From sfgate.com
By Karen Palmer
"I don't know if I'm coming back."
In 2022, comedian and actor Kevin Hart debuted an ambitious concept: an entirely vegan fast-food chain named Hart House. Its first location opened to huge fanfare (and long lines) mere blocks away from the ever-busy In-N-Out near Los Angeles International Airport. Three more Los Angeles outposts quickly followed, and for a moment, it felt like Hart had finally given approachable everyday vegan food the spotlight it had long deserved.
But in September 2024, the chain shuttered seemingly overnight.
It may have been a harbinger of things to come for vegan restaurants across California, as many meatless eateries have shuttered, some after decades in operation, in 2026.
While San Francisco-born Cafe Gratitude and alternative protein companies like Beyond Meat once led the charge for vegan alternatives to casual food, it’s clear that the golden age for the category has dimmed considerably. These days, the family behind Cafe Gratitude has gone all in on cattle ranching, and Beyond has since rebranded, betting big on a new line of “clean” protein drinks.
In Los Angeles, traditionally a haven for alternative eating, 16-year-old vegan Mexican restaurant Un Solo Sol in Boyle Heights announced on Instagram that its final day of service will be Sept. 28.
Dishes from vegan restaurant Un Solo Sol in Los Angeles. Danny C. via Yelp
Owner Carlos Ortez told SFGATE that the closure is part of a bigger global economic crisis affecting all small businesses.
“Our industry is vulnerable by the very fact that going to a restaurant should not be a luxury, but it’s now a luxury in these times when everybody has a big drop in their incomes,” Ortez said. “Their budgets are so tight that they cannot afford going out, to relax, to have a good time with friends.”
He added: “It’s even more difficult because the market for veganism is smaller. It’s very specific, not broad like a hamburger. It’s this tiny option compared to that monster option in the middle of a crisis, so it’s impossible that we would not be affected. It’s why vegan restaurants are closing.”
Ortez is right. The Vegan Joint, a plant-based vegan Thai chain, announced in late August that it would close its three Southern California locations serving the likes of Kra Pow burgers in Downtown LA, West LA and Woodland Hills. And after years of growth, vegan fast food brand Monty’s Good Burger closed half of its locations in early 2026, leaving only outposts in Koreatown and Echo Park.
Exterior signage for, left, and dishes from the Vegan Joint in Los Angeles. Michael S/Danny T. via Yelp
In Northern California, Saluhall, the struggling Ikea-adjacent and plant-forward food hall that debuted in downtown San Francisco in 2024, has shuttered most of its eateries, including Casa Borinqueña, a meat-free Puerto Rican concept that closed in January. The food hall’s operator, British developer Kerb Food, parted ways with the project in November. (The beverage arm of a local hospitality group has since taken over three bars at Saluhall.)
The ordering area, left, and dishes from the now-shuttered Puerto Rican vegan restaurant Casa Borinqueña in Saluhall in San Francisco. Robin M/Hilary P. via Yelp
Over in Oakland, legendary upscale vegan restaurant Millennium closed temporarily in May, then reopened with a more scaled-back menu and fewer seats in June. After introducing meat and cheese to its menu to combat sluggish sales in January, the long-time plant-based smashburger joint Malibu’s Burgers shuttered in Uptown Oakland in June. Sage Vegan Bistro, once a staple of Los Angeles with multiple locations, tried a similar tactic in 2024, adding meat to the menu and enraging its fanbase; the restaurant group closed entirely in early 2025. Once-vegan Burgerlords did the same at its long-time Highland Park location in 2023 before closing.
In San Diego, ambitious vegan restaurants Dreamboat and Vulture from well-known local restaurateurs — plant-based entrepreneur Kory Stetina of Kindred and Mothership, and Arsalun Tafazoli of CH Projects, who is also known for the newly revamped Lafayette Hotel and Club and the Little Italy standby Born & Raised — closed their doors in University Park in February after less than a year in operation.
