![\"Clementine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_8745-scaled.jpg\")
Clementine Bakery\u2019s storefront on Aug. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tClementine Bakery\u2019s storefront on Aug. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n
One day in late July, the vegan bakery and beloved Clinton Hill institution Clementine pulled down its steel gates. They never came up again. No signs were posted and no announcements were made online. But a few weeks later, the news began spreading on Instagram. An ominous comment stated that everyone should know \u201cthe extent of what happened to people working in this business.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a Brooklyn vegan, I patronized Clementine weekly (BLAT and a croissant, please!). The restaurant was so well-known that telling someone I lived \u201cdown the street from Clementine\u201d was enough for them to place me in the city. The pastries, supplied by owner Elle Barton\u2019s Le Petit Monstre bakery, were famed. On weekends, lines regularly wrapped throughout the shop and occasionally out the door.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The quasi-ubiquitous popularity of Clementine made its sudden closure all the more surprising. <\/p>\n
The first signs of change came at the end of 2024, when the restaurant\u2019s founder, the aforementioned Barton, sold the business to new owners, Earthly Eats. In a post on Aug. 18, local Substack Bed-Stuy Stoop confirmed the closure of Clementine in an interview with Barton<\/a> and leaked the group WhatsApp text where staff were terminated without notice on July 25. Former employees from across Barton\u2019s vegan restaurant group took to social media to accuse her of misconduct, including withholding payment and selling food products that weren\u2019t actually vegan. Amidst those comments, though, were far wilder allegations, as accounts detailed interpersonal blow-ups and in-restaurant cult recruiting.<\/p>\n Barton began building her Brooklyn vegan restaurant empire in 2012 with Clementine, followed by the bar Izzy Rose in 2019, bakery Le Petit Monstre in 2020, a second Le Petit Monstre in 2022, and ice cream shop Dreamery in 2022, the latter trumpeted by The <\/a>New York Times<\/a>. As of 2026, only one of these restaurants, Izzy Rose, remains open. It is no longer vegan. <\/p>\n \u201cI tried my best to be everything to everyone,\u201d Barton told CULTURED over email on Aug. 27. \u201cDid I make mistakes along the way? Sure did.\u201d<\/p>\n This trend\u2014of vegan restaurants opening in response to a burgeoning plant-based movement that never quite materialized in the mainstream, and subsequently going bust\u2014extends far beyond Barton\u2019s realm. Her outposts were joined in an approximately five-block radius by Mekelburg\u2019s (opened 2015, closed 2024), as well as its sister restaurant Guevara\u2019s (opened 2020, closed 2025), and in Brooklyn by spots including Hartbreakers (opened 2018, closed 2024), Modern Love (opened 2016, closed 2025), Red Bamboo (opened 2002, closed 2026), Toad Style (opened 2015, closed 2026), and VSpot (opened 2006, closed 2026).\u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s striking about the wave of shutterings isn\u2019t the churn, characteristic of New York businesses, or even the financial windfall of a once buzzy vegan movement, but the sheer oddity of the stories that have emerged in the process. <\/p>\n Whether material or exaggerated, vegans have long been wrapped up in tales of true crime and strangeness\u2014regularly cast as the patrons of the cult down the block, or as the feral, red paint-soaked protestor. Under a Reddit post from two years ago titled \u201cWhat\u2019s Up With These Vegan Restaurants Closing???<\/a>\u201d one user recalled the now-closed Jungle Cafe, a Greenpoint spot that The Infatuation described<\/a> as \u201clike the Rainforest Cafe on Valium.\u201d \u201cApparently,\u201d wrote whatev3691, \u201ctheir staff were all in a cult anyway and just moved to the commune in Guatemala \ud83e\udd23.\u201d (While Jungle Cafe\u2019s operators, a community named Golden Drum, do appear to practice communal living and regularly post graphics on Instagram of brains exploding into rainbows, there is no evidence of cult-like misdeeds.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Over in Manhattan, New Yorkers may remember lauded chef Matthew Kenney\u2019s plant-based empire, which once operated or invested in more than 50 restaurants around the globe. A 2024 New York Times expos\u00e9<\/a> detailed his \u201c30-year pattern of chaotic and reckless management,\u201d including paying for a $20,000-a-month LA apartment with funds from his businesses while handing out bounced checks and having employees run interference with his girlfriends. One such girlfriend, Sarma Melngailis, became the subject of Netflix\u2019s 2022 Bad Vegan docuseries. The duo\u2019s joint Pure Food + Wine raw vegan outpost was run into the ground by Melngailis and her husband, conman Anthony Strangis, who convinced her that if she passed his increasingly bizarre \u201ccosmic\u201d tests and stole a cool $1.6 million from the business, he would be able to make her pitbull, Leon, immortal. Instead, she spent nearly four months in Rikers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cult-inflected rumors have also floated around Barton\u2019s restaurants. Reddit posts, one of which came from someone who claimed to be a former employee, suggested that a manager \u201cwas in fucking Nxivm and tried to recruit baristas lol.