WEBVTT - Making a Difference, One Slutty Vegan at a Time 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:03.760 Citizen Chef is a production of I Heart Radio. You 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:05.480 want to go vegan because you want at least await Great, 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:08.039 you want to go vegan because you love the animals. Great. 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:09.800 You want to go vegan because you want to lower 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.079 your calessar, or even better, save the planet. If you 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.800 want to save the planet, whatever your reason is, we 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.239 don't put labels on it. We're not pushing the agenda 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.560 my audience. Percent of the people who come to Sledty 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.439 vegan are not even vegan. If I can get you 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.920 to at least consider replacing one meal a day, then 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:28.800 I know I've done my job, and I know I've 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:34.280 done something right. Hey, I'm Tom Collikio and you're with 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.880 Sneak to Citizen Chef. Say we're talking to Pinky Call. 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.400 Pinky is recognized locally and by her fans and celebrities 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:45.640 trying to figure out how to deliver a sloppy toppy 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.920 across the country. You know, she's not a chef, but 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:54.600 she really is an amazing restaurantur. I first met Pinky 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.080 when I was asked to mentor a few restaurant tours 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:00.640 through a program that Forbes was doing, and I was 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:04.520 absolutely blown away. Just the the handle that she has 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:06.520 had on the restaurant industry and the question that she 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:08.800 was asking you was much much deeper than what I 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:12.479 expected a freshman restaurant tour to ask. She went from 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.840 her share kitchen to two food trucks to now multiple 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:18.480 locations a spinoff concept. I'm sure there's going to be 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.240 a movie about her life one day. While we saw 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.520 many of my peers shutter the restaurants during the pandemic, 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.120 she has just grown. So it's just my my absolute 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:31.520 pleasure to introduce Pinky Cole to the Citizenship Podcast. Yes, 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.160 I'm excited, so let's just jump right in. People have 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.320 said it was overnight success, but but nothing happens overnight, 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.000 and you had a long career. You were kind of 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.160 hustling as a kid. Yeah, I want to ask you first, 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.080 where where does the entrepreneurial drive come from? That entrepreneuri drive? 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:53.520 So the day that I was born, my father was 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.720 being sentenced to life in prison. Right. He was a businessman. 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.640 He wasn't a legal businessman, but he was a businessman 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.760 and the US right. So I grew up watching my mother, 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.560 who fifty percent of her time was spent at a 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.760 company which she's been at the same company now for 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.880 over thirty years. Right when she loves and appreciates, and 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.480 then the other fifty percent of her time she spent 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:19.160 as an entrepreneur, lead singer of a reggae band, radio personality, 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:21.600 just still getting her hands wet and really trying to 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.160 fulfill her dreams as much as possible as a single 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:27.680 mother while my father was in prison. So what I 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.240 learned from my father being in prison and my mother 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.919 being a part time entrepreneur is that the hustle never stops. Right. 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:38.880 So I've seen two examples of individuals who really just 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.200 wanted a better life. Even my father, from behind bars, 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.720 he would send me rich Dad, Poor Dad. He would 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:47.560 teach me about stocks, he would tell me about business. 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.680 So I got all of the business acumen from him, 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.600 but I did it the legal way. So growing up, 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.639 I used to throw parties and I used to make 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.880 four thousand dollars every every week. Read about that. I 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:02.920 read about this. You used to throw parties for kids 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:05.240 and charge them. Yeah, like high school parties are in 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.200 Baltimore and I was just doing a thing. You know, 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.799 people knew my family. We were Jamaican. We were well 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.520 known in the community. And I'm a talker. As you 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:14.920 can see, I like to wear my mouth. So I 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.360 started throwing these events. How how did you know these 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.200 kids would pay to come to a party. I mean 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.240 I thre parties when I was a kid, and I 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.920 thought I could charge people. I just became a salesman 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:27.520 at an early age, like I have mastered the art 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.160 of bringing people together, and now it's coming full circle. Um. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.160 In high school, I was selling the chickens um and 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.560 reselling them for two dollars, selling candy for anything you 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:39.760 can think of. I was just a natural born hustler, 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:41.440 and I know that I got it from my parents. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.000 And when you asked me where that entrepreneur edge come from, 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.200 that grit and that grind and that hustle, it really 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:47.800 came from my mom and my dad. And I'm so 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.160 grateful for for the humble beginnings. I think we see 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:53.200 that with so many immigrant families that come to this country, 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.880 absolutely that that hustle is uh. You know it runs 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.840 deep because you're right, you know, immigrants come to this 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:02.520 because they want to make a better life for their things. Right. 