Slutty Vegan in Birmingham has temporarily closed again

Slutty Vegan, the popular vegan restaurant chain, announced on social media that it temporarily closed its Birmingham location on June 11, and there is no sign that the restaurant will reopen.

“Hey big head, Birmingham is off to get a BBL,” reads the caption of the Instagram post, while listing addresses for other Slutty Vegan locations.

Neither Slutty Vegan CEO Pinky Cole nor representatives for the restaurant responded to AL.com’s request for comment.

Teona Henry, who worked at Slutty Vegan before it closed, posted on Facebook that she learned the restaurant had closed without warning. Henry said he personally tried to contact Cole but was unable to reach her.

This is not the first time that Slutty Vegan has been temporarily closed.

In early 2023, the restaurant was closed for four days due to mechanical problems, and for several days in early 2024 due to technical difficulties. In 2023, the restaurant was vandalized.

In a previous AL.com interview with Cole, she said Birmingham is a successful location.

“Birmingham Slutty Vegan is actually profitable,” Cole said.

“This is one of my profitable locations. Which I’m glad about because if you know anything about the restaurant industry, restaurants are not profitable. We have new management. We have new team members. We have a good group of people. I don’t have to worry about the store in Birmingham because I have people running the store properly.”

The Birmingham Slutty Vegan location was the first location Cole opened outside of Atlanta.

“Birmingham was the springboard to be able to identify things are going to be different … I was used to the Atlanta systems, the county and state taxes. So coming to Alabama, the laws and permits are set up differently,” Cole told AL.com. “So there were a lot of learning curves that took us over a year to be able to identify. But now, I feel like I’ve reached and passed the child stage.”

Atlanta-based Slutty Vegan opened its first location in Alabama in August 2022, with people from all over the city looking to support the Black-owned business.

The restaurant is known for its burgers, fries, other sandwiches, sides and desserts in yellow and red storefronts among its 12 locations across the country.

Since the Birmingham location opened, Cole’s has opened other locations across the country, such as in Dallas, Harlem and on the campus of Spelman College.

The Slutty Vegan food truck first came to Birmingham in 2020, and the average wait time was two hours to “whore” one of the menu items.