June 19, 2021 • 33 mins
Sometimes our neighborhood eateries make us gather beyond the meal. In this episode, Pinky Cole of Slutty Vegan ATL joins Tom to talk about her plant-based pursuit of doing just that despite the pandemic.
The entrepreneur and philanthropist explains how her suite of expanding vegan dining experiences feeds food insecure communities, and even fights for equal voting rights with a Side Heaux and fries.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Citizen Chef is a production of I Heart Radio. You
want to go vegan because you want at least await Great,
you want to go vegan because you love the animals. Great.
You want to go vegan because you want to lower
your calessar, or even better, save the planet. If you
want to save the planet, whatever your reason is, we
don't put labels on it. We're not pushing the agenda
my audience. Percent of the people who come to Sledty
vegan are not even vegan. If I can get you
(00:23):
to at least consider replacing one meal a day, then
I know I've done my job, and I know I've
done something right. Hey, I'm Tom Collikio and you're with
Sneak to Citizen Chef. Say we're talking to Pinky Call.
Pinky is recognized locally and by her fans and celebrities
trying to figure out how to deliver a sloppy toppy
(00:45):
across the country. You know, she's not a chef, but
she really is an amazing restaurantur. I first met Pinky
when I was asked to mentor a few restaurant tours
through a program that Forbes was doing, and I was
absolutely blown away. Just the the handle that she has
had on the restaurant industry and the question that she
(01:06):
was asking you was much much deeper than what I
expected a freshman restaurant tour to ask. She went from
her share kitchen to two food trucks to now multiple
locations a spinoff concept. I'm sure there's going to be
a movie about her life one day. While we saw
many of my peers shutter the restaurants during the pandemic,
she has just grown. So it's just my my absolute
(01:27):
pleasure to introduce Pinky Cole to the Citizenship Podcast. Yes,
I'm excited, so let's just jump right in. People have
said it was overnight success, but but nothing happens overnight,
and you had a long career. You were kind of
hustling as a kid. Yeah, I want to ask you first,
where where does the entrepreneurial drive come from? That entrepreneuri drive?
(01:49):
So the day that I was born, my father was
being sentenced to life in prison. Right. He was a businessman.
He wasn't a legal businessman, but he was a businessman
and the US right. So I grew up watching my mother,
who fifty percent of her time was spent at a
company which she's been at the same company now for
over thirty years. Right when she loves and appreciates, and
(02:11):
then the other fifty percent of her time she spent
as an entrepreneur, lead singer of a reggae band, radio personality,
just still getting her hands wet and really trying to
fulfill her dreams as much as possible as a single
mother while my father was in prison. So what I
learned from my father being in prison and my mother
being a part time entrepreneur is that the hustle never stops. Right.
(02:34):
So I've seen two examples of individuals who really just
wanted a better life. Even my father, from behind bars,
he would send me rich Dad, Poor Dad. He would
teach me about stocks, he would tell me about business.
So I got all of the business acumen from him,
but I did it the legal way. So growing up,
(02:54):
I used to throw parties and I used to make
four thousand dollars every every week. Read about that. I
read about this. You used to throw parties for kids
and charge them. Yeah, like high school parties are in
Baltimore and I was just doing a thing. You know,
people knew my family. We were Jamaican. We were well
known in the community. And I'm a talker. As you
can see, I like to wear my mouth. So I
(03:14):
started throwing these events. How how did you know these
kids would pay to come to a party. I mean
I thre parties when I was a kid, and I
thought I could charge people. I just became a salesman
at an early age, like I have mastered the art
of bringing people together, and now it's coming full circle. Um.
In high school, I was selling the chickens um and
reselling them for two dollars, selling candy for anything you
(03:37):
can think of. I was just a natural born hustler,
and I know that I got it from my parents.
And when you asked me where that entrepreneur edge come from,
that grit and that grind and that hustle, it really
came from my mom and my dad. And I'm so
grateful for for the humble beginnings. I think we see
that with so many immigrant families that come to this country,
absolutely that that hustle is uh. You know it runs
deep because you're right, you know, immigrants come to this
(04:00):
because they want to make a better life for their things. Right.
I just know what hard work is, Tom, You know,
like nothing ever came easy for my family. I tell
people all the time Christmas is I didn't get like
Barbie and Ken. I didn't get dolls growing up. I
didn't get toys. I didn't watch cartoons growing up. I
was watching Lifetime with my grandmother, right like, I really
saw examples of people that got up every single day,
(04:21):
didn't ask for any handouts, went and worked. The lights
were never cut off. We always had exactly what we needed.
And I'm so grateful for those life lessons early on. Now,
Sunny Vegan, wasn't your first restaurant. You opened up a
Jamaican restaurant in Yeah, and it was successful. It was successful,
but it started way before the restaurant. You know, my
background is TV, Tom. Just like how you said you
(04:41):
weren't prepared for that call, I wasn't prepared to work
at TV like I was never prepared to either. In fact,
I said no three times before I finally said yeah, yeah, yeah,
tell me about that. You moved out to l A
to act really yeah, I wanted to be an actress.
And again another full circle moment. I just paid my
SAG fee, so now I'm in the union, thank god.
But I went out there and this is the piece
(05:04):
of the story that I really never tell people. I
moved to l A with two hundred fifty dollars a
Duffel bag in a suitcase in the Bible. I was
in a three bedroom house, but in one of those
bedrooms there was four of us living in one of
the bedrooms right and splitting the rent of the bedroom.
So we were each paying three hundred dollars every single month.
And during that time and humbled me number one. Number two,
(05:26):
I got an opportunity to work in TV as a
production assistant, and then I got a call from The
Maury Show. And during my time at Maury, I saved
up a lot of my money, got a loan from
a family friend. And one of my friends said, you
know what, there's a building that is looking to put
a restaurant there. If you wanted the rent is only
mind you. I didn't know anything about the restaurant industry nothing.
I'm not a chef, yes, explain, explaining, So this is
(05:50):
crazy right now, where so many chefs want to be
and yet you open a restaurant with out the first
restaurant zero experience, just because someone called you and said
the rents cheap. Now, actually you got that you got
that piece right, because that that is is probably one
of the most important things you can do when you're
a shepherd or anyone trying to run the business, to
get a good rent deal. And so, I mean, my
(06:11):
first restaurant was was Grammarcy Tyrant. I gotta say for
the for that space in the Union Square area, the
grammar Cy Park area, that was well well figured out.
It was ten square feet in Union Square. Yeah it was.
It was actually a great rent you actually, you know,
had that going for you. But what makes you think
you can open a restaurant never having experience. Um, there's
(06:32):
so so many things that I thought about in the past.
I thought that I wanted to be in the music
industry and that was a fail. But I needed to
do that. And you know, I wanted to do the
TV thing on my own and that didn't work. But
it wasn't supposed to work. I was supposed to get
in a restaurant industry. And sometimes the universe puts things
in your face that you least expect um, and that
is when you're in alignment. When it when it works out.
(06:53):
And it worked out for me because I didn't have
experience and I opened this concept up and I had
a line down the block and I was selling jerk chicken,
not even eating jerk chicken. I haven't eaten meat since
two thousand seven. And I opened up my restaurant in
two thousand and fourteen, and and it was successful. How
did you know how to put the pieces together? So
I hired ad you make in chef. Some of the
recipes were mine and and again, you know you had
(07:15):
a restaurant before. I actually lived in my restaurants, like
every day, all day. I sacrificed my early twenties to
be in that restaurant. But when I look back at it,
like I needed that training. I needed to go through
what I went through, good, bad, and indifferent, because it
really taught me how to be a better entrepreneur. I
didn't know what I was doing so much so that
I didn't even get fire insurance for my business. And
(07:38):
you know me having a fire at my establishment. Right,
So so let's talk about that. You you opened the restaurant,
big success. I think you opened up a second juice bar,
and so you're just you know, knocking out of the park.
