Hey, readers! Here’s a recap of this week’s biggest news.

• Rebel Cheese lays off workers

• Denny’s plant-based pancakes: not vegan after all

• Snooze AM Eatery’s drops their vegan options

• Pizza Verde’s Future

• And more!

Rebel Cheese Lays Off Workers

A member of the Austin Vegans Facebook group last week broke the story that Rebel Cheese had “laid off half their staff with no warning” at their only brick and mortar Mueller location. And, oh boy, did all hell break loose in the comments section.

According to Restaurant Workers United, 93% of Rebel Cheese staff presented a petition on June 4th for wages to be raised +$2/hr. On June 22nd, five workers were laid off. The claim is that this was in retaliation to the petition, which is illegal under both state and federal law.

In the original group post, the poster was told by management: “We laid them off so they can get unemployment until we can possibly bring them back,” but the disgruntled staff approached the poster saying “they petitioned for a wage increase and were all just laid off with no notice” which implied wrongdoing by the business.

This lead to a protest by the former employees outside of the restaurant on Sunday, June 29th.

With Spiral closing down their Denton location with no notice to staff last year, and being an admin/member of the North Texas Vegans group, I am no stranger to the polarizing comments and posts about this kind of news and how quickly it all goes south.

The Austin Vegans group was on fire for days, with those adamantly defending the business in multiple posts, writing rave reviews of food, and inspiring people to visit to drive business. They see the layoff being a standard practice response to slow sales and higher cost of operation, not retaliation. Their takeaway: They don’t want “rumors” to close down another vegan business.

On the other side of the metaphorical picket line, there are those who found the firings too convenient in timing after the petition. And while Texas is an at-will employment state, they find the move tasteless and harmful to the workers’ well-being. Their takeaway: Rebel Cheese’s business practices don’t align with the ethics that they’d expect of a vegan business.

What are you thoughts?

Denny’s New Plant-Based Pancakes: Not Vegan After All

Last newsletter, I was excited to spread the word about Denny’s new plant-based pancakes, which are vegan friendly! The bad news? It doesn’t mean the kitchen is.

According to Reddit posts and comments on r/vegan, Denny’s staff may still be adding buttermilk and eggs to the vegan batter because kitchen staff has not been trained otherwise. While this may not be all locations, it is of the utmost importance to ask your local Denny’s management about their practices and whether or not the kitchen staff is trained on how to prepare this new item.

The other thing of note is that Denny’s confirms that they use bacon to grease their griddles.

While I usually don’t mind vegan items being made the same fryer, the bacon grease bothers me more. Unsure why. Maybe someone can tell me. What about yourself?

Snooze AM Eatery Drops Their Vegan Options

Snooze AM Eatery has been a decent brunch option based on the fact that they had two clearly labeled vegan items that required no modifications: Vegan Banana Bliss Pancakes and Tofu Scramble.

And now, say goodbye to them. While Snooze has a somewhat allergen-friendly online website with filters for “vegan,” without these two options, all the other options warn you that you require modifications.

I emailed Snooze, asking if they plan to replace these items with others that don’t require modifications.

I’m not a fan of that last part. It may just be me, but it’s a pain to have to switch out items and ensuring that they get made correctly. Have you heard a vegan order at Taco Bell? It’s like a CVS receipt of modifications.

They couldn’t provide me an ETA for when the new menu items will drop. But I’m impatiently waiting to see if it’s worth the trip to try or if I’m dropping this place from my brunch spots.

Pizza Verde’s Future(?)

Pizza Verde had posted on their social media a week or two ago saying they were looking for 5 investors with an investment of $5k each (total of $25k) in order to stay in business. In return, one would receive 5% equity in the business. You can watch the video here.

With this type of investment, they would limit their hours for the storefront and focus more on wholesale distribution of their pizzas to other businesses, not just in DFW, but nationwide.

With uncertainty in the air and their planned date of closure being July 6th, I wanted to make sure I was getting as much pizza time there as possible while also showing support. This past Saturday, I had my little pizza party meetup. Thank you for those who attended!

A few days ago, they posted another video expressing their surprise that there were so much investor interest. And with that, they are now looking into next steps. Does this mean that they will stay open? Time will soon tell! In the meantime:

• They are accepting Pizza Verde t-shirts pre-orders to fundraise for the restaurant

• They have updated their final(?) hours:

  Wed (4pm-8:30pm)
  Thur-Sat (12pm-7pm)
  CLOSED Sunday - Tuesday

Quick News

• Swirled Peace is celebrating their 1st birthday! They are throwing an anniversary party, Saturday, July 5th from 7 PM to midnight. Come check out the local art vendors, DJ, food by Revolution Vegan Cuisine, and, of course, the premium soft serve.

   

• Maiden in Fort Worth is also asking the public for support (post here). They are seeing a slowdown in business over the last several weeks. As the only vegan upscale restaurant in DFW, they hope to gain some foot traffic for the summer.

  • They have introduced their new summer menu

  • They are also hiring for station chef

• Insomnia Cookies, known for their late night cookies, is offering vegan cotton candy ice cream! This will pair well with their three vegan cookie offerings: vegan birthday cake, vegan chocolate chunk, and vegan double chocolate chunk.

• Iconic Vegan Cafe inside of Ann’s Health Food Center & Market now has Italian ice!

• Frosted Vegan is now at the Coppell Farmers Market starting 4th of July weekend! Just in time for summer.

• Veggie Tortillas is now posted at Cedar Market Ranch during the week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. You can still find them at The Shed at the Dallas Farmers Market every Saturday.

That’s it for this week.

Did you notice a change in theme? Just trying something new for today. 💚