Furious vegans besiege LA restaurant on Father’s Day and force it to close after owner dropped plant-based menu for meat and dairy dishes
Furious vegans closed an LA restaurant in protest at the decision to ditch the plant-based menu in favor of meat and dairy dishes.
Angry protesters swarmed to Sage Regenerative Kitchen & Brewery in Echo Park on Father’s Day and were so disruptive that the venue had to close.
The protest came after chef Molly Engelhart announced her decision to move away from an exclusively vegan menu.
The crowd threw fake blood and graffitied “Chef Molly Killer” outside the restaurant during the tense standoff.
“These people came into my restaurant, harassed my customers and my employees, vandalized my restaurant and openly said they wanted to put me out of business,” Engelhart said. Fox Digital.
Furious vegans closed an LA restaurant and threw fake blood to protest the decision to swap the plant-based menu for meat and dairy dishes.
The renowned chef announced the restaurant’s transition to regenerative agriculture in an Instagram post on Earth Day.
Last month, Sage Plant Based Bistro became Sage Regenerative Kitchen & Brewery and began offering meats like bison and beef, as well as cheese and eggs.
But the backlash came quickly and Engelhart was inundated with negative comments.
‘It makes my stomach sick. Sage has been our favorite destination for our vegan family for years,” one woman wrote. ‘So very devastated by this. It feels like mourning a death.’
“So your restaurant is going to source food from one of the most land-intensive forms of agriculture there is, and you’re announcing this on Earth Day, awesome,” another person added.
The protest came after chef Molly Engelhart announced her decision to move away from an exclusively vegan menu
“This is insane – as a fellow vegan restaurant owner, long-time customer and admirer of yours, I am so sad and disappointed by your horrific transition to animal slaughter,” one commenter wrote.
However, Engelhart has remained steadfast in her decision.
“I believe there are other places where they can express their passion,” she said. ‘There are more pressing problems than my restaurant.
‘This is all very disappointing. We are a small family business trying to make it. California is the toughest place to do business.”
She cited rising crime in her local Echo Park neighborhood as one of the biggest challenges her business faces.
“Friday night there was a stabbing right outside the restaurant,” Engelhart said. ‘Without this extra stress, the neighborhood already feels chaotic and scary.
Angry protesters swarmed to Sage Regenerative Kitchen & Brewery on Father’s Day and were so disruptive that the venue had to close
The celebrity chef announced the restaurant’s transition to regenerative agriculture in an Instagram post on Earth Day and received a swift response.
“It’s illegal what these people are doing: harassing guests and staff in the restaurant, and the police didn’t show up for three hours.”
Engelhart is one of hundreds of thousands of people who have left California due to the state’s high crime rate, drug use and homelessness.
She left the area during Covid and has moved to Texas, regularly traveling back to the Golden State to check on her restaurants.
Violent crime in Los Angeles increased 2.9 percent in the first three months of 2024, robberies increased 9.5 percent and homicides increased 28.1 percent.
Despite this, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently announced plans to cut funding for law enforcement as the state faces a massive deficit of at least $45 billion.
The proposed budget includes cuts of $97 million to the Justice Department, $10 million to the Justice Department’s Law Enforcement Division and more than $80 million to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.