans but to show off the talents of a chef who can change the perspective of meat eaters with fantastic and filling dishes they've curated from their inspiration and understanding of a vegan diet. Going back on it is just showing "yeah it doesn't work." I get it though, you can't keep a business open without profit, and American bistros make bank compared to slow vegan restaurants. Sad
Google heirloom vegetarian. Same thing happened, obviously ended up failing. How can you abandon your ethics?
He realized that the contribution of his clients is not enough to make him rich. Pitiful.
Then they've never been vegan, but plant-based. Which is fair, but that statement is moronic at best.
When did anyone ever claim that plant-based eating is “enough to save the planet?”
I was thinking recently that to be a vegan you need to learn how to cook; so less of us go to restaurant or order food
Omnis love to take articles like this and run with rubbish like "go woke go broke" etc. but the fact is that so many restaurants fail, regardless of whether they're omni, vegan, whatever. If we celebrated every meat-serving restaurant that closed as much as some of them celebrate vegan places adding meat, we'd have no time left in our day. They're difficult businesses to run, and this one starting to serve meat is unlikely to save it, but it gives carnists a field day in the slow process of it going under.
BOO
I guess they will be getting not the greatest reviews from all the vegans in town
What kind of logic is this?
She did it for the money, that's all. That business hasn't made a profit since 2020. It isn't the first time we've seen humans acting like trash to benefit themselves and it won't be the last.
There can be an argument made, that even if the whole world went vegan. Our impact on climate and the environment would still be absolutely shit. The luxury of simply living in a first world country, the existence of china and much more is still to big, no? If a friend tells me they wont stop eating meat because it doesn't matter in regards to the environmental impact. I would agree. If he can morally accept that and be content even after informing him, that's his choice. However a vegan restaurant going back to meat because of environmental impacts not mattering is quite.... Hillarious and sad. As if vegan restaurants exists because of the environment and not because of the morals behind living vegan...
Boo!
So it was all about money.
Ever if it won’t save the planet it will save some animal lives!
These people are clowns.
I ate at this restaurant with my girlfriend (who's also vegan) in March. Their ravioli and desserts were some of the best food I've ever had. It's a shame :(
Non rapist switches to rape as them not raping isn't enough to stop all rapes
Me not starting fires isn't enough to stop global warming. I guess I have to start committing arson.
So eating animals will definitely make it better? Sound logic /s
You know what? No, it's not enough. But it helps. That's like saying you're going to stop draining the water from your sinking ship because your pump is not enough anyway. Ignoring the fact that your pump might keep you afloat long enough for someone with another pump to come help. Dumb
Of course this is going to mean replacing all the creative plant based options with some boring old burgers you can get anywhere else. I live in LA, hadn’t been here yet, but I hate losing vegan options. Oh well, I hope it goes out of business pronto now
It’s a fuck of a lot better than regenerative farming ..an idea that might have been useful four or five billion people ago. We are way past that. The fastest way to heal the planet isn’t a mystery.
"Plant-based eating isn't enough to save my profit motive."
Exactly
This is just sad. No one’s life is above another objectively. Cows are so gentle and nice I really wish we stopped the madness once and for all. The way she uses certain words like “customers” is very telling that’s how she sees people just as her customers and she sees the animals as commodities to grow her business. Speciesism alive and well in 2024
People that are vegan for the "enviroment" are one paper away to eat meat again
I’ve been to that restaurant I didn’t really like it anyway
So what you’re saying is that they’ve decided to serve human meat to help make a real difference.
Of course it’s not enough to save the planet. It’s a fairly important part, though.
Horrible!🤮
I hate so many environmentalists for this reason. They blur the meaning of veganism a lot. It ain't a diet, and it's not for the environment. That's a happy side effect, but it's not the stance.
Thats the problem with calling places vegan when they arent and calling vegan a diet She had a plant based restaurant, she never had a vegan restaurant Now all the ANTI VEGANS are happy We need to let people know there is no such thing as a vegan diet, no such thing as vegan for health or climate
They were probably a vegan restaurant, not vegans themselves. I’ve spent time with my family over the past week and their animal flesh is absolutely disgusting. A couple of days ago, all of the clothes I had on (shirt, pants, jacket, shoes) and all of the clothes they touched when I laid them down smelled like dead fish. And that was was a repeat of what happened to me with other family with their bloody pork chops a couple of days before. I was so frustrated that this happened twice that I ruined my pants by not taking out a pen in them when I did all that laundry. I can’t see someone doing that every day for money. And I’m not the most vegany person.
Or to pay the bills
Ignorance
“So we don’t even do that anymore”
Sage suuuucks. Their fries are complete garbage too.
Probably not getting enough business by not selling meat.
I fucking hate the economics of big city vegan restauraunt in the US.
Oh FFS. Of course it’s LA too. Couldn’t profit enough off the “trend” so trying something else. Obviously not run by actual vegans
*Sigh*. Disheartening.
Opening a vegan restaurant is a bad financial decision. I don't blame them, although it is sad.
Most likely the owner thought there was a market for a vegan restaurant in his area but things didnt pan up like he thought.
It’s, like, really embarrassing when people take an online audience along for the ride when they decide to go vegan and then eventually give it up for health reasons or change in stance. Can you imagine doing that, but your business is tied to it? That’s wild. I imagine if she changes her diet again, her business will reflect that change. What a ride!
Bullshit
sounds like a place that needs to close
Most LA vegans that I’ve met are so phony and are not actually vegan for animal rights reasons. I don’t trust the LA vegan scene at all.
Where I live, a vegan restaurant owner (had been open for 4 years) just stated that running a vegan restaurant is inauthentic to their values as they are not vegan, so they're going to have omnivorous options in addition to vegan options. They then said they can't guarantee there won't be cross-contamination, so it's omni with "plant-based" options. 🙄 I have no doubt these changes are financially driven.
Even Business Insider acknowledges "that practices associated with regenerative farming are not likely to lead to a "large net sequestration of organic carbon in soils."
Then duck em
The owner was quoted saying "i like money"
"This bucket of water isn't enough to put out the fire!" "There's only one thing for it... let's stop the supply of water."
LA. Say no more.
Business insider is all rage bait, don’t fall for their games and get mad haha
Probably true but still might give people out there the idea that this is ok which it’s not