Slutty Vegan founder and Baltimore native Pinky Cole files for bankruptcy

Aisha “Pinky” Cole, the founder of the Slutty Vegan fast-food chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, federal court records show.

The Baltimore native and entrepreneur owes about $1.2 million to the U.S Small Business Administration for a COVID-era loan, used to offset temporary revenue losses, and another $192,000 in taxes to the Georgia Department of Revenue, according to a Feb. 12 filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta.

Cole built a brand of vegan eateries known for their promiscuously named sandwiches, such as the “Sloppy Toppy” burger or “Hollywood Hooker” cheesesteak. She started the business as a ghost kitchen in Atlanta in 2018 and described it as a “merge between the two most pleasurable experiences in life: sex and food,” Cole previously told The Banner. The business once spanned 14 locations across the country, though now more than half of Cole’s eateries have closed.

Last year, she stepped down as CEO of Slutty Vegan.

Cole no longer owns Slutty Vegan Inc. or the company’s retail and real estate entities. She filed for the assets to be transferred to a trust as a voluntary alternative to a formal bankruptcy process. The assets will be liquidated and distributed by trustees to pay off Cole’s debts. She continues to own an 85% stake in her Slutty Vegan franchise, a chain of restaurants that remains active, court documents show.

Her long-awaited Rye Street Market location, which opened in 2024 alongside a revamped Bar Vegan concept, was intended to be an anchor for the new Baltimore Peninsula development, which now faces its own problems.

Cole was announced as both a tenant and a development partner in the market. In 2023, former project developer MaryAnne Gilmartin described her as “the embodiment of what this project represents,” due to her Baltimore roots and rapid growth as an entrepreneur. At the time, she was quoted in a New Yorker profile saying she’d be “bigger than Oprah.”

Cole, however, has faced financial difficulties for years.

In 2024, she fired Slutty Vegan’s top executives and sold off the business’s $10 million real estate portfolio to offset construction costs and increasing overhead and travel expenses, according to a 2025 Banner interview. She told The Banner that investors encouraged her to expedite the opening in Baltimore Peninsula to “stop the bleeding.” She closed branches at Spelman College, Georgia Tech and in Harlem, New York, while calling off new Slutty Vegan shops in Washington, D.C, and Atlanta’s airport.

Her personal bankruptcy comes after she faced lawsuits over unpaid wages and rent at two Atlanta locations. She faced a foreclosure on her $140,000 investment property in Atlanta in August, court documents show.

In the February filings, Cole lists assets ranging from $15,000 designer shoes to $150,000 vehicles, such as a bus named “The Magic School Slut.” The documents show she owes more than $3.6 million in liabilities and has over $3.7 million in assets.

Cole is listed as unemployed in the documents, though last week Capital B reported she’d be appearing as a cast member on the new season of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”

The business owner’s Baltimore Slutty Vegan locations remain open.