\u201d Upon investigation, the rumor could be traced back to blog posts<\/a> from 2019 reporting that Izzy Rose was managed by Nicki Clyne, member of Nxivm, a cult led by Keith Raniere that made headlines for branding women who were a part of its secret society, DOS. (Raniere is now serving a 120-year prison sentence.) Accusations that Clyne, who denounced Raniere in 2023, was recruiting at the restaurant are unsubstantiated. But if even a fraction of the most outrageous online rumor is true, how much is the rest of it?\u00a0<\/p>\n The three employees interviewed by CULTURED piece recall a painfully familiar, inconsistent payroll rigmarole. \u201cThere would be times where I\u2019d be texting every single week being like, \u2018Where\u2019s my check?\u2019 [Elle] would be like, \u2018I\u2019m on vacation, I can\u2019t send it right now,\u2019\u201d says Lizzy Hargraves, who worked at Dreamery and Clementine for a year and a half, beginning in 2024. When checks did come, often over Zelle, employees claim the totals sometimes didn\u2019t add up to the amount expected, including tips. Barton contends that they had full visibility on earnings through Square, a restaurant software system. <\/p>\n Devynn Smith, who worked at Dreamery in 2025 through its closure in January 2026, remembers that upon starting, she \u201cwould have past employees come in and warn me. They were like, \u2018Don\u2019t get mistreated by Elle. Make sure you keep everything in order with pay.\u2019\u201d Harris Leopold\u2014who worked at Dreamery during the summer of 2025\u2014claimed that undocumented workers were at particular risk of late or missing payments. He said the kitchen staff \u201cwould complain to us about how they would never get paid, and that they can\u2019t really have any leverage because of their documentation status.\u201d In an email, Barton declined to respond to this claim directly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Workers said the financial struggles of the businesses became increasingly evident over time, as bill collectors showed up to question employees, restaurants were left short-staffed and under-stocked, and coworkers who hadn\u2019t been paid stopped showing up. \u201cWe would get Con-Ed coming in and telling us that [Elle] owes them like $35,000. [That] was the last number that I saw,\u201d says Hargraves. <\/p>\n According to text exchanges and receipts shared with CULTURED, non-vegan condiments, including chocolates and hard candies containing dairy and shellac (a glaze derived from lac bugs), were also mistakenly ordered and made available for purchase. \u201cThe worst case that I came across working there\u2014this whole giant controversy\u2014was the chocolate chips,\u201d says Leopold.<\/p>\n One day on shift, Leopold popped one into his mouth, and was mystified that it could possibly be dairy-free. \u201cSo, I got there early one morning, and I checked the invoice on our shipments. I got the SKU code from Valdor Specialty Foods, and lo and behold, the chocolate chips had [dairy] milk in them the entire time, for the entirety of the 2025 summer season,\u201d he says. \u201cI texted our WhatsApp group chat [with management, who brought the issue to Elle]. I just got met with, not even excuses, just ways of disaffirming what I found. \u2018You can keep selling them.\u2019 \u2018They\u2019re kosher, that means it\u2019s good.\u2019 I was like, \u2018That\u2019s not how that works.\u2019\u201d Leopold began warning customers who came in that the products weren\u2019t vegan, and says he was terminated without notice shortly after, while on his way to work. Barton says she \u201cnever knowingly served non-vegan things to customers\u201d and that \u201cthe characterization that this went on \u2018all summer\u2019 isn\u2019t accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n Receipts and messages shared with CULTURED show orders for non-vegan chocolate chips and packages of shellac-coated Lemonheads and Hot Tamales, as well as directives from Barton, via management, to continue serving the products. Exchanges reveal confusion about the difference between cross-contamination, when products may have come into contact with dairy or allergens if manufactured in the same factories; kosher foods, which follow Jewish dietary laws and are not necessarily dairy-free; and vegan items, as well as which of these types of products had been ordered. \u201cI was just really mad because I know there\u2019s this regular family that comes in [to Dreamery] and \u2026 they were really paranoid about allergy and cross contamination,\u201d Smith says. \u201cI think about people who come in like that who are very allergic to milk and use that as a safe spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Over at Clementine\u2014where Hargraves worked under the new owners, Earthly Eats, who were unreachable for comment\u2014the trend continued, he says. A manager there reportedly ordered non-vegan coffee syrup, which was served to customers, despite the prominently featured sign behind the bar reading \u201cWe Are 100% Plant Based Vegan.