As the city settled into its new post-pandemic normal, the vegan restaurants began to close. On the Upper West Side, Blossom shuttered its final location in the summer of 2024, the same month that Guevara’s called it quits. In Harlem, Seasoned Vegan closed, and then reopened, and then, last spring, that version closed, too. The vegan slice shop Screamer’s closed, and Terms of Endearment closed, and Heartbreakers closed, and the vegan diner Champs was briefly revived as Ro’s, which also closed. The vegan bloodbath seemed to transcend both category, aesthetic, age, and borough.
Six months ago, the vegan restaurateur Ravi Derossi would have said that this was not a story. Yes, it had become the narrative that vegan restaurants were closing, but actually all restaurants were closing, and “people like to write about vegans because people hate the vegans.” But by late October, Derossi had changed his mind. “Hospitality in general is getting killed,” he maintained. “But it’s also a vegan thing.”
If it were only New York restaurants where vegans seemed to be losing ground — or only in New York, or only in restaurants — you could maybe chalk it up to material conditions, something about rising rents, the death of counterculture, the decline of public life. But it isn’t. “I’ve known hundreds, if not thousands, of vegans, and most of them aren’t anymore,” vegan chef and cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz said. And she got it. “I think people get fatigued, and it’s hard, and it starts feeling pointless.”
Being vegan in this city is too expensive if you eat out often.
Johnnadawearsglasses
There was always a massive exaggeration of how many people would be long term vegetarians or vegans. VC’s lost their shirts betting huge increases in plant based diets in general. There were polls at the height of the craze where 30%+ of teenage girls said they were vegan or vegetarian.
ffiishs
Just have a few dollar slices no?
thats-gold-jerry
Goop
my5cent
Beans or rice are cheap. Pretty staple items but that’s not the vegan they want to sell, it’s plant based meats, plant based milks, which are all above their staple prices.
miiija
Are we back in 2016?
richonarampage
Dumb article in general with some okay tid bits. Yes I do think vegan fad is slowing but it has a terrible problem of nurturing and retaining new converters because frankly the vegan food that some of these restaurants have been putting out over the decades are simply very poor substitute to the non vegan alternative. Just really really huge talent gap in chefs and menu creation and creativity between vegan vs non-vegan. That anecdote about lamenting not being able to find tempeh kinda hits the nail on the head. Being brutally honest here but tempeh tastes awful relative to any other food item vegan or not vegan. The texture isn’t great. Some times the visual can be a little weird too. Not that it can’t be made to taste pretty decent if you really chef it up but there is a ceiling to what kinda dish you can potentially create from a tempeh vs even a humble egg. So many restaurants just get stuck on that healthy for you aspect and create really tasteless bullshit. Which is why despite all the controversy I applaud EMP in really pushing the boundaries and innovating new techniques to make vegan food taste better.
funkykayy
As an Indian vegetarian who’s lived in NYC for awhile now, the issue I see with the vegan movement in the west is how they want to be “ so different” from the meat eaters but then all of the alternatives are trying to be meat imitations. ( Beyond burgers , Chik’n, cauliflower steak etc )
Part of why veganism works in many eastern cuisines ( especially Indian and Thai) is that the vegan food is not a stand in for an alternative meat dish. You don’t have a Paneer Vindaloo or an Eggplant Shawarma as a stand in for their meat versions. Instead you have paneer butter masala and bhaingan bharta as their own stand alone dishes which are not “ derivative” of any meat dishes. Everyone likes paneer even the most hardcore meat eaters.
The west needs to get inventive with vegan cooking – dishes that can become staples in their own right ( like avocado toast) if they want more people to embrace plant based diets
mrs_david_silva
Not surprising. People think they want to try being vegan/vegetarian, then they find out their bloody mary or fresh pasta dish are out. The dropout rate is incredibly high. The idea that you’ll have a group of four or six who want to get a vegan meal together on a regular basis is not rooted in reality. Most of my friends are omnivores and if we go out as a group, I’m not going to veto their choice or insist on a vegan restaurant to suit my diet; I’ll just make sure there’s something I can eat that’s not just a salad or a few sides. I’m genuinely surprised Dirt Candy and abcv have been around for so long.
dlm2137
Damn I didn’t know that Blossom and Champs closed, I liked those places back in the day.
Hadn’t been there in years, I guess no one else had either.
Food Swings tho, that place was the GOAT. I think its whole thesis was that vegan food could kill you just as fast as meat.