You got two restaurants. You get a phone call, there's
a fire, go back to that that day. You know,
your dreams come crashing down. It was hard, you know. Um,
(07:58):
I gotta be honest. I put my whole life savings,
everything that I had, I did it by myself, and
to work in a restaurant fourteen fifteen hours a day.
And I can remember closing up my doors. It was
the night that I closed myself, Um, and I closed
the doors, and the fire department called me and they
told me that the restaurant was on fire. So I
(08:20):
live right down the street and I saw the restaurants
smoky at this time that they put out the fire,
but everything was smoky, everything was black, And I was
just in disbelief because I'm like, every single thing that
I built is in shambles. And when I tell you,
that was actually the best thing that could have ever
happened to me, because I probably would still be in
(08:40):
that restaurant, clocking in every single day, physically being present
and not being able to scale a grow, right, But
I didn't understand it at the moment. That's why life
is just so beautiful, right, Like life really teaches you
about patients and resilience and just understanding that there's a
reason for everything. How do you pick yourself up? And
I don't know. When fire put out of fire they
care to part. Yeah, do you find the fire and
(09:02):
pull the water on it? They rip, rip the place apart.
They do the job, and so how do you pick
yourself up? The following day you go there and try
to pick up the pieces. Already just kind of walking down.
I was in disabilte. I didn't know what to do.
To be honest, I didn't have fire insurance, so I
wasn't protected. I thought that I could try to salvage
what was left. I couldn't. Everything was damaged. Um so
(09:24):
I fell into a little depression. Well what I felt
was a depression, right, I've never felt like that before,
and I can remember. It happened so fast. I went
from like, Okay, this fire happened, to my car getting repolled,
to me getting evicted, to me losing everything, to me
going flat broke, and I'm like, what is going on?
Like it felt like a failure, and now that I
look at it, it was never really a failure at all.
(09:45):
So you have to back in Atlanta, put my stuff
in storage that was in I came to Atlanta and
it felt right and at the time when I moved
to Atlanta, I was running five miles a day. People
people thought I was crazy, five miles a day. I
was reading every day, I was researching on YouTube, I
was doing everything. Were running from her. I was running
(10:07):
on the treadmill, running the house off. Yeah. I was
conditioning my mind. Yeah, my mindset was shifting. I didn't
want to go out. I didn't want to hang with people.
I just wanted to like research. I was just in
research mode. And I can remember I was in my
bedroom one day and it hit me like a light ball,
slutty Vegan out of nowhere. Literally, I'm just sitting there
(10:27):
like slutty Vegan. And I didn't know what it meant.
I didn't. I'm like, I'm like, what is slutty Vegan.
Slutty Vegan is a restaurant. Slutty Vegan is And because
I was hungry, I was in Atlanta and on a
late night, everything was closed and I'm just like, wow,
slutty Vegan. And when it hit me, I called my
best friend. I'm like, what do you think about this now?
She was like, I love it. Do something with it.
And then I just got to work. Well, so you
(10:49):
were you're work vegan at this point? Oh I was vegan. Yeah, absolutely,
So there's no place to go late night for vegan
food in Atlanta. Now, um, and you had this epiphany,
this slutty vegan. How long from that moment to getting
the doors open? Take So I came up with the
idea first week of July. I started August six. Everything
(11:11):
this this was from the moment of conceptualizing the idea,
to getting my permits and my paperwork, finding a shared kitchen,
doing the research, creating a menu. So I moved really,
really fast. I learned that in l A there were
so many ghost kitchens where people could order food and deliver,
so that's where I got the idea from. So when
I got to Atlanta and did it, nobody else in
(11:32):
Atlanta was doing it. And I found the shared kitchen
and I said, listen, I got this crazy idea. Let
me try it. And like, okay, we've never heard of it,
but you could try it. And I did it, and
the first week it was like four people there, and
then a week after that it was like fifty, and
then it just kept growing, growing so much that they
kicked me out because they said I had too many
people coming. Stick with us because when we come back,
(11:55):
Pekicle will tell us about her plans for the future
and how Slightly Vegan will one day be your household name.
Welcome back. I'm Tom Collichio, and I'm speaking with Pinky Cole,
owner of a Slutty Vegan. Right before the break, she
told us about how she got kicked out of her
shared kitchen. So you can get out, and so we
(12:19):
came first. Was it the brick and water or future?
It was the food truck. So you know, it's funny.
I need to call him and say thank you because
the owners were like, listen, I know you you got
a good business, but the other tenants are complaining. You
gotta figure something out. Maybe should go get a food truck.
And that's what I did. Never ate from a food truck,
never been on the food truck. Nothing. I just put
ten thousand dollars on a food truck. I got it
(12:42):
wrapped and I parked it in the parking lot of
the shared kitchen that I was at, and I just
resumed business and it worked. And the next thing I know, Tom,
I was on the east side. I was on the
west side. And it grew from like a hundred people
to like almost five hundred people standing outside every single
day for me for my burgers, And I'm like, wait
(13:03):
a minute, what is going on? So what is going on?
So that's a great question, right. So obviously you know
the majority of my consumers are African American. Right, So
my mission is to have all people see veganism in
a whole new way. Right, whether you're black, white, blue,
I don't care who you are. All people are beginning
to get a little more conscious when it comes to
(13:23):
the food that they consume, especially Black people. Traditional soul
food was accustomed. So to be able to put a
vegan restaurant in the heart of the South and create
an experience around it, and to have Black people be
interested in it, that was something that you've never really
seen before, especially because veganism, once upon a time was
(13:46):
considered a rich white lifestyle. Right if you think, if
you think about the communities in which a lot of
black people lived in, we didn't have the access to resources,
to access to food, food insecurities. We can go on
and on and on about that. Right, once upon a time,
veganism was like, oh, that's the Beverly Hills lifestyle, right,
that that yoga. Yeah, in the early nineties and the
(14:06):
early eighties. So now when you think about Beyonce advocating
for veganism, when you think about the biggest artists advocating
for veganis they've made it cool. And we are cool.
I mean all people are cool. But you know what,
like if you really want to give you an honest answer, right, So,
so I've been able to create an experience for people
where they come for that experience, but they leave with
(14:27):
the food, all the while learning how to be more
conscious about the food they consume, even if it starts
with a burger and the fry. And the beautiful thing
about study vegan is that it has translated from from
being a black thing, right because I don't see color
when it comes to food. And this is a form
of silent protests. We're bringing people together in the name
(14:48):
of food and love. It doesn't get more beautiful than that,
right it doesn't. So do you come at a veganism
from health carepoint? Are from not wanting sea animals killed
or eagan animals? What are you see that we're working together?
I am vegan for my health and I love animals
(15:08):
all at the same time. Right. Um. I think so
often people have put labels on veganism, which is why
so many people shied away from it. So at this point,
I don't care why you want to be. You want
to go vegan because you want to least some weight. Great,
you want to go vegan because you love the animals. Great,
you want to go vegan because you want to lower
your calesso or even better. But whatever the reason is,
if you want to save the plan, whatever your reason is.
(15:30):
What has made the business so successful is we don't
put labels on it. We're not pushing the agenda my audience.
Percent of the people who come to Slutty Vegan are
not even vegan. These people are flexitarian vegetarian me eaters.
Those are the people that I want because if I
can get you to at least consider replacing one meal
a day, then I know I've done my job and
(15:52):
I know I've done something right. We are not going
to judge you, and that is how we're changing and
redefining the narrative of veganism because it's a safe space.
