Bay Area vegan restaurants are closing en masse as even their owners want more from the menu

The Bay Area’s roster of vegan restaurants is shrinking even further, as Oakland’s Malibu’s Burgers will flip its last vegan smashburgers this weekend.Malibu’s Burgers, located at 326 23rd St.in Uptown Oakland, will close after service on Saturday, June 6, ending the latest chapter for the Uptown Oakland restaurant that grew out of a successful food truck operation.The shutdown follows a string of setbacks for vegetarian and vegan businesses in the Bay Area.Oakland vegan restaurant Millennium temporarily closed in May to restructure, Amy’s Drive Thru shuttered its last Bay Area location in March, and the plant-based vision behind downtown food hall Saluhall had largely collapsed by the end of last year.“I wish I could say it was a hard decision, but it was actually pretty easy,” owner Darren Preston told the San Francisco Chronicle.Lourdes “Lulu” Marquez-Nau, Preston’s mother and the chef at Malibu’s Burgers, said running a vegan restaurant can be difficult due to the high cost of plant-based ingredients and inconsistent sales.“Vegan restaurants are closing left and right,” Marquez-Nau said.

She added that Preston “did everything possible to try to stay open.It’s just not in the cards.”Marquez-Nau experienced those challenges firsthand.

Her vegan Puerto Rican restaurant, Casa Borinqueña, was among several concepts that closed at Saluhall last year.He believes lower sales are partly due to the rise of meat-focused high-protein diets.These diets have been heavily promoted in recent years by influencers and advocates such as Health Secretary Robert F.Kennedy Jr., even though many of their claims lack scientific support.Preston told the outlet that he himself had stopped following a vegan diet for health reasons.In January, he introduced meat and cheese to the menu, hoping it would give the restaurant new life.However, the change was not enough to rejuvenate the restaurant, he said.

For its final days, Malibu’s has returned to the v...