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.000 I just know what hard work is, Tom, You know, 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.520 like nothing ever came easy for my family. I tell 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.040 people all the time Christmas is I didn't get like 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:12.640 Barbie and Ken. I didn't get dolls growing up. I 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:14.960 didn't get toys. I didn't watch cartoons growing up. I 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.359 was watching Lifetime with my grandmother, right like, I really 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.240 saw examples of people that got up every single day, 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.479 didn't ask for any handouts, went and worked. The lights 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:26.919 were never cut off. We always had exactly what we needed. 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.440 And I'm so grateful for those life lessons early on. Now, 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.040 Sunny Vegan, wasn't your first restaurant. You opened up a 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:36.760 Jamaican restaurant in Yeah, and it was successful. It was successful, 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.560 but it started way before the restaurant. You know, my 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:41.960 background is TV, Tom. Just like how you said you 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.520 weren't prepared for that call, I wasn't prepared to work 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.560 at TV like I was never prepared to either. In fact, 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:51.560 I said no three times before I finally said yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:53.640 tell me about that. You moved out to l A 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.719 to act really yeah, I wanted to be an actress. 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:58.919 And again another full circle moment. I just paid my 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.080 SAG fee, so now I'm in the union, thank god. 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.440 But I went out there and this is the piece 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:06.720 of the story that I really never tell people. I 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.680 moved to l A with two hundred fifty dollars a 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:11.760 Duffel bag in a suitcase in the Bible. I was 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.479 in a three bedroom house, but in one of those 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.520 bedrooms there was four of us living in one of 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.160 the bedrooms right and splitting the rent of the bedroom. 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.240 So we were each paying three hundred dollars every single month. 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:26.800 And during that time and humbled me number one. Number two, 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:28.919 I got an opportunity to work in TV as a 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:30.960 production assistant, and then I got a call from The 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.599 Maury Show. And during my time at Maury, I saved 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:35.240 up a lot of my money, got a loan from 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:37.919 a family friend. And one of my friends said, you 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.040 know what, there's a building that is looking to put 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:42.720 a restaurant there. If you wanted the rent is only 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.400 mind you. I didn't know anything about the restaurant industry nothing. 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.680 I'm not a chef, yes, explain, explaining, So this is 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.479 crazy right now, where so many chefs want to be 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.800 and yet you open a restaurant with out the first 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.920 restaurant zero experience, just because someone called you and said 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.080 the rents cheap. Now, actually you got that you got 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.680 that piece right, because that that is is probably one 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:06.760 of the most important things you can do when you're 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.039 a shepherd or anyone trying to run the business, to 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.560 get a good rent deal. And so, I mean, my 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:13.919 first restaurant was was Grammarcy Tyrant. I gotta say for 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.800 the for that space in the Union Square area, the 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:20.520 grammar Cy Park area, that was well well figured out. 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.360 It was ten square feet in Union Square. Yeah it was. 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.640 It was actually a great rent you actually, you know, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:28.680 had that going for you. But what makes you think 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:32.800 you can open a restaurant never having experience. Um, there's 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:34.880 so so many things that I thought about in the past. 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:36.280 I thought that I wanted to be in the music 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.599 industry and that was a fail. But I needed to 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.000 do that. And you know, I wanted to do the 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:43.880 TV thing on my own and that didn't work. But 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:45.640 it wasn't supposed to work. I was supposed to get 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.400 in a restaurant industry. And sometimes the universe puts things 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:50.840 in your face that you least expect um, and that 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.039 is when you're in alignment. When it when it works out. 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:54.800 And it worked out for me because I didn't have 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.640 experience and I opened this concept up and I had 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.320 a line down the block and I was selling jerk chicken, 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:02.240 not even eating jerk chicken. I haven't eaten meat since 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:04.360 two thousand seven. And I opened up my restaurant in 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.360 two thousand and fourteen, and and it was successful. How 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:09.800 did you know how to put the pieces together? So 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:11.600 I hired ad you make in chef. Some of the 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.240 recipes were mine and and again, you know you had 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.520 a restaurant before. I actually lived in my restaurants, like 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:22.160 every day, all day. I sacrificed my early twenties to 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.360 be in that restaurant. But when I look back at it, 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:27.720 like I needed that training. I needed to go through 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.120 what I went through, good, bad, and indifferent, because it 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.000 really taught me how to be a better entrepreneur. I 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.120 didn't know what I was doing so much so that 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:38.280 I didn't even get fire insurance for my business. And 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.720 you know me having a fire at my establishment. Right, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.160 So so let's talk about that. You you opened the restaurant, 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:47.440 big success. I think you opened up a second juice bar, 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.400 and so you're just you know, knocking out of the park. 