Popular restaurant that went vegan about to have to close

[Andy_T]

Don't know if that has already been posted here (I did a search but could not find it).

The owners of Gustorganics, a thriving paleo restaurant, made the decision to go vegan after watching "Earthlings", and most of their meat-head customers decided to boycott them :-(

GustOrganics in NYC Goes 100% Vegan, Gets Hate.. Then Love

GustOrganics, the only certified organic restaurant in New York City, recently made a very big decision to switch its menu from a meat-focused one to 100% plant-based.

And this has caused a tremendous uproar.

For more than five years, GustOrganics had attracted a loyal customer base that was accustomed to eating meat and chicken dishes, so eliminating all of these items and carrying nothing but vegan food carried serious financial risks for the restaurant.

What Kiki Adams, who now runs GustOrganics with her husband Paul Chang Villanueva, prepared for were some lean times in this transition period, but what she didn’t expect was the amount of hate that she would receive.

“The initial response was awful on all fronts,” she told me via e-mail.

“We were getting bashed on social media, being called ‘unethical’. I got texts from people telling me that they hoped I went out of business. A group of six women came in and demanded that we serve them lemon chicken, and when we wouldn’t serve them this dish, they harassed our server so badly that he cried and walked out on his shift. The Reddit community got a hold of this and tore us apart.”

Yet, as the hate finally died down, love and support came pouring in.

“As the word spread, people have been coming in from places as far as California and Berlin to support us. One Canadian woman even told us that she would pay for 20 veggie burgers for other people to eat, so she could help us out. The positive response outweighs the negative by two-fold at this point.

“We are getting emails from all over the world with individuals telling us that as soon as they visit NYC, GustOrganics will be the first place that they will stop. People are coming in and asking to shake my hand and to thank me. This happens on a daily basis. Our servers went from skeptics to totally proud of what we have done. My plan is finally beginning to work,” said Kiki Adami.

They are struggling financialy and have set up a gofundme, so that they are not forced to close.

So anybody who is in the position to do so, pay them a visit!

You might even consider supporting them financially, if you are able to and think that this is a good idea.

Best regards,
Andy

 

[Calliegirl]

A local pizza place has recently switched to all vegan and gotten similar complaints. We're hoping they'll have enough vegan customers to stay in business as they are the only vegan pizza place here, and their food is good too.

It's a shame that omni's think every restaurant has to cater to them.

 

[Andy_T]

Awesome, Calliegirl, do your best to support them!

 

[Calliegirl]

For a pizza place, they make one of the best, and biggest, veggie burgers I've ever had.

 

[Bite Size Vegan]

good for them! haters can suck it. also, amused that the article says "meat and chicken." like when people say "meat and fish." it's all meat, people!

 

[Joe]

Hard for me to believe that this is the only vegan restaurant in NYC. (Although the article actually says it is the only certified organic restaurant in NYC.)

I wonder how many vegan restaurants there are in, say, London.

 

[Amy SF]

I don't think it's the only vegan restaurant in NYC.

 

[Danielle]

Happy cow lists a few vegan restaurants there, definitely not the only one