You could be whoever you want to be. Coming in
Disburg and Fry and I got you. You could be
whatever you want to be. It sounds like you're servicing
two communities. You're servicing your community in your neighborhood and
you're serving the greater vegan community at large. Uh. Ninety
(16:13):
five per cent of my locations are in food and
secure areas, areas that are in the heart of gentrification,
areas that developers don't find too attractive, because I want
to create that space where people can see themselves. Right,
it's a historic neighborhood. So if a black owned business
can come into this neighborhood and help to revitalize the community,
(16:34):
help to raise the property value, then we've done something right. Right.
It will make more people want to move into that community.
It will make more black people want to stay in
that community. And I even just recently just bought the
local daycare in the area, and I'm I'm making it
a community center. So you're not looking at gentrification as
as as a negative thing. You're looking at this, This
is a black owned business gentrifying my neighborhood, as opposed
(16:56):
to people coming in pushing property values up and pushing people.
And now we are bringing the essence of blackness back
into the neighborhood, back into the neighborhood and welcoming people
to come and live in this neighborhood so that it
can be inclusive of all people and not just big
developers just building up these high rises. No, we're not
doing that. And if I can buy, and what I
(17:17):
do is I buy the land, so I buy the
real estate in these places. So now there's ownership and
I'm teaching the community about group economics. I'm just being
to change that. I wish to say, you know what
I mean, So like I get to do that, and
it's beautiful because I'll give you an example my my
Birmingham location that I'm working on right now. I paid
a hundred seventy five dollars for that location for for
(17:40):
three thousand square feet. Right, it's not it's a historic neighborhood,
but from the neked eyes, it doesn't look so desirable.
But I did it because I know that when I
put Slutty Vegan there, I'm giving an opportunity for the
local business owners to make money. There's another opportunity for
people to come and buy the real estate and the
property value will go up. That's what happened at my
(18:01):
first location. And I'm going to continue to wash, rent
and repeat, because I know that there is value and
putting slutty vegan in these areas and raising up the
value of these locations where that some people in the
community weren't so crazy about the lines in the language,
the playfulness of slutty vegan and taking a little too
a little too, a little too serious where they where
they were. They were complaining about the use of the
(18:23):
word slot and that kids were hearing this and how
did you respond to that. I didn't get a very
warm welcome um And it was stressful, I'll be honest,
because here I am. I'm just a young girl just
trying to do a thing right and just really trying
to help my people out. But it really taught me
about resilience. And when you think about the word slutty,
people always ask me like, well, why would you name
a slutty vegan? This has nothing to do with sex,
(18:44):
you know. I many thirteen and twelve year olds are
on TikTok and mouthing the words to every single curse
word there is. I'm actually teaching people something good. There's
an underlying lesson here. So when I noticed there was
a transition, it started to make me feel good because
now I got Muslims, I got Christians, I got old people,
young people saying a where it's slot And it's all
(19:04):
about the tongue, the power of the tongue, what you
put meaning to. So we we created a word that
that added power and value to people instead of taking away.
So it's no longer considered a degrading word because it's
a family fund place, even though it's ays slutty vegan.
So now I don't have any problems with the community.
I mean again, I told you I bought the community
(19:25):
center because I wanted to show the people that I'm
invested in this community. I'm not just here to make money, right,
I'm here to actually really build up the and revitalize
the community and the very best way that I can.
And I'm doing that. So they don't give me any problems,
thank God. And hopefully I don't have any more problems
with anybody else or any other locations. So I'm happy
about that. Let's let's keep talking about community here because
(19:47):
I know you were very active in presidential election and
got big wins, and uh that was watching the returns
that night in Georgia. I was just just so thrilled.
I was on a bunch of calls during the campaign
with the Reverend Warnock, and Wow, what an inspiration. I
was just just so thrilled. And I knew that. You know,
Stacy Abras gets a ton of credit, and she should,
(20:09):
and there's so many activists that are behind her doing
everything they can to change it. Now now we're looking
at Georgia UM, that is just doing their damned its
best to keep people from voting. So what's the next
phase in that work. I don't get a sense that
you'll ever stop. Part of those laws is you can
no longer hand out food or drink if someone's waiting
(20:29):
on something that we did a lot. I know you did.
I know you did. Are you willing to get arrested
to do it again? Damn right? You know, because I'll
be there with you. I get arrested, right, and I
got and I got so many people that that back
us and support us. You know, through my foundation, we
did an initiative with Impossible Foods and Jamaine dupri Um
to get people excited about the election before all of
(20:50):
this stuff came up, right, Um, and I like to
say that we had we played a role in turning
Georgia blue. But you'd be surprised how many people actually want,
you know, more about politics. They just don't know where
to get started, right. I was one of those people.
I'm like, you know, I want seeing them, but like
process and like all the information, I'm like, there's so much.
I really just love helping people and and I don't
(21:12):
feel that you need to have a political title to
do that. And I've shown that through my foundation. When
you think about all the political woes that are happening
in Georgia, is it fair? Absolutely not? But am I
going to continue to do the work. Absolutely because my
my foundation is my campaign from the murder of Rahard
Brooks and providing for the family with scholarships, life insurance,
(21:32):
UM and a brand new card to like donating food
and fruits and and money to to entrepreneurs and paying
local rents for businesses who who are affected by the
pandemic UM and and right now I'm actually doing a
life insurance initiative that we're launching on the twelve where
I'm getting every single black man in Atlanta life insurance
that they don't have to pay for So I'm flitting
(21:54):
the bill, so anybody who needs life insurance, they can
sign up and I'm going to pay for it. Absolutely Clearly,
you're trying to cheach people that there's importances absolutely. Um. Well, statistically, uh,
the numbers show that that black people really don't get
life insurance, um compared to their counterparts. Right. Um, there's
so much police brutality and and and and crime that
(22:16):
happens in our community. It's a hard conversation to have,
but it's the truth. Right. So, so you don't don't
have black ince and you're dying it earlier exactly. So.
So when myself and um my my foundation partner, we
came up with the idea, it was a way to say, well,
you know what, like they keep killing black people, right,
so let's do something where black men are protected, right,
(22:38):
at least their families, their families are protected. Right. So
not only are we teaching financial literacy, we'll be teaching
about mental health. Um. And we're showing people that you
don't have to go to a fish fry and raise
money for a funeral. You don't have to do it
go fund me and nothing against go fund means or
fish fries, but we really want to show people that
you can create generational wealth for your family, and all
(23:00):
you have to do is this. So so this is
a step in the right direction. I'm doing a call
to action all the big corporations that want to support
small own, black owned, women owned businesses to to to
to donate money to this cause. And we really just
want to do a thing to be able to change
the world, even if we do it one state at
a time. So I'm excited about it. I'm excited about
(23:21):
all the things that I get to do through my platform,
and this is the meaningful work for me. Right. I
was telling somebody the other day time, like, you know,
business is cool, I make money, right, Like, I love
that part, but like the philanthropic efforts that is what
really like makes my belly leave. I watched my mother
give the clothes off her back to help every single
person around her, whether she knew them or not. I
(23:42):
didn't gain like thirty new cousins that we didn't share
any blood, but they grew up in the household with me.
But I learned that from my mother. So growing up,
I'm like, God, if you give me an opportunity to
really bless other people, I'm gonna do that. And I'm
not gonna stop. So this is me doing that and
I'm never going to stop as long as I got
breath in my body. Do you think that that the
(24:04):
black community looking at these restrictions are going to come
out in force just to push back. Absolutely, But let
me tell you something about Atlanta. Okay, Atlanta is Wakanda
okay um and Atlanta. One thing I love about Atlanta
is the people of Atlanta will band together, um for
a good cause. Right. We are a lot more conscious
(24:25):
in Atlanta, um. And that feels good because there's so
many beautiful educated black people, brown people, minorities, white people.