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.160 You got two restaurants. You get a phone call, there's 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:55.640 a fire, go back to that that day. You know, 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.760 your dreams come crashing down. It was hard, you know. Um, 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.880 I gotta be honest. I put my whole life savings, 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.440 everything that I had, I did it by myself, and 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.240 to work in a restaurant fourteen fifteen hours a day. 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:11.480 And I can remember closing up my doors. It was 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.680 the night that I closed myself, Um, and I closed 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.680 the doors, and the fire department called me and they 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.160 told me that the restaurant was on fire. So I 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.720 live right down the street and I saw the restaurants 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.080 smoky at this time that they put out the fire, 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:28.720 but everything was smoky, everything was black, And I was 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.440 just in disbelief because I'm like, every single thing that 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.920 I built is in shambles. And when I tell you, 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:37.760 that was actually the best thing that could have ever 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.480 happened to me, because I probably would still be in 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:44.520 that restaurant, clocking in every single day, physically being present 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:47.679 and not being able to scale a grow, right, But 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:49.760 I didn't understand it at the moment. That's why life 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.240 is just so beautiful, right, Like life really teaches you 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.120 about patients and resilience and just understanding that there's a 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.240 reason for everything. How do you pick yourself up? And 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.559 I don't know. When fire put out of fire they 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:02.880 care to part. Yeah, do you find the fire and 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:05.400 pull the water on it? They rip, rip the place apart. 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.160 They do the job, and so how do you pick 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.319 yourself up? The following day you go there and try 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.200 to pick up the pieces. Already just kind of walking down. 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:14.160 I was in disabilte. I didn't know what to do. 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.680 To be honest, I didn't have fire insurance, so I 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.440 wasn't protected. I thought that I could try to salvage 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.000 what was left. I couldn't. Everything was damaged. Um so 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.720 I fell into a little depression. Well what I felt 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.880 was a depression, right, I've never felt like that before, 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:31.880 and I can remember. It happened so fast. I went 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:35.120 from like, Okay, this fire happened, to my car getting repolled, 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:37.880 to me getting evicted, to me losing everything, to me 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:39.760 going flat broke, and I'm like, what is going on? 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.680 Like it felt like a failure, and now that I 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.440 look at it, it was never really a failure at all. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:47.760 So you have to back in Atlanta, put my stuff 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.880 in storage that was in I came to Atlanta and 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:54.960 it felt right and at the time when I moved 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.960 to Atlanta, I was running five miles a day. People 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.440 people thought I was crazy, five miles a day. I 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.040 was reading every day, I was researching on YouTube, I 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.319 was doing everything. Were running from her. I was running 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.720 on the treadmill, running the house off. Yeah. I was 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.160 conditioning my mind. Yeah, my mindset was shifting. I didn't 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:15.800 want to go out. I didn't want to hang with people. 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:17.920 I just wanted to like research. I was just in 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:20.880 research mode. And I can remember I was in my 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.559 bedroom one day and it hit me like a light ball, 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.679 slutty Vegan out of nowhere. Literally, I'm just sitting there 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.520 like slutty Vegan. And I didn't know what it meant. 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.800 I didn't. I'm like, I'm like, what is slutty Vegan. 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.120 Slutty Vegan is a restaurant. Slutty Vegan is And because 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:38.959 I was hungry, I was in Atlanta and on a 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.160 late night, everything was closed and I'm just like, wow, 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:43.080 slutty Vegan. And when it hit me, I called my 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:44.440 best friend. I'm like, what do you think about this now? 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:46.520 She was like, I love it. Do something with it. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.160 And then I just got to work. Well, so you 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.360 were you're work vegan at this point? Oh I was vegan. Yeah, absolutely, 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:54.679 So there's no place to go late night for vegan 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:58.400 food in Atlanta. Now, um, and you had this epiphany, 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:03.320 this slutty vegan. How long from that moment to getting 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:05.840 the doors open? Take So I came up with the 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:11.320 idea first week of July. I started August six. Everything 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.559 this this was from the moment of conceptualizing the idea, 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.079 to getting my permits and my paperwork, finding a shared kitchen, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.800 doing the research, creating a menu. So I moved really, 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.120 really fast. I learned that in l A there were 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.520 so many ghost kitchens where people could order food and deliver, 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.760 so that's where I got the idea from. So when 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:31.960 I got to Atlanta and did it, nobody else in 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.480 Atlanta was doing it. And I found the shared kitchen 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:36.680 and I said, listen, I got this crazy idea. Let 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:38.400 me try it. And like, okay, we've never heard of it, 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.640 but you could try it. And I did it, and 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.360 the first week it was like four people there, and 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.520 then a week after that it was like fifty, and 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:48.280 then it just kept growing, growing so much that they 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:50.240 kicked me out because they said I had too many 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:55.640 people coming. Stick with us because when we come back, 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:57.840 Pekicle will tell us about her plans for the future 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.040 and how Slightly Vegan will one day be your household name. 