Slutty Vegan to open at Cross Street Market amid Northwood Commons landlord lawsuit

Slutty Vegan is coming to Cross Street Market.

The news, delivered via an Instagram post Sunday, follows a flurry of updates for the Atlanta-based vegan concept. Less than three weeks ago, restaurant founder Pinky Cole announced Slutty Vegan was closing its location in Baltimore Peninsula and opening a new one near Johns Hopkins hospital — though not on the campus, as the company initially said.

“I love the vibe, I love the diversity” of Cross Street Market, Cole said Monday. “It’s buzzing.”

The eatery, which Cole said will be run by Slutty Vegan as opposed to a franchisee, will open its branch in the historic Federal Hill market on Aug. 1, several months before the branch near Johns Hopkins hospital is set to arrive. The stall will employ some of the same staff from the Baltimore Peninsula location, with an expanded menu that includes reuben sandwiches, salads and gluten-free options, as well as the restaurant’s mainstay of provocatively named burgers like the Hollywood Hooker.

The company Cole founded as a ghost kitchen is also facing a lawsuit from Baltimore’s MCB Real Estate related to a restaurant she did not open in Northwood Commons. In May, a Baltimore judge entered a default judgment of more than $145,000 against Slutty Vegan, Inc. The bulk of the amount represents what developers say the company owes through the terms of a 10-year lease on a location at the Northeast Baltimore shopping center.

When asked to comment on the lawsuit, Cole, who recently declared personal bankruptcy, said she no longer owns Slutty Vegan, Inc. Last year, the entrepreneur and “Real Housewives of Atlanta” cast member restructured the company, which she said was carrying $20 million in debt. She briefly lost the company before buying back the name and some assets.

MCB declined to comment.

In Cross Street Market, Slutty Vegan will take up an approximately 1,800-square-foot space in a corner spot that has been home to a rotating number of businesses including Rooster + Hen grocery store, Velleggia’s Italian restaurant and a diner.

The public market is owned by the city and managed through a long-term lease with Caves Valley Partners. The company’s principal Arsh Mirmiran said that Cole and a business partner reached out to him about a space in the market around the time Slutty Vegan announced it was closing in Baltimore Peninsula.

Mirmiran said Slutty Vegan is a good fit for the market, which has recently seen success with stands like Jollof Bowl, which went viral for its take on West African food.

The “super high-energy” Cole was an active part of lease negotiations, Mirmiran said. He said he appreciates her message that “vegan food can be appealing to non-vegans. It’s not salad-y.” Cross Street Market was previously home to another vegan concept, Gangster Vegan Organics, which shut down.

Meanwhile, one of the market’s longest-operating tenants, Steve’s Lunch, announced in a June Facebook post that it’s up for sale after many decades in business.

Caves Valley began renovating the market in 2018, reopening with a lineup of mostly new tenants, aside from Steve’s, Fenwick’s Choice Meats and the since-closed Sweet Shoppe. Mirmiran said the process of managing the Federal Hill food hall has taught him to view the project as a food business incubator, not a real estate development. He generally favors giving tenants grace when they go out of business. “A lot of these are mom-and-pops and they are budding entrepreneurs,” he said. “I don’t want to ruin their lives.”

As for Cole’s and Slutty Vegan’s recent monetary issues, Mirmiran said, “Everyone has bumps along the road if they’re growing.”

Though he was aware of the broad contours of Slutty Vegan’s financial problems, Mirmiran said he was unconcerned by the lawsuit from MCB Real Estate. “I’m pretty good friends with Bramble,” he said, referring to MCB’s founder P. David Bramble. “He hasn’t called me to be like ‘Hey, why you’d do this?’”

Next on his list of dream tenants? “I’ve been trying to hound Chaps,” Mirmiran said of the pit beef restaurant next to an East Baltimore strip club. “I can’t get them to bite yet.”