There's so many people that are more in tune with politics,
especially because politics are affecting the people of Georgia. Right.
So now young people are getting more involved, um, Young
educated people are getting more involved, and more more celebrities,
(24:48):
more rappers are getting more involved, and they are leading
the way of the efforts and like making Georgia the
place where people want to live and people want to
grow and people want to make money and have businesses.
So do I believe that that people are going to
band together and protest and do the right thing. Absolutely?
And I also think it's gonna happen in other states too.
I mean, you see, you see what happened with you know,
(25:09):
George Floyd, Rest in peace to him. Everybody came together,
not just black people, everybody. You have white people, black
people coming together for the first time publicly in a
way where everybody was mad. Yeah, but you know, hopefully
it doesn't take more black men and black boys getting
killed to do this. And we have opportunities in St. Louis.
I mean, Missouri is just too too red. And yet
you have St. Louis where you can do the same
(25:32):
thing that happened in Atlanta. You have Cleveland that could
that could you know, change O High And so I
agree with you. There's a lot of opportunities in a
lot of different cities to get people out and voting.
You know, this is the real disenfranchisement when it really
come down to it's going going back to Jim Crow.
This is all about making sure black folks couldn't get
out of it. And it's so crazy. It's one the
(25:52):
world that we live in. But I think that we
have enough powerful voices to be able to combat that.
And I'm actually looking forward to those efforts, know, and
I'll be right out there too with those efforts. Like
I said, if you want to feed people online waiting
to vote, you, let me know what. I'll come down
and we'll get risk. We'll get risk you. We'll be
(26:12):
back with more citizen Chef. We're back with Pinky Cole,
who was just sharing her amazing efforts to grow and
change the community around Slutty Vegan. Where do you go
from here? You're a successful business person, you are a philanthropists,
You're what's next? I mean, obviously you're you're growing your business.
(26:34):
How quickly do you see yourself growing? And how are
you going to go the franchising route? We talked about
raising money? Are in the process of raising money? What's next?
I mean, do you dream of having five hundred Slutty
Vegans across the country in Europe and Australia and anywhere
else where? Do you go from Slutty Vegan will be
a household name. I'm confident about that. I remember when
(26:55):
I first started Slutty Vegan and I was sitting at
the table with two billionaires and probably a millionaire thousand there,
and I looked at them and I said, my company
will be valued at a billion dollars in less than
five years. And they laughed at me, and it was
it had nothing to do with the money, but the
value of the business and the impact that the business made.
And they laughed. And and now I'm laughing because I
know that I'm on my way. I'm opening some additional
(27:18):
locations this year. Already have three that I'm working on
right now, and that's Birmingham, New York and gownd that's
in Georgia. I got some airport opportunities that are happening.
I will be doing an injection of capital, a large
raise to be able to scale in a way that
I want to scale. But right now, I'm really focused
on making sure that my operations continue to get better, uh,
(27:39):
making sure that I bring in the right people to
help me grow the company. You know, I started this
company by myself and then I grew it with about
five people and now here I am, I have a
hundred twenty five people helping me to grow the company.
And now it's time to really level up. We went
from my mom and pop to now this is a corporation,
am I am. I'm looking for more people who have
(28:02):
the expertise, who have proven the scale businesses to to
really help continue to grow the company, because, to be honest,
the company is out growing me. Right, So I'm I'm
I'm keeping up as the CEO of the company. Again.
Remember this is the girl from East Baltimore who has
a background of TV, who just had an idea to
do a restaurant. And now here we are. I have
three locations to food trucks, about to open up three
(28:22):
more this year, and I'm like, how did we get here?
And I did it all in the pandemic. No, actually,
it accelerated everything. I opened up a fourth location tom too.
I opened up a bar. It's called Bar vegan Um
in Atlanta, Georgia. It does extremely well. But the beauty
of it all is I get to to basically do
all the things that I think about every day. I
(28:44):
see Sledty Vegan making an impact through the community, vegan
or not. I want people to be able to see
themselves when they come into my business, right. I want
a white person to be able to see another white
person like, hey, I see you. You know what I'm saying,
Like I want a black person to be able to
see themselves. And at the end of today, I want
everybody to be able to feel like they're included and
they see a part of themselves and they can come
(29:06):
and work together as a family. It's all about family today.
And I am looking for more diversity in my company
and I'm excited about that, right. I'm excited about the
diversity and inclusion and just making people feel welcome and
wanted in my business. And that is why Slutty Vegan
is going to change the game when it comes to
being a silent pillar of bringing people all people together
in the name of food and non food. I want
(29:31):
to get back to the pandemic question. Do you think
you had an advantage? Because there was clearly and still
is a disruption in meat. Prices are going through the
roof right now, and uh, you don't have to deal
with that. So what is the barrier growth in terms
of who we're seeing inflation everywhere? Are you seeing the
cost of your goods going on? And how are you managing? Yeah,
they're going up, but we just keep going. I think
(29:51):
one of the advantages that I had, and I'm gonna
be totally transparent with you and everything happened with COVID one.
People got emotional, and when people are emotional, they want
to eat right and We were a popular company before
the pandemic. We got even more popular because we turned
on online deliveries and now everybody wants to order online.
That's number one. Number two, we saw a influx of
big corporations wanting to support small businesses, and that was
(30:15):
an advantage for us because we had the biggest of
companies wanting to support us in whatever way we wanted
to get support, right, And I think that a lot
of other small businesses could say the same thing, So
that gave us an advantage. And because we were already
doing community work before the pandemic, so we continued the
community where people like, Okay, this is a company that
was doing this before even a pandemic existed, and now
(30:38):
they continue to do the work. This is a business
that we believe in it that we wanted to support.
So I did a collab with shake Shack, I did
a collab with Morning Star, Incognito foot Locker, so so many,
so many within the year. I'm doing a documentary that
I'm dropping August six, on my third anniversary, and that
documentary is about how Slutty the Again thrived in a pandemic.
(31:02):
Literally all the things that I just said to you
and what we've done and how we were able to
do it and pivot and just really continue to grow
this ecosystem that we know it's Sledty Vegan. I suspect
that there will be a lot of people in the
trenches with you, because you're really inspirational and uh and special.
And hopefully when you're when you're opening New York, I'll
come and I'll see you. Well, you have no choice.
(31:23):
You gotta be there. I'll be He'll be there for you.
It's an honor for me to even be able to
have this conversation with you and we get to candidly
talk about like business and entrepreneurship, um and I admire
you and all the things that you've done, So thank
you for having me my pleasure. Really, I'm thrilled to
to talk to you as a peer, not as a mentor,
(31:44):
because you certainly deserve that. Thank you so much. Thank you.
The way the pandemic is impact your restaurants makes Pinky
story of success something that industry should be proud of.
I'd like to think that it's in part due to
the incredible commitment to the community around her, especially during
(32:05):
this time of crisis. You know, it goes to show
it's very clear that restaurants are more than just a
place to sit down and grab a meal. They actually
become anchors at the community and the community. If you
support that community, the community will come out and support you.
You know. Really, hearing restaurants expand during COVID was unheard of.
It was amazing to hear that Pinky was able to expand.
(32:28):
There were a few instances of restaurants opening up that
we're about to open right before the pandemic and just
plowed ahead with those plans. But uh, you know, Pinky
really is thrived during this pandemic. And again, a very
hearty thanks again to Pinky Coal of Slutty Vegan. We're
spending time with me this afternoon and it's always a
special thanks to a place the table. Citizen Chef is
(32:49):
executive produced by Christipher Haciotis, Our producer is Gabby Collins,
and our researcher is Lillian Holman. Citizen Chef as a
production of I Heart Media. For more a podcast, visit
the iHeartMedia app or anywhere you subscribe to your favorite shows.