\u201d (Monin\u2019s caramel syrup, which was shown on the bar in messages shared with CULTURED, includes nonfat dry milk, Grade A pasteurized heavy cream, and butter.) \u201cAfter a few days of it being used, they put a pile downstairs and were like, \u2018If you\u2019re not vegan, take this home,\u2019\u201d says Hargraves.<\/p>\n Other issues carried over under the new ownership as well. Clementine workers organized<\/a> to request higher salaries, paid sick leave, and half-hour lunch breaks. They claim they were met with cutbacks on hours for long-standing employees earning higher wages before eventually being informed of the closure over WhatsApp. Meanwhile, Barton was shuttering Dreamery in a meeting with remaining workers. \u201cShe was trying to get us excited about moving us to different stores, opening a new cafe,\u201d says Smith, \u201cI saw her as a woman trying her hardest, but everything was kind of crumbling around her.\u201d In our email exchanges, Barton characterizes her time as a multi-restaurant owner simply as \u201ca good run.\u201d<\/p>\n While outrageous, many of the claims made against Barton are hardly unique in a city where restaurants operate on razor-thin margins, and where the closure of vegan spots are often taken as a failing of the movement as a whole. \u201cIf you\u2019re a good publicist, you might tell somebody not to claim that you have a mission because it\u2019s really easy to violate that,\u201d says Chris Crowley, co-founder of Caper and a former senior writer at Grub Street for over 10 years. \u201cThere are people who are bad operators and do shady things, but often what can happen \u2026 is that there\u2019s a lot of friction, and forces that make it difficult for people to be honest in a way that they want to be, or live up to their ideals. You can find yourself in a bad way and tell yourself that you\u2019re gonna be paying back your employees soon and just continuing to put it off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Crowley waves off the wave of vegan restaurant closings and heralded return of meat, widely tizzied about by reporters and restaurateurs alike, with a shrug. Perhaps the joyous widespread rise of plant-based dining was overstated as \u201ca marketing thing,\u201d and thus its downfall is just a return to stasis. Writers purporting the same often refer to a Gallup poll <\/a>showing that the U.S. percentage of vegans fell from its high in 2018 of 3 percent, to a measly 1 percent in 2024\u2014so, from small potatoes to even more woefully shriveled potatoes. The glee with which we consume the unraveling of the movement\u2019s most prominent figureheads, however, reveals that vegans have perhaps not ingratiated themselves to the degree portrayed at the height of Covid\u2019s kumbaya-ing and record meat-replacement sales. \u201cMaybe people feel judged by them, and so they like to judge them [back],\u201d Crowley says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In Brooklyn, remaining vegan restaurateurs are still faithfully serving their small but ravenous community of believers. A.T.M. Vegan Deli has been heralded across social media as a convenient option for those mourning Clementine\u2019s morning sandwiches. Owner Andy Stewart assures that \u201cyes, everything is vegan, including the owner and much of the staff.\u201d His four part-time employees also make $20 an hour, plus tips, guaranteed. \u201cThe biggest challenge with opening a vegan restaurant is that you have a smaller pool of potential customers,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut vegan spots do benefit from the loyalty and support of the vegan\/vegetarian community. I\u2019m hyper-concerned with being consistent and reliable so that core group of customers keeps coming back.\u201d That being said, non-vegans are also welcome. A.T.M. offers such delights as wood-smoked mushrooms on a roll and peppered seitan on sourdough. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople think vegan food is boring,\u201d says Stewart, with the stoic acceptance of someone who knows exactly what kind of stereotypes they\u2019re up against. \u201cI\u2019m sympathetic to that point of view, but it means you haven\u2019t been eating at vegan restaurants lately.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This is a developing story. If you have any further leads or relevant information, please email [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n More of our favorite stories from CULTURED<\/p>\n How Bella Freud, Sigmund Freud\u2019s Great-Grandaughter, Reinvented Psychoanalysis<\/a><\/p>\n The 15 Must-See U.S. Museum Shows in Fall 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Rosa Elena Curruchich Made Paintings Small Enough to Smuggle. Now, They\u2019re Seeing the Light.<\/a><\/p>\n Does Gen Z Have the Patience for Fine Dining?<\/a><\/p>\n WAG-onomics: How Women Took Over the Business of Men\u2019s Sports From the Sidelines<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up for our newsletter here<\/a> to get these stories direct to your inbox.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t![\"TikToks](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/clementine-bakery-scaled.jpg\")
A few of the posts about Clementine prior to closing.<\/p>\n![\"Pastries](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/clementine-desserts.jpg\")
Image courtesy of Clementine Bakery\/Instagram.<\/p>\n![\"TikToks](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/clementine-2-scaled.jpg\")
A few of the posts about Clementine prior to closing.<\/p>\n