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.800 Welcome back. I'm Tom Collichio, and I'm speaking with Pinky Cole, 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.680 owner of a Slutty Vegan. Right before the break, she 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:14.760 told us about how she got kicked out of her 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:19.280 shared kitchen. So you can get out, and so we 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:21.800 came first. Was it the brick and water or future? 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.480 It was the food truck. So you know, it's funny. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:26.559 I need to call him and say thank you because 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.760 the owners were like, listen, I know you you got 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.520 a good business, but the other tenants are complaining. You 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:33.720 gotta figure something out. Maybe should go get a food truck. 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.040 And that's what I did. Never ate from a food truck, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.520 never been on the food truck. Nothing. I just put 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.280 ten thousand dollars on a food truck. I got it 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:45.720 wrapped and I parked it in the parking lot of 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.400 the shared kitchen that I was at, and I just 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.080 resumed business and it worked. And the next thing I know, Tom, 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.040 I was on the east side. I was on the 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.600 west side. And it grew from like a hundred people 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.760 to like almost five hundred people standing outside every single 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:03.040 day for me for my burgers, And I'm like, wait 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.640 a minute, what is going on? So what is going on? 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.560 So that's a great question, right. So obviously you know 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.520 the majority of my consumers are African American. Right, So 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.440 my mission is to have all people see veganism in 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:19.520 a whole new way. Right, whether you're black, white, blue, 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:21.720 I don't care who you are. All people are beginning 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:23.640 to get a little more conscious when it comes to 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:28.040 the food that they consume, especially Black people. Traditional soul 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:32.040 food was accustomed. So to be able to put a 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.520 vegan restaurant in the heart of the South and create 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.600 an experience around it, and to have Black people be 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.720 interested in it, that was something that you've never really 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:45.960 seen before, especially because veganism, once upon a time was 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.240 considered a rich white lifestyle. Right if you think, if 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.080 you think about the communities in which a lot of 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.400 black people lived in, we didn't have the access to resources, 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:57.960 to access to food, food insecurities. We can go on 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.600 and on and on about that. Right, once upon a time, 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.880 veganism was like, oh, that's the Beverly Hills lifestyle, right, 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.839 that that yoga. Yeah, in the early nineties and the 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.679 early eighties. So now when you think about Beyonce advocating 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:14.200 for veganism, when you think about the biggest artists advocating 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.600 for veganis they've made it cool. And we are cool. 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:19.160 I mean all people are cool. But you know what, 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.960 like if you really want to give you an honest answer, right, So, 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.160 so I've been able to create an experience for people 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.760 where they come for that experience, but they leave with 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.360 the food, all the while learning how to be more 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.240 conscious about the food they consume, even if it starts 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.280 with a burger and the fry. And the beautiful thing 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.280 about study vegan is that it has translated from from 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.680 being a black thing, right because I don't see color 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.000 when it comes to food. And this is a form 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:48.160 of silent protests. We're bringing people together in the name 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.320 of food and love. It doesn't get more beautiful than that, 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:55.920 right it doesn't. So do you come at a veganism 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:59.560 from health carepoint? Are from not wanting sea animals killed 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.920 or eagan animals? What are you see that we're working together? 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:07.960 I am vegan for my health and I love animals 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.960 all at the same time. Right. Um. I think so 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.560 often people have put labels on veganism, which is why 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.920 so many people shied away from it. So at this point, 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:18.360 I don't care why you want to be. You want 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:19.880 to go vegan because you want to least some weight. Great, 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.400 you want to go vegan because you love the animals. Great, 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.200 you want to go vegan because you want to lower 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:26.960 your calesso or even better. But whatever the reason is, 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.320 if you want to save the plan, whatever your reason is. 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.960 What has made the business so successful is we don't 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.160 put labels on it. We're not pushing the agenda my audience. 