Citizen Chef is a production of I Heart Radio. You
want to go vegan because you want at least await Great,
you want to go vegan because you love the animals. Great.
You want to go vegan because you want to lower
your calessar, or even better, save the planet. If you
want to save the planet, whatever your reason is, we
don't put labels on it. We're not pushing the agenda
my audience. Percent of the people who come to Sledty
vegan are not even vegan. If I can get you
(00:23):
to at least consider replacing one meal a day, then
I know I've done my job, and I know I've
done something right. Hey, I'm Tom Collikio and you're with
Sneak to Citizen Chef. Say we're talking to Pinky Call.
Pinky is recognized locally and by her fans and celebrities
trying to figure out how to deliver a sloppy toppy
(00:45):
across the country. You know, she's not a chef, but
she really is an amazing restaurantur. I first met Pinky
when I was asked to mentor a few restaurant tours
through a program that Forbes was doing, and I was
absolutely blown away. Just the the handle that she has
had on the restaurant industry and the question that she
(01:06):
was asking you was much much deeper than what I
expected a freshman restaurant tour to ask. She went from
her share kitchen to two food trucks to now multiple
locations a spinoff concept. I'm sure there's going to be
a movie about her life one day. While we saw
many of my peers shutter the restaurants during the pandemic,
she has just grown. So it's just my my absolute
(01:27):
pleasure to introduce Pinky Cole to the Citizenship Podcast. Yes,
I'm excited, so let's just jump right in. People have
said it was overnight success, but but nothing happens overnight,
and you had a long career. You were kind of
hustling as a kid. Yeah, I want to ask you first,
where where does the entrepreneurial drive come from? That entrepreneuri drive?
(01:49):
So the day that I was born, my father was
being sentenced to life in prison. Right. He was a businessman.
He wasn't a legal businessman, but he was a businessman
and the US right. So I grew up watching my mother,
who fifty percent of her time was spent at a
company which she's been at the same company now for
over thirty years. Right when she loves and appreciates, and
(02:11):
then the other fifty percent of her time she spent
as an entrepreneur, lead singer of a reggae band, radio personality,
just still getting her hands wet and really trying to
fulfill her dreams as much as possible as a single
mother while my father was in prison. So what I
learned from my father being in prison and my mother
being a part time entrepreneur is that the hustle never stops. Right.
(02:34):
So I've seen two examples of individuals who really just
wanted a better life. Even my father, from behind bars,
he would send me rich Dad, Poor Dad. He would
teach me about stocks, he would tell me about business.
So I got all of the business acumen from him,
but I did it the legal way. So growing up,
(02:54):
I used to throw parties and I used to make
four thousand dollars every every week. Read about that. I
read about this. You used to throw parties for kids
and charge them. Yeah, like high school parties are in
Baltimore and I was just doing a thing. You know,
people knew my family. We were Jamaican. We were well
known in the community. And I'm a talker. As you
can see, I like to wear my mouth. So I
(03:14):
started throwing these events. How how did you know these
kids would pay to come to a party. I mean
I thre parties when I was a kid, and I
thought I could charge people. I just became a salesman
at an early age, like I have mastered the art
of bringing people together, and now it's coming full circle. Um.
In high school, I was selling the chickens um and
reselling them for two dollars, selling candy for anything you
(03:37):
can think of. I was just a natural born hustler,
and I know that I got it from my parents.
And when you asked me where that entrepreneur edge come from,
that grit and that grind and that hustle, it really
came from my mom and my dad. And I'm so
grateful for for the humble beginnings. I think we see
that with so many immigrant families that come to this country,
absolutely that that hustle is uh. You know it runs
deep because you're right, you know, immigrants come to this
(04:00):
because they want to make a better life for their things. Right.
I just know what hard work is, Tom, You know,
like nothing ever came easy for my family. I tell
people all the time Christmas is I didn't get like
Barbie and Ken. I didn't get dolls growing up. I
didn't get toys. I didn't watch cartoons growing up. I
was watching Lifetime with my grandmother, right like, I really
saw examples of people that got up every single day,
(04:21):
didn't ask for any handouts, went and worked. The lights
were never cut off. We always had exactly what we needed.
And I'm so grateful for those life lessons early on. Now,
Sunny Vegan, wasn't your first restaurant. You opened up a
Jamaican restaurant in Yeah, and it was successful. It was successful,
but it started way before the restaurant. You know, my
background is TV, Tom. Just like how you said you
(04:41):
weren't prepared for that call, I wasn't prepared to work
at TV like I was never prepared to either. In fact,
I said no three times before I finally said yeah, yeah, yeah,
tell me about that. You moved out to l A
to act really yeah, I wanted to be an actress.
And again another full circle moment. I just paid my
SAG fee, so now I'm in the union, thank god.
But I went out there and this is the piece
(05:04):
of the story that I really never tell people. I
moved to l A with two hundred fifty dollars a
Duffel bag in a suitcase in the Bible. I was
in a three bedroom house, but in one of those
bedrooms there was four of us living in one of
the bedrooms right and splitting the rent of the bedroom.
So we were each paying three hundred dollars every single month.
And during that time and humbled me number one. Number two,
(05:26):
I got an opportunity to work in TV as a
production assistant, and then I got a call from The
Maury Show. And during my time at Maury, I saved
up a lot of my money, got a loan from
a family friend. And one of my friends said, you
know what, there's a building that is looking to put
a restaurant there. If you wanted the rent is only
mind you. I didn't know anything about the restaurant industry nothing.
I'm not a chef, yes, explain, explaining, So this is
(05:50):
crazy right now, where so many chefs want to be
and yet you open a restaurant with out the first
restaurant zero experience, just because someone called you and said
the rents cheap. Now, actually you got that you got
that piece right, because that that is is probably one
of the most important things you can do when you're
a shepherd or anyone trying to run the business, to
get a good rent deal. And so, I mean, my
(06:11):
first restaurant was was Grammarcy Tyrant. I gotta say for
the for that space in the Union Square area, the
grammar Cy Park area, that was well well figured out.
It was ten square feet in Union Square. Yeah it was.
It was actually a great rent you actually, you know,
had that going for you. But what makes you think
you can open a restaurant never having experience. Um, there's
(06:32):
so so many things that I thought about in the past.
I thought that I wanted to be in the music
industry and that was a fail. But I needed to
do that. And you know, I wanted to do the
TV thing on my own and that didn't work. But
it wasn't supposed to work. I was supposed to get
in a restaurant industry. And sometimes the universe puts things
in your face that you least expect um, and that
is when you're in alignment. When it when it works out.
(06:53):
And it worked out for me because I didn't have
experience and I opened this concept up and I had
a line down the block and I was selling jerk chicken,
not even eating jerk chicken. I haven't eaten meat since
two thousand seven. And I opened up my restaurant in
two thousand and fourteen, and and it was successful. How
did you know how to put the pieces together? So
I hired ad you make in chef. Some of the
recipes were mine and and again, you know you had
(07:15):
a restaurant before. I actually lived in my restaurants, like
every day, all day. I sacrificed my early twenties to
be in that restaurant. But when I look back at it,
like I needed that training. I needed to go through
what I went through, good, bad, and indifferent, because it
really taught me how to be a better entrepreneur. I
didn't know what I was doing so much so that
I didn't even get fire insurance for my business. And
(07:38):
you know me having a fire at my establishment. Right,
So so let's talk about that. You you opened the restaurant,
big success. I think you opened up a second juice bar,
and so you're just you know, knocking out of the park.
