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96 VegNews SUMMER 2019
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96 VegNews SUMMER 2019
THE WOMAN WHO BUILT ATLANTA’S
$4 Million
Vegan Burger Empire
Slutty Vegan owner
Aisha “Pinky” ColeHow do you build a multimillion-
dollar business that commands
six-hour-long lines and megawatt
celeb customers like Snoop Dogg
and Tiffany Haddish, all in less
than a year? According to Slutty
Vegan owner Pinky Cole, just
start slinging plant-based burgers.
by RICHARD BOWIEF
IRST, SHE MADE a