Vegan chain Loving Hut, which, at 16 years, was one of San Diego’s longest-running fully vegan joints, shuttered its North Park location in May, while vegan Mexican restaurant El Veganito served its final order of “phish” tacos at the Grossmont Center in La Mesa on Aug. 22.
The squeeze on plant-based food has been felt in other areas of the state as well. When a popular local vegetarian restaurant shuttered after 12 years in business this summer, Sacramento Bee food writer Sean Timberlake headlined a June 26 column: “After Mother’s closure, what’s next for vegan dining in Sacramento?”
Many of the owners of the closed or closing restaurants have cited financial woes as a major contributor to the businesses’ demise, although the past few years have presented unprecedented challenges to the state’s restaurants across the board, from the lingering effects of the pandemic to the staggering price increases for ingredients and supplies. Vegan restaurants certainly aren’t the only ones who have felt the pinch, as closures have been, sadly, commonplace across cuisines and price points.
Other factors may be at play as well: In early January, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a new food pyramid that heavily emphasizes protein, full-fat dairy without added processed sugars and “healthy fats” from ingredients like meat, seafood, eggs, nuts and avocado. Some fast food brands like Midwestern burger favourite Steak ’n Shake have latched onto the new plan, leaning into the “Make America Healthy Again” movement with vigour.
Then there’s the rise of so-called “protein-maxxing,” a social media trend that suggests that overloading one’s protein intake can help increase metabolism and weight management. Whether due to the trend or not, meat sales are thriving. In a May 19 news release, the American Farm Bureau Federation said, “Industry analysis shows meat sales hit $112 billion in 2025, with more than 98% of American households purchasing meat for daily meals. USDA is forecasting consumption of beef, pork and chicken to rise in 2026.” And that’s even with the average retail price of beef up 13% over 2025.
The dining room, left, and a dish from Millennium in Oakland, Calif. Bridget W/J. Beatrice L. via Yelp
Despite America’s animal-based consumption, the health effects of eschewing meat and dairy have been documented over the years. A recent study from researchers at UC San Diego and University of Freiburg in Germany found that switching to a vegan diet can “alter the body’s epigenetic landscape in ways associated with reduced inflammation and biological aging.” The data suggest that the participants experienced a deceleration in biological aging over the course of a month.
Still, veganism has always comprised a tiny sliver of the population. A 2023 Gallup poll estimated that only 1% of Americans identify as vegan, leaving plant-based-branded businesses to fight for a small piece of the dining ecosystem. That kind of narrow focus is turning out to be increasingly hard to maintain.
Kayla de la Haye, a public health professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, has researched plant-based food and can see the challenges a vegan restaurant might face.
In one of her recent studies of a national sample of adults, participants were shown two food baskets, one with meat and cheese and the other with plant-based foods like hummus and olives. When the basket was labelled as “vegan” or “vegetarian,” only about 20% of people selected it as the one they wanted. When it was labelled “healthy” or “sustainable,” that figure doubled.
“The effect was strongest for people who said they were meat eaters,” de la Haye told SFGATE. “Meat eaters are really turned off by something that looks delicious but is labelled vegan or vegetarian.”
“We’ve also done qualitative work interviewing people and asking them what they think about plant-based foods, and really unprompted people unleashed a whole bunch of negative views on veganism and vegetarianism,” she said, adding that plant-based diets are associated with the left in an increasingly polarized political climate. “They think it’s really extreme.”
De la Haye also throws GLP-1s into the mix of hurdles that vegan restaurants are facing right now.
“Over 10% of the population is on GLP-1s now, and they’re being told to eat more protein with every meal,” she said. “Generally, the protein available on the market is animal-based.”
For restaurant owners like Ortez of Un Solo Sol, the support he’s received from the LA community in the wake of announcing the closure has been bittersweet. Fans have flocked to the Boyle Heights restaurant for a final meal, filling up tables that were previously going empty.
“Even with that huge turnout that they’ve shown since the announcement, I still have to retreat at least for a while,” he said. “I do not know if I’m coming back.”
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/california-vegan-restaurants-closing-22431879.php
No comments:
Post a Comment