You got two restaurants. You get a phone call, there's
a fire, go back to that that day. You know,
your dreams come crashing down. It was hard, you know. Um,
(07:58):
I gotta be honest. I put my whole life savings,
everything that I had, I did it by myself, and
to work in a restaurant fourteen fifteen hours a day.
And I can remember closing up my doors. It was
the night that I closed myself, Um, and I closed
the doors, and the fire department called me and they
told me that the restaurant was on fire. So I
(08:20):
live right down the street and I saw the restaurants
smoky at this time that they put out the fire,
but everything was smoky, everything was black, And I was
just in disbelief because I'm like, every single thing that
I built is in shambles. And when I tell you,
that was actually the best thing that could have ever
happened to me, because I probably would still be in
(08:40):
that restaurant, clocking in every single day, physically being present
and not being able to scale a grow, right, But
I didn't understand it at the moment. That's why life
is just so beautiful, right, Like life really teaches you
about patients and resilience and just understanding that there's a
reason for everything. How do you pick yourself up? And
I don't know. When fire put out of fire they
care to part. Yeah, do you find the fire and
(09:02):
pull the water on it? They rip, rip the place apart.
They do the job, and so how do you pick
yourself up? The following day you go there and try
to pick up the pieces. Already just kind of walking down.
I was in disabilte. I didn't know what to do.
To be honest, I didn't have fire insurance, so I
wasn't protected. I thought that I could try to salvage
what was left. I couldn't. Everything was damaged. Um so
(09:24):
I fell into a little depression. Well what I felt
was a depression, right, I've never felt like that before,
and I can remember. It happened so fast. I went
from like, Okay, this fire happened, to my car getting repolled,
to me getting evicted, to me losing everything, to me
going flat broke, and I'm like, what is going on?
Like it felt like a failure, and now that I
look at it, it was never really a failure at all.
(09:45):
So you have to back in Atlanta, put my stuff
in storage that was in I came to Atlanta and
it felt right and at the time when I moved
to Atlanta, I was running five miles a day. People
people thought I was crazy, five miles a day. I
was reading every day, I was researching on YouTube, I
was doing everything. Were running from her. I was running
(10:07):
on the treadmill, running the house off. Yeah. I was
conditioning my mind. Yeah, my mindset was shifting. I didn't
want to go out. I didn't want to hang with people.
I just wanted to like research. I was just in
research mode. And I can remember I was in my
bedroom one day and it hit me like a light ball,
slutty Vegan out of nowhere. Literally, I'm just sitting there
(10:27):
like slutty Vegan. And I didn't know what it meant.
I didn't. I'm like, I'm like, what is slutty Vegan.
Slutty Vegan is a restaurant. Slutty Vegan is And because
I was hungry, I was in Atlanta and on a
late night, everything was closed and I'm just like, wow,
slutty Vegan. And when it hit me, I called my
best friend. I'm like, what do you think about this now?
She was like, I love it. Do something with it.
And then I just got to work. Well, so you
(10:49):
were you're work vegan at this point? Oh I was vegan. Yeah, absolutely,
So there's no place to go late night for vegan
food in Atlanta. Now, um, and you had this epiphany,
this slutty vegan. How long from that moment to getting
the doors open? Take So I came up with the
idea first week of July. I started August six. Everything
(11:11):
this this was from the moment of conceptualizing the idea,
to getting my permits and my paperwork, finding a shared kitchen,
doing the research, creating a menu. So I moved really,
really fast. I learned that in l A there were
so many ghost kitchens where people could order food and deliver,
so that's where I got the idea from. So when
I got to Atlanta and did it, nobody else in
(11:32):
Atlanta was doing it. And I found the shared kitchen
and I said, listen, I got this crazy idea. Let
me try it. And like, okay, we've never heard of it,
but you could try it. And I did it, and
the first week it was like four people there, and
then a week after that it was like fifty, and
then it just kept growing, growing so much that they
kicked me out because they said I had too many
people coming. Stick with us because when we come back,
(11:55):
Pekicle will tell us about her plans for the future
and how Slightly Vegan will one day be your household name.
Welcome back. I'm Tom Collichio, and I'm speaking with Pinky Cole,
owner of a Slutty Vegan. Right before the break, she
told us about how she got kicked out of her
shared kitchen. So you can get out, and so we
(12:19):
came first. Was it the brick and water or future?
It was the food truck. So you know, it's funny.
I need to call him and say thank you because
the owners were like, listen, I know you you got
a good business, but the other tenants are complaining. You
gotta figure something out. Maybe should go get a food truck.
And that's what I did. Never ate from a food truck,
never been on the food truck. Nothing. I just put
ten thousand dollars on a food truck. I got it
(12:42):
wrapped and I parked it in the parking lot of
the shared kitchen that I was at, and I just
resumed business and it worked. And the next thing I know, Tom,
I was on the east side. I was on the
west side. And it grew from like a hundred people
to like almost five hundred people standing outside every single
day for me for my burgers, And I'm like, wait
(13:03):
a minute, what is going on? So what is going on?
So that's a great question, right. So obviously you know
the majority of my consumers are African American. Right, So
my mission is to have all people see veganism in
a whole new way. Right, whether you're black, white, blue,
I don't care who you are. All people are beginning
to get a little more conscious when it comes to
(13:23):
the food that they consume, especially Black people. Traditional soul
food was accustomed. So to be able to put a
vegan restaurant in the heart of the South and create
an experience around it, and to have Black people be
interested in it, that was something that you've never really
seen before, especially because veganism, once upon a time was
(13:46):
considered a rich white lifestyle. Right if you think, if
you think about the communities in which a lot of
black people lived in, we didn't have the access to resources,
to access to food, food insecurities. We can go on
and on and on about that. Right, once upon a time,
veganism was like, oh, that's the Beverly Hills lifestyle, right,
that that yoga. Yeah, in the early nineties and the
(14:06):
early eighties. So now when you think about Beyonce advocating
for veganism, when you think about the biggest artists advocating
for veganis they've made it cool. And we are cool.
I mean all people are cool. But you know what,
like if you really want to give you an honest answer, right, So,
so I've been able to create an experience for people
where they come for that experience, but they leave with
(14:27):
the food, all the while learning how to be more
conscious about the food they consume, even if it starts
with a burger and the fry. And the beautiful thing
about study vegan is that it has translated from from
being a black thing, right because I don't see color
when it comes to food. And this is a form
of silent protests. We're bringing people together in the name
(14:48):
of food and love. It doesn't get more beautiful than that,
right it doesn't. So do you come at a veganism
from health carepoint? Are from not wanting sea animals killed
or eagan animals? What are you see that we're working together?
I am vegan for my health and I love animals
(15:08):
all at the same time. Right. Um. I think so
often people have put labels on veganism, which is why
so many people shied away from it. So at this point,
I don't care why you want to be. You want
to go vegan because you want to least some weight. Great,
you want to go vegan because you love the animals. Great,
you want to go vegan because you want to lower
your calesso or even better. But whatever the reason is,
if you want to save the plan, whatever your reason is.
(15:30):
What has made the business so successful is we don't
put labels on it. We're not pushing the agenda my audience.
Percent of the people who come to Slutty Vegan are
not even vegan. These people are flexitarian vegetarian me eaters.
Those are the people that I want because if I
can get you to at least consider replacing one meal
a day, then I know I've done my job and
(15:52):
I know I've done something right. We are not going
to judge you, and that is how we're changing and
redefining the narrative of veganism because it's a safe space.
