A few weeks ago we received word that Slutty Vegan had closed its short-lived location in Harlem. We attempted to reach out to the restaurant to no avail. They suggest that one text them via their website but seem not to be monitoring the provided number. More closures followed, and then on Tuesday came a story in People that indicated the business had gone through a "restructuring" in February.
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| Shuttered Slutty Vegan on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth |
According to the article, Cole Hayes on March 28 purchased her company back under the name “Ain’t Nobody Coming to See You, Otis LLC” - a reference to a quote from the 1998 film “The Temptations.”
That said, we were unable find an entity by that name registered with the State of Georgia, but did observe a separate entity "Voagies, Inc." that Cole-Hayes registered March 14 as a "foreign profit corporation" with a home jurisdiction of Delaware.
The People article also stated that Slutty Vegan currently has eight locations including five in Georgia. The Slutty Vegan app, however, indicates that there are just three locations: Baltimore, Birmingham and Jonesboro. A fourth location on Edgewood Avenue is still open but was strangely absent from the app. The status of a location in Brooklyn is unclear but no one answers at the restaurant and its message is the same as closed locations in Atlanta.
An employee at the Edgewood Avenue location confirmed that locations on Ralph David Abernathy in Atlanta and on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth are, in fact, closed, and are also marked "permanently closed" on Google. A visit this past weekend to Truist Park for the Savannah Bananas also confirmed that Slutty Vegan, added to Truist Park in 2023, has been removed from the ballpark for the 2025 season.
(In our one visit to the Pleasant Hill location we were greeted with "Slut in the door!" and in our brief visit must have heard "slut order up""virgin slut""slut in the door" etc. more times than we can count. "Welcome to Moe's!" is annoying enough; this experience was over the top in the worst way possible.)
That said, the report in People definitely seemed to amplify some elements of her story while at the same time minimizing [misstating?] significant facts.
Recent weeks have not only brought the aforementioned closure but also the closures of its outposts on the campuses of Spelman College, the HBCU in downtown Atlanta, and Georgia Tech.
The February 26 closure of Slutty Vegan at Spelman College after less than two years in business is disappointing on the surface but perhaps worse still is that the college replaced it with what they indicated the students wanted: the return of Twisted Taco.
The HBCU released a statement regarding the replacement. The statement says in part: "The college's student dining advisory group has polled students regarding a dining replacement." As a result, Twisted Taco will return to campus.
Cole Hayes, a graduate of fellow HBCU Clark Atlanta University, launched Slutty Vegan in August 2018, first as ghost kitchen, then as a physical restaurant in January 2019, with the first location on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard in the Westview neighborhood of southwest Atlanta.
Cole Hayes announced a location in Columbus, Georgia in 2021. The restaurant, planned along the city's busy Manchester Expressway, was to replace a former China Express and be built from the ground up with the introduction of the company's first drive-thru. The former Chinese restaurant was demolished in April 2022 but the new Slutty Vegan was never built and the property is currently listed for sale by Atlanta real estate firm Ackerman & Co.
"We are the fastest growing independent restaurant franchise in the country!" Cole Hayes proclaims in assorted social media posts.
Interestingly, it was just a month later in May 2022, that Cole announced Slutty Vegan had received a $25 million investment from restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality Investments and Essence Ventures CEO Richelieu Dennis’ New Voice Fund. The investment valued what was then a four-unit chain at an eye-popping $100 million. The money was to be used to "beef up" Slutty Vegan’s C-suite, while also fueling unit growth, according to CEO and founder Pinky Cole.
Meyer's investment came after he partnered with Cole on "SluttyShack" as part of Shack Shack's "Now Serving" collaboration series in 2021.
Cole Hayes told Forbes in May 2022 that she would use the funds to open 10 more units by the end of 2022 and another 10 in 2023. Today there are just four locations.
Speaking at a business franchising event in 2024, Cole claimed that her AUV (Average Unit Volume) was $2M and that Bar Vegan does "$3.6 [million] every year." She went on to claim to have done $16M in revenue in 2023, and was anticipating $24M in revenue in 2024.
Muhammad Yasin, a veteran of both GPS Hospitality and Panera, was tapped as Slutty Vegan's District Manager while Joi Alexander, a veteran of both Levy Restaurants and CAVA was named Slutty Vegan's National Director of Sales & Catering. Both joined the business in late 2021 but were gone less than two years later, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
Jason Crain, who joined the business in March 2020 and was named its first President in July 2022, left the business in March 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Slutty Vegan posted to their Instagram page this past November that they were "Looking For A President." It's unclear what came of that search.
