Pinky Cole, the visionary, founder and CEO behind acclaimed burger joint Slutty Vegan, announced she will open a second New York location in Harlem next month. Located at 300 West 135th Street, Slutty Vegan Harlem will serve a carry-out menu featuring creative takes on vegan burgers, sandwiches and more made with plant-based meat and all donning racy names. The new outpost will be the brand’s eighth brick-and-mortar, opening on the heels of its New York sister location in Brooklyn, which opened in September 2022.
The full menu will be available for takeout and delivery, and includes fan-favorites like the ONE NIGHT STAND, a burger loaded with vegan bacon, vegan cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato & Slut Sauce on a vegan Hawaiian bun and the FUSSY HUSSY, a burger loaded with pickles, vegan cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato & Slut Sauce on a vegan Hawaiian bun, plus unexpected options like the HEAUX BOY featuring vegan shrimp tossed in a New Orleans style batter, loaded with lettuce, tomato, pickle & Slut Sauce on a vegan Hawaiian bun and the HOLLYWOOD HOOKER, a vegan chopped Philly with jalapeños, bell peppers and caramelized onions, vegan provolone, lettuce, tomato, ketchup & vegan mayo on a hoagie roll.
“This is a full circle moment for me,” says Pinky. “I had a restaurant a few blocks away that was destroyed in a grease fire. To come back to the place that helped me get started is such a big deal for the realization of my dream, and this quite frankly is my redemption story.”
Since the brand’s genesis in 2018, Cole has built a game-changing empire that’s dedicated to reinventing vegan food culture, where vegans and meat-eaters alike can break free from kale and quinoa salads. Slutty Vegan’s crave-worthy, indulgent menus and joyful customer interactions draw locals and visitors to eagerly wait in now-famous lines down the block for vegan burgers, sandwiches and more. Sluttified fans include celebrities Snoop Dogg, Jermaine Dupri, Taraji P. Henson, Tyler Perry, Tiffany Haddish, Queen Latifah and many more. Slutty Vegan has seven existing brick-and-mortar locations, including metro-Atlanta stores in the Edgewood, Jonesboro, Duluth and West View neighborhoods and outposts in Athens, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, and Brooklyn, New York.
In May 2022, the booming brand celebrated a $25M Series A fundraising round that resulted in Slutty Vegan’s impressive $100M valuation that was dually backed by Enlightened Hospitality Investments (co-founded by Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group) and New Voices Fund (led by billionaire entrepreneur & ESSENCE Ventures CEO Richelieu Dennis).