You could be whoever you want to be. Coming in
Disburg and Fry and I got you. You could be
whatever you want to be. It sounds like you're servicing
two communities. You're servicing your community in your neighborhood and
you're serving the greater vegan community at large. Uh. Ninety
(16:13):
five per cent of my locations are in food and
secure areas, areas that are in the heart of gentrification,
areas that developers don't find too attractive, because I want
to create that space where people can see themselves. Right,
it's a historic neighborhood. So if a black owned business
can come into this neighborhood and help to revitalize the community,
(16:34):
help to raise the property value, then we've done something right. Right.
It will make more people want to move into that community.
It will make more black people want to stay in
that community. And I even just recently just bought the
local daycare in the area, and I'm I'm making it
a community center. So you're not looking at gentrification as
as as a negative thing. You're looking at this, This
is a black owned business gentrifying my neighborhood, as opposed
(16:56):
to people coming in pushing property values up and pushing people.
And now we are bringing the essence of blackness back
into the neighborhood, back into the neighborhood and welcoming people
to come and live in this neighborhood so that it
can be inclusive of all people and not just big
developers just building up these high rises. No, we're not
doing that. And if I can buy, and what I
(17:17):
do is I buy the land, so I buy the
real estate in these places. So now there's ownership and
I'm teaching the community about group economics. I'm just being
to change that. I wish to say, you know what
I mean, So like I get to do that, and
it's beautiful because I'll give you an example my my
Birmingham location that I'm working on right now. I paid
a hundred seventy five dollars for that location for for
(17:40):
three thousand square feet. Right, it's not it's a historic neighborhood,
but from the neked eyes, it doesn't look so desirable.
But I did it because I know that when I
put Slutty Vegan there, I'm giving an opportunity for the
local business owners to make money. There's another opportunity for
people to come and buy the real estate and the
property value will go up. That's what happened at my
(18:01):
first location. And I'm going to continue to wash, rent
and repeat, because I know that there is value and
putting slutty vegan in these areas and raising up the
value of these locations where that some people in the
community weren't so crazy about the lines in the language,
the playfulness of slutty vegan and taking a little too
a little too, a little too serious where they where
they were. They were complaining about the use of the
(18:23):
word slot and that kids were hearing this and how
did you respond to that. I didn't get a very
warm welcome um And it was stressful, I'll be honest,
because here I am. I'm just a young girl just
trying to do a thing right and just really trying
to help my people out. But it really taught me
about resilience. And when you think about the word slutty,
people always ask me like, well, why would you name
a slutty vegan? This has nothing to do with sex,
(18:44):
you know. I many thirteen and twelve year olds are
on TikTok and mouthing the words to every single curse
word there is. I'm actually teaching people something good. There's
an underlying lesson here. So when I noticed there was
a transition, it started to make me feel good because
now I got Muslims, I got Christians, I got old people,
young people saying a where it's slot And it's all
(19:04):
about the tongue, the power of the tongue, what you
put meaning to. So we we created a word that
that added power and value to people instead of taking away.
So it's no longer considered a degrading word because it's
a family fund place, even though it's ays slutty vegan.
So now I don't have any problems with the community.
I mean again, I told you I bought the community
(19:25):
center because I wanted to show the people that I'm
invested in this community. I'm not just here to make money, right,
I'm here to actually really build up the and revitalize
the community and the very best way that I can.
And I'm doing that. So they don't give me any problems,
thank God. And hopefully I don't have any more problems
with anybody else or any other locations. So I'm happy
about that. Let's let's keep talking about community here because
(19:47):
I know you were very active in presidential election and
got big wins, and uh that was watching the returns
that night in Georgia. I was just just so thrilled.
I was on a bunch of calls during the campaign
with the Reverend Warnock, and Wow, what an inspiration. I
was just just so thrilled. And I knew that. You know,
Stacy Abras gets a ton of credit, and she should,
(20:09):
and there's so many activists that are behind her doing
everything they can to change it. Now now we're looking
at Georgia UM, that is just doing their damned its
best to keep people from voting. So what's the next
phase in that work. I don't get a sense that
you'll ever stop. Part of those laws is you can
no longer hand out food or drink if someone's waiting
(20:29):
on something that we did a lot. I know you did.
I know you did. Are you willing to get arrested
to do it again? Damn right? You know, because I'll
be there with you. I get arrested, right, and I
got and I got so many people that that back
us and support us. You know, through my foundation, we
did an initiative with Impossible Foods and Jamaine dupri Um
to get people excited about the election before all of
(20:50):
this stuff came up, right, Um, and I like to
say that we had we played a role in turning
Georgia blue. But you'd be surprised how many people actually want,
you know, more about politics. They just don't know where
to get started, right. I was one of those people.
I'm like, you know, I want seeing them, but like
process and like all the information, I'm like, there's so much.
I really just love helping people and and I don't
(21:12):
feel that you need to have a political title to
do that. And I've shown that through my foundation. When
you think about all the political woes that are happening
in Georgia, is it fair? Absolutely not? But am I
going to continue to do the work. Absolutely because my
my foundation is my campaign from the murder of Rahard
Brooks and providing for the family with scholarships, life insurance,
(21:32):
UM and a brand new card to like donating food
and fruits and and money to to entrepreneurs and paying
local rents for businesses who who are affected by the
pandemic UM and and right now I'm actually doing a
life insurance initiative that we're launching on the twelve where
I'm getting every single black man in Atlanta life insurance
that they don't have to pay for So I'm flitting
(21:54):
the bill, so anybody who needs life insurance, they can
sign up and I'm going to pay for it. Absolutely Clearly,
you're trying to cheach people that there's importances absolutely. Um. Well, statistically, uh,
the numbers show that that black people really don't get
life insurance, um compared to their counterparts. Right. Um, there's
so much police brutality and and and and crime that
(22:16):
happens in our community. It's a hard conversation to have,
but it's the truth. Right. So, so you don't don't
have black ince and you're dying it earlier exactly. So.
So when myself and um my my foundation partner, we
came up with the idea, it was a way to say, well,
you know what, like they keep killing black people, right,
so let's do something where black men are protected, right,
(22:38):
at least their families, their families are protected. Right. So
not only are we teaching financial literacy, we'll be teaching
about mental health. Um. And we're showing people that you
don't have to go to a fish fry and raise
money for a funeral. You don't have to do it
go fund me and nothing against go fund means or
fish fries, but we really want to show people that
you can create generational wealth for your family, and all
(23:00):
you have to do is this. So so this is
a step in the right direction. I'm doing a call
to action all the big corporations that want to support
small own, black owned, women owned businesses to to to
to donate money to this cause. And we really just
want to do a thing to be able to change
the world, even if we do it one state at
a time. So I'm excited about it. I'm excited about
(23:21):
all the things that I get to do through my platform,
and this is the meaningful work for me. Right. I
was telling somebody the other day time, like, you know,
business is cool, I make money, right, Like, I love
that part, but like the philanthropic efforts that is what
really like makes my belly leave. I watched my mother
give the clothes off her back to help every single
person around her, whether she knew them or not. I
(23:42):
didn't gain like thirty new cousins that we didn't share
any blood, but they grew up in the household with me.
But I learned that from my mother. So growing up,
I'm like, God, if you give me an opportunity to
really bless other people, I'm gonna do that. And I'm
not gonna stop. So this is me doing that and
I'm never going to stop as long as I got
breath in my body. Do you think that that the
(24:04):
black community looking at these restrictions are going to come
out in force just to push back. Absolutely, But let
me tell you something about Atlanta. Okay, Atlanta is Wakanda
okay um and Atlanta. One thing I love about Atlanta
is the people of Atlanta will band together, um for
a good cause. Right. We are a lot more conscious
(24:25):
in Atlanta, um. And that feels good because there's so
many beautiful educated black people, brown people, minorities, white people.
There's so many people that are more in tune with politics,
especially because politics are affecting the people of Georgia. Right.
So now young people are getting more involved, um, Young
educated people are getting more involved, and more more celebrities,
(24:48):
more rappers are getting more involved, and they are leading
the way of the efforts and like making Georgia the
place where people want to live and people want to
grow and people want to make money and have businesses.
So do I believe that that people are going to
band together and protest and do the right thing. Absolutely?
And I also think it's gonna happen in other states too.
I mean, you see, you see what happened with you know,
(25:09):
George Floyd, Rest in peace to him. Everybody came together,
not just black people, everybody. You have white people, black
people coming together for the first time publicly in a
way where everybody was mad. Yeah, but you know, hopefully
it doesn't take more black men and black boys getting
killed to do this. And we have opportunities in St. Louis.
I mean, Missouri is just too too red. And yet
you have St. Louis where you can do the same
(25:32):
thing that happened in Atlanta. You have Cleveland that could
that could you know, change O High And so I
agree with you. There's a lot of opportunities in a
lot of different cities to get people out and voting.
You know, this is the real disenfranchisement when it really
come down to it's going going back to Jim Crow.
This is all about making sure black folks couldn't get
out of it. And it's so crazy. It's one the
(25:52):
world that we live in. But I think that we
have enough powerful voices to be able to combat that.
And I'm actually looking forward to those efforts, know, and
I'll be right out there too with those efforts. Like
I said, if you want to feed people online waiting
to vote, you, let me know what. I'll come down
and we'll get risk. We'll get risk you. We'll be
(26:12):
back with more citizen Chef. We're back with Pinky Cole,
who was just sharing her amazing efforts to grow and
change the community around Slutty Vegan. Where do you go
from here? You're a successful business person, you are a philanthropists,
You're what's next? I mean, obviously you're you're growing your business.
(26:34):
How quickly do you see yourself growing? And how are
you going to go the franchising route? We talked about
raising money? Are in the process of raising money? What's next?
I mean, do you dream of having five hundred Slutty
Vegans across the country in Europe and Australia and anywhere
else where? Do you go from Slutty Vegan will be
a household name. I'm confident about that. I remember when
(26:55):
I first started Slutty Vegan and I was sitting at
the table with two billionaires and probably a millionaire thousand there,
and I looked at them and I said, my company
will be valued at a billion dollars in less than
five years. And they laughed at me, and it was
it had nothing to do with the money, but the
value of the business and the impact that the business made.
And they laughed. And and now I'm laughing because I
know that I'm on my way. I'm opening some additional
(27:18):
locations this year. Already have three that I'm working on
right now, and that's Birmingham, New York and gownd that's
in Georgia. I got some airport opportunities that are happening.
I will be doing an injection of capital, a large
raise to be able to scale in a way that
I want to scale. But right now, I'm really focused
on making sure that my operations continue to get better, uh,
(27:39):
making sure that I bring in the right people to
help me grow the company. You know, I started this
company by myself and then I grew it with about
five people and now here I am, I have a
hundred twenty five people helping me to grow the company.
And now it's time to really level up. We went
from my mom and pop to now this is a corporation,
am I am. I'm looking for more people who have
(28:02):
the expertise, who have proven the scale businesses to to
really help continue to grow the company, because, to be honest,
the company is out growing me. Right, So I'm I'm
I'm keeping up as the CEO of the company. Again.
Remember this is the girl from East Baltimore who has
a background of TV, who just had an idea to
do a restaurant. And now here we are. I have
three locations to food trucks, about to open up three
(28:22):
more this year, and I'm like, how did we get here?
And I did it all in the pandemic. No, actually,
it accelerated everything. I opened up a fourth location tom too.
I opened up a bar. It's called Bar vegan Um
in Atlanta, Georgia. It does extremely well. But the beauty
of it all is I get to to basically do
all the things that I think about every day. I
(28:44):
see Sledty Vegan making an impact through the community, vegan
or not. I want people to be able to see
themselves when they come into my business, right. I want
a white person to be able to see another white
person like, hey, I see you. You know what I'm saying,
Like I want a black person to be able to
see themselves. And at the end of today, I want
everybody to be able to feel like they're included and
they see a part of themselves and they can come
(29:06):
and work together as a family. It's all about family today.
And I am looking for more diversity in my company
and I'm excited about that, right. I'm excited about the
diversity and inclusion and just making people feel welcome and
wanted in my business. And that is why Slutty Vegan
is going to change the game when it comes to
being a silent pillar of bringing people all people together
in the name of food and non food. I want
(29:31):
to get back to the pandemic question. Do you think
you had an advantage? Because there was clearly and still
is a disruption in meat. Prices are going through the
roof right now, and uh, you don't have to deal
with that. So what is the barrier growth in terms
of who we're seeing inflation everywhere? Are you seeing the
cost of your goods going on? And how are you managing? Yeah,
they're going up, but we just keep going. I think
(29:51):
one of the advantages that I had, and I'm gonna
be totally transparent with you and everything happened with COVID one.
People got emotional, and when people are emotional, they want
to eat right and We were a popular company before
the pandemic. We got even more popular because we turned
on online deliveries and now everybody wants to order online.
That's number one. Number two, we saw a influx of
big corporations wanting to support small businesses, and that was
(30:15):
an advantage for us because we had the biggest of
companies wanting to support us in whatever way we wanted
to get support, right, And I think that a lot
of other small businesses could say the same thing, So
that gave us an advantage. And because we were already
doing community work before the pandemic, so we continued the
community where people like, Okay, this is a company that
was doing this before even a pandemic existed, and now
(30:38):
they continue to do the work. This is a business
that we believe in it that we wanted to support.
So I did a collab with shake Shack, I did
a collab with Morning Star, Incognito foot Locker, so so many,
so many within the year. I'm doing a documentary that
I'm dropping August six, on my third anniversary, and that
documentary is about how Slutty the Again thrived in a pandemic.
(31:02):
Literally all the things that I just said to you
and what we've done and how we were able to
do it and pivot and just really continue to grow
this ecosystem that we know it's Sledty Vegan. I suspect
that there will be a lot of people in the
trenches with you, because you're really inspirational and uh and special.
And hopefully when you're when you're opening New York, I'll
come and I'll see you. Well, you have no choice.
(31:23):
You gotta be there. I'll be He'll be there for you.
It's an honor for me to even be able to
have this conversation with you and we get to candidly
talk about like business and entrepreneurship, um and I admire
you and all the things that you've done, So thank
you for having me my pleasure. Really, I'm thrilled to
to talk to you as a peer, not as a mentor,
(31:44):
because you certainly deserve that. Thank you so much. Thank you.
The way the pandemic is impact your restaurants makes Pinky
story of success something that industry should be proud of.
I'd like to think that it's in part due to
the incredible commitment to the community around her, especially during
(32:05):
this time of crisis. You know, it goes to show
it's very clear that restaurants are more than just a
place to sit down and grab a meal. They actually
become anchors at the community and the community. If you
support that community, the community will come out and support you.
You know. Really, hearing restaurants expand during COVID was unheard of.
It was amazing to hear that Pinky was able to expand.
(32:28):
There were a few instances of restaurants opening up that
we're about to open right before the pandemic and just
plowed ahead with those plans. But uh, you know, Pinky
really is thrived during this pandemic. And again, a very
hearty thanks again to Pinky Coal of Slutty Vegan. We're
spending time with me this afternoon and it's always a
special thanks to a place the table. Citizen Chef is
(32:49):
executive produced by Christipher Haciotis, Our producer is Gabby Collins,
and our researcher is Lillian Holman. Citizen Chef as a
production of I Heart Media. For more a podcast, visit
the iHeartMedia app or anywhere you subscribe to your favorite shows.
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