A highly anticipated location in Harlem opened in early March 2023, but less than two years later was closed. The Harlem location, however, lasted far longer than a location on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, which opened in March 2024 and was closed by June.
Cole Hayes also opened and later closed locations in Athens and Dallas, Texas, that she first called "temporary," as with most closures. Another location in Birmingham also closed, only to be reopened this past fall when Cole "gifted" the franchise to entrepreneur Reatta Myers-Hall.
A joint venture location at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was announced in January 2024 with a planned opening this past fall, but it hasn't yet opened, and sources close to the project indicate that it won't.
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| Rendering of the previously planned Hartsfield-Jackson location |
A Slutty Vegan spinoff "The Morning After" was to have opened at 881 Marietta Street (formerly Delia's Chicken Sausage Stand) near Georgia Tech, but never did. An affiliate of Slutty Vegan purchased the property in April 2023 with plans to open later that year, but the restaurant never opened, and Cole Hayes sold the property last March.
Speaking of spinoffs, Cole Hayes'"Bar Vegan" debuted at Ponce City Market in February 2021. Another location opened in Lawrenceville this past August but was closed by December. A combo Slutty Vegan+Bar Vegan location opened in Cole's hometown of Baltimore this past January. That said, it's still marked "coming soon" on the Slutty Vegan website, while other previously closed locations are still listed as if they are active and operating.
Several real estate sources indicate that the Bar Vegan in Ponce City Market is "in play" and it likely won't be occupying the popular location long term.
"Your health and awareness are important to us, we are currently working on our nutritional facts and calorie counts for all of our menu items."
Given the growth she had earlier projected, it's baffling that something this vital to growth could still be incomplete.
"Where can I find your ingredients?" reads another prompt on the page.
The response leads you to an Instagram story from more than a year ago with pictures of "major ingredients" of some items, but given that she is known to use both Impossible and Beyond burgers, it's unclear what you are looking at or how accurate the effort is.
One commenter on a follow-up story by the AJC summed it up well:
"In less than 3 years, she burned through the $25 million invested by Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer and SheaMoisture founder Richelieu Dennis with an unrealistic multi-state expansion plan that stopped at just 8 company-owned locations in 4 states. Add to that the operational inefficiencies due to the lack of hands on management from her as owner. She co-mingled her personal and business brands focusing more on the personal side with a book, “philanthropy,” and LLC giveaway stunts than her core business which is food. And after failing to scale nationally, now she wants to expand globally in Africa and of all places Dubai."
In addition to her restaurants, Cole Hayes introduced a line of consumer-packaged goods (CPG), including plant-based spinach & artichoke dip. The "Vegan Bangin' Spinach Artichoke Dip" and "Vegan Hot-Lanta Buffalo Cheese Dip" were introduced but later discontinued from Target. The Spinach Dip was also introduced at Costco but later discontinued as well. Cole Hayes stated at a 2024 speaking engagement that the Spinach Artichoke Dip was picked up by Walmart "in week 37" but there is no indication that the product ever hit store shelves of the discount retailer.
Cole Hayes has in years past been hit with lawsuits in New York and Atlanta from former employees alleging, among other things, that the restaurant withheld a portion of their tips while paying them less than the federal minimum wage and also did not adequately compensate overtime pay.
A new lawsuit filed April 2 in New York seeks to "remedy illegal conduct under Title VII and the NYCHRL, including sexual harassment, gender discrimination, imposition of a hostile work environment and retaliation by Defendant, his former employer." The NYCHRL, or New York City Human Rights Law, is a significant anti-discrimination law meant to protect New York City residents from discrimination and harassment based on various protected characteristics in areas including employment.
Former employees and others who have worked with Cole Hayes tell ToNeTo Atlanta she was not the most pleasant of bosses. This LinkedIn Op Ed calls into question Cole Hayes' insufficient pay to her hourly workers while reviews on job website Glassdoor also lament long hours and low pay, among other issues.
The Slutty Vegan has an overall rating of 3.8 stars on Glassdoor with 63% indicating that they "approve" of Pinky Cole as CEO.
Have you been to Slutty Vegan? Do you think the restaurant is worth the hype or overrated? What is your favorite plant-based restaurant in Atlanta?
Please share your thoughts below.