Vegan Restaurant Owner Adds Meat To Menu To Try And Save Her Business — The Plant-Based Community Isn't Happy
It didn't exactly turn out how she'd hoped.
PeopleImages / Shutterstock Running a restaurant of any kind is hard, much less a vegan restaurant. There's a lot of pressure to find sustainable, delicious substitutes for popular foods that will entice a large enough customer base to remain profitable. Add in the current cost of living, leading to a smaller customer base, and it's more than hard to turn a profit.
This is exactly the situation one restaurant owner is facing, after she made a difficult decision for the good of her business that cost her the support of several of her regular customers and drew negative feedback online.
A vegan restaurant owner is receiving backlash for adding meat to the menu in an attempt to save the business.
Ashley Coyne is the owner of Goodbeet, a vegan and gluten-free restaurant in New Jersey. For ten years, her menu remained entirely plant-based. That all changed on October 19th when the business announced in an Instagram post that they would now offer the option of adding pasture-raised chicken or wild-caught salmon to their dishes.
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Coyne claimed that the decision was necessary to make the restaurant more inviting to a larger customer base. "Right around COVID time, just about everywhere started adding vegan options to their menus and labeling things as gluten-free," the post read. "Which was amazing progress, but it also meant that vegan restaurants weren’t such a destination anymore since you could go places where everyone could enjoy the meal they actually want."
Coyne was hopeful that making the shift from a fully plant-based to a plant-forward approach would help boost business. In the post, she reassured customers that there would be no risk of cross-contamination in the kitchen, and vegan customers could continue eating there with peace of mind. "I knew there would be backlash about the animal products," Coyne told NJ Advance Media. "But I thought they’d be happier that we were fighting to stay alive, opposed to just throwing our hands up and closing."
Comments flooded in, and the responses were overwhelmingly negative.
People were quick to bash Coyne for the changes and express their disappointment. One user wrote, "Really disappointed in this. Especially in the excitement in which you’re delivering the news."
Another explained, "I go to GoodBeet because I know I can eat anything on the menu and not have to worry about a hidden animal ingredient. Saying you are still “99% vegan” is not vegan."
Coyne was discouraged about the response from the community. "People were saying such upsetting and hurtful things. They were saying they hate me, they hope we fail, they hope we go out of business," she reported. "All of these terrible things for adults to be saying on a social media platform — while they’re fighting for animal rights."
Other vegan restaurants in the area have shared their thoughts about Coyne's decision.
Eric Nyman, owner of Wildflower Vegan Cafe, told NJ Advance Media, "I would never do that. But it’s a free country and most restaurants serve animal products, so what are you going to do?" He suggested that Coyne take a look at her business model instead, saying, "There are so many things an eatery can do to change the course of their business other than adding dead animals to the menu."
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However, other vegan restaurant owners respected Coyne's decision and encouraged the vegan community not to judge her. "I think if a vegan restaurant owner comes to the realization that they have to add meat to the menu, it’s not because they’re trying to betray," said Nadeem Gandhi, co-owner of Cultivate Plant-based Eatery. "But because they feel like it’s financially necessary to, for the livelihood of themselves and for the livelihood of their staff members."
Coyne reported that, despite all the negativity online, Goodbeet's business has increased since adding meat options to the menu. "I don’t think a majority of our customer base was fully vegan anyway. So a lot of our regulars have been so excited," she shared.
The fact is, restaurants are struggling. Surging prices on food basics are getting passed off onto customers, and a restaurant truly has to draw in a crowd in any way possible. If patrons are getting pickier, then restaurants have to offer more. It's really as simple as that. Is it upsetting when a restaurant that you felt shared your ethical vision has to change its practices to earn enough to keep its doors open? Of course it is. But what's the alternative?
Kayla Asbach is a writer currently working on her bachelor's degree at the University of Central Florida. She covers relationships, psychology, self-help, pop culture, and human interest topics.