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.160 Percent of the people who come to Slutty Vegan are 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.640 not even vegan. These people are flexitarian vegetarian me eaters. 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.920 Those are the people that I want because if I 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.160 can get you to at least consider replacing one meal 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:52.320 a day, then I know I've done my job and 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.400 I know I've done something right. We are not going 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.160 to judge you, and that is how we're changing and 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.480 redefining the narrative of veganism because it's a safe space. 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:02.400 You could be whoever you want to be. Coming in 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:04.040 Disburg and Fry and I got you. You could be 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:06.120 whatever you want to be. It sounds like you're servicing 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.480 two communities. You're servicing your community in your neighborhood and 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.920 you're serving the greater vegan community at large. Uh. Ninety 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.080 five per cent of my locations are in food and 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.320 secure areas, areas that are in the heart of gentrification, 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:23.520 areas that developers don't find too attractive, because I want 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.240 to create that space where people can see themselves. Right, 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.440 it's a historic neighborhood. So if a black owned business 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.920 can come into this neighborhood and help to revitalize the community, 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.280 help to raise the property value, then we've done something right. Right. 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:39.520 It will make more people want to move into that community. 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:41.440 It will make more black people want to stay in 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.080 that community. And I even just recently just bought the 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.600 local daycare in the area, and I'm I'm making it 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.240 a community center. So you're not looking at gentrification as 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:52.640 as as a negative thing. You're looking at this, This 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.000 is a black owned business gentrifying my neighborhood, as opposed 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:58.720 to people coming in pushing property values up and pushing people. 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:03.200 And now we are bringing the essence of blackness back 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:07.119 into the neighborhood, back into the neighborhood and welcoming people 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:09.320 to come and live in this neighborhood so that it 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.440 can be inclusive of all people and not just big 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.040 developers just building up these high rises. No, we're not 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:17.840 doing that. And if I can buy, and what I 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.080 do is I buy the land, so I buy the 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.080 real estate in these places. So now there's ownership and 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.440 I'm teaching the community about group economics. I'm just being 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:29.560 to change that. I wish to say, you know what 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.280 I mean, So like I get to do that, and 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:34.879 it's beautiful because I'll give you an example my my 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.560 Birmingham location that I'm working on right now. I paid 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.639 a hundred seventy five dollars for that location for for 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:45.560 three thousand square feet. Right, it's not it's a historic neighborhood, 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.720 but from the neked eyes, it doesn't look so desirable. 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:50.800 But I did it because I know that when I 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.840 put Slutty Vegan there, I'm giving an opportunity for the 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.080 local business owners to make money. There's another opportunity for 0:17:57.160 --> 0:17:59.040 people to come and buy the real estate and the 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:01.280 property value will go up. That's what happened at my 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:03.920 first location. And I'm going to continue to wash, rent 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:06.560 and repeat, because I know that there is value and 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.200 putting slutty vegan in these areas and raising up the 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.159 value of these locations where that some people in the 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.520 community weren't so crazy about the lines in the language, 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.640 the playfulness of slutty vegan and taking a little too 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:20.880 a little too, a little too serious where they where 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:23.000 they were. They were complaining about the use of the 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:25.639 word slot and that kids were hearing this and how 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:27.840 did you respond to that. I didn't get a very 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.600 warm welcome um And it was stressful, I'll be honest, 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:32.480 because here I am. I'm just a young girl just 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:34.680 trying to do a thing right and just really trying 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.159 to help my people out. But it really taught me 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:39.760 about resilience. And when you think about the word slutty, 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:41.439 people always ask me like, well, why would you name 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:43.919 a slutty vegan? This has nothing to do with sex, 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.320 you know. I many thirteen and twelve year olds are 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:48.960 on TikTok and mouthing the words to every single curse 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.920 word there is. I'm actually teaching people something good. There's 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:55.920 an underlying lesson here. So when I noticed there was 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.480 a transition, it started to make me feel good because 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.920 now I got Muslims, I got Christians, I got old people, 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.239 young people saying a where it's slot And it's all 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:06.800 about the tongue, the power of the tongue, what you 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.880 put meaning to. So we we created a word that 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:14.679 that added power and value to people instead of taking away. 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.200 So it's no longer considered a degrading word because it's 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.240 a family fund place, even though it's ays slutty vegan. 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:23.880