Flashy210
I was plant based for four years. 2 years in NYC and 2 during my last two years in Chicago. The issue with veganism and practicing it isn’t the lack of meat, but at a certain point it becomes counterintuitive in ways you don’t anticipate. My motivation for it was based on how my diet contributed to carbon emissions. What finally won me over and made me abandon it was basing the vast majority of my grocery shopping from the GrowNYC Green Markets. What sense did it make to eat food shipped across the country when fresh fish is being caught and delivered in shorter times? Why would I eat processed fillers that were made states away? I still enjoy vegan found and eat vegetarian frequently, but I’ve found it better to eat locally more than anything and NYC is one of the best places to do it.
thebalancewithin
I figured that was the case, especially with so many being fixated on protein right now. Easier for them to get it from tasty animal flesh. Not as easy to get the same protein without overdoing it on carbs for most people attempting
Ready-Will-7042
Peaked? Let me tell you something, I haven’t even begun to peak. And when I do peak, you’ll know. Because I’m gonna peak so hard that everybody in New York’s gonna feel it.
Titty_bird
This is so disheartening. I was so happy to see more people eat plant based and more people claiming to be vegan. I first went vegan in 1999. It’s true that it’s not always an easy way to eat but if your heart is in the right place, it will always be worth the trouble. Unfortunately most people that try veganism don’t come at it from the animal rights standpoint. I get it, truly I do. Things feel chaotic and shitty so why do it for your health? Why do it for the environment when no one else is doing anything? We animal rights vegans always are the last ones standing and it makes me sad.
23-Skiddo
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
skynet345
This is to be expected. Conservatism as a whole is on the rise including NYC and especially amongst people. Not eating meat is not something you see when the culture is more conservative
magicalbraincell
there is a vegan place in midtown and it was such a let down because everything was so stripped of creativity. Vegan food should not have to be dry, processed and boring. I feel like a lot of these vegan spots make it look like a science project instead of food to enjoy.
Swimming_Ad5052
I hate vegan/vegetarian restaurants. fake health foods.
they think they are doing something good for themselves/the planet, but its the opposite.
Glad they are shutting down.
saw a plantega the other day i was disgusted
superultramega99
Reverie opened in Williamsburg in the fall, and it’s a delicious all vegan restaurant. Check it out.
20 Comments
As the city settled into its new post-pandemic normal, the vegan restaurants began to close. On the Upper West Side, Blossom shuttered its final location in the summer of 2024, the same month that Guevara’s called it quits. In Harlem, Seasoned Vegan closed, and then reopened, and then, last spring, that version closed, too. The vegan slice shop Screamer’s closed, and Terms of Endearment closed, and Heartbreakers closed, and the vegan diner Champs was briefly revived as Ro’s, which also closed. The vegan bloodbath seemed to transcend both category, aesthetic, age, and borough.
Six months ago, the vegan restaurateur Ravi Derossi would have said that this was not a story. Yes, it had become the narrative that vegan restaurants were closing, but actually all restaurants were closing, and “people like to write about vegans because people hate the vegans.” But by late October, Derossi had changed his mind. “Hospitality in general is getting killed,” he maintained. “But it’s also a vegan thing.”
If it were only New York restaurants where vegans seemed to be losing ground — or only in New York, or only in restaurants — you could maybe chalk it up to material conditions, something about rising rents, the death of counterculture, the decline of public life. But it isn’t. “I’ve known hundreds, if not thousands, of vegans, and most of them aren’t anymore,” vegan chef and cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz said. And she got it. “I think people get fatigued, and it’s hard, and it starts feeling pointless.”
Read how labor, delivery apps, and culture shifts have turned a once-booming movement into a bust: [https://www.grubstreet.com/article/veganism-movement-decline-vegan-diet-popularity.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=reddit](https://www.grubstreet.com/article/veganism-movement-decline-vegan-diet-popularity.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=reddit)
Being vegan in this city is too expensive if you eat out often.
There was always a massive exaggeration of how many people would be long term vegetarians or vegans. VC’s lost their shirts betting huge increases in plant based diets in general. There were polls at the height of the craze where 30%+ of teenage girls said they were vegan or vegetarian.
Just have a few dollar slices no?
Goop
Beans or rice are cheap. Pretty staple items but that’s not the vegan they want to sell, it’s plant based meats, plant based milks, which are all above their staple prices.
Are we back in 2016?
Dumb article in general with some okay tid bits. Yes I do think vegan fad is slowing but it has a terrible problem of nurturing and retaining new converters because frankly the vegan food that some of these restaurants have been putting out over the decades are simply very poor substitute to the non vegan alternative. Just really really huge talent gap in chefs and menu creation and creativity between vegan vs non-vegan. That anecdote about lamenting not being able to find tempeh kinda hits the nail on the head. Being brutally honest here but tempeh tastes awful relative to any other food item vegan or not vegan. The texture isn’t great. Some times the visual can be a little weird too. Not that it can’t be made to taste pretty decent if you really chef it up but there is a ceiling to what kinda dish you can potentially create from a tempeh vs even a humble egg. So many restaurants just get stuck on that healthy for you aspect and create really tasteless bullshit. Which is why despite all the controversy I applaud EMP in really pushing the boundaries and innovating new techniques to make vegan food taste better.
As an Indian vegetarian who’s lived in NYC for awhile now, the issue I see with the vegan movement in the west is how they want to be “ so different” from the meat eaters but then all of the alternatives are trying to be meat imitations. ( Beyond burgers , Chik’n, cauliflower steak etc )
Part of why veganism works in many eastern cuisines ( especially Indian and Thai) is that the vegan food is not a stand in for an alternative meat dish. You don’t have a Paneer Vindaloo or an Eggplant Shawarma as a stand in for their meat versions. Instead you have paneer butter masala and bhaingan bharta as their own stand alone dishes which are not “ derivative” of any meat dishes. Everyone likes paneer even the most hardcore meat eaters.
The west needs to get inventive with vegan cooking – dishes that can become staples in their own right ( like avocado toast) if they want more people to embrace plant based diets
Not surprising. People think they want to try being vegan/vegetarian, then they find out their bloody mary or fresh pasta dish are out. The dropout rate is incredibly high. The idea that you’ll have a group of four or six who want to get a vegan meal together on a regular basis is not rooted in reality. Most of my friends are omnivores and if we go out as a group, I’m not going to veto their choice or insist on a vegan restaurant to suit my diet; I’ll just make sure there’s something I can eat that’s not just a salad or a few sides. I’m genuinely surprised Dirt Candy and abcv have been around for so long.
Damn I didn’t know that Blossom and Champs closed, I liked those places back in the day.
Hadn’t been there in years, I guess no one else had either.
Food Swings tho, that place was the GOAT. I think its whole thesis was that vegan food could kill you just as fast as meat.
I was plant based for four years. 2 years in NYC and 2 during my last two years in Chicago. The issue with veganism and practicing it isn’t the lack of meat, but at a certain point it becomes counterintuitive in ways you don’t anticipate. My motivation for it was based on how my diet contributed to carbon emissions. What finally won me over and made me abandon it was basing the vast majority of my grocery shopping from the GrowNYC Green Markets. What sense did it make to eat food shipped across the country when fresh fish is being caught and delivered in shorter times? Why would I eat processed fillers that were made states away? I still enjoy vegan found and eat vegetarian frequently, but I’ve found it better to eat locally more than anything and NYC is one of the best places to do it.
I figured that was the case, especially with so many being fixated on protein right now. Easier for them to get it from tasty animal flesh. Not as easy to get the same protein without overdoing it on carbs for most people attempting
Peaked? Let me tell you something, I haven’t even begun to peak. And when I do peak, you’ll know. Because I’m gonna peak so hard that everybody in New York’s gonna feel it.
This is so disheartening. I was so happy to see more people eat plant based and more people claiming to be vegan. I first went vegan in 1999. It’s true that it’s not always an easy way to eat but if your heart is in the right place, it will always be worth the trouble. Unfortunately most people that try veganism don’t come at it from the animal rights standpoint. I get it, truly I do. Things feel chaotic and shitty so why do it for your health? Why do it for the environment when no one else is doing anything? We animal rights vegans always are the last ones standing and it makes me sad.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
This is to be expected. Conservatism as a whole is on the rise including NYC and especially amongst people. Not eating meat is not something you see when the culture is more conservative
there is a vegan place in midtown and it was such a let down because everything was so stripped of creativity. Vegan food should not have to be dry, processed and boring. I feel like a lot of these vegan spots make it look like a science project instead of food to enjoy.
I hate vegan/vegetarian restaurants. fake health foods.
they think they are doing something good for themselves/the planet, but its the opposite.
Glad they are shutting down.
saw a plantega the other day i was disgusted
Reverie opened in Williamsburg in the fall, and it’s a delicious all vegan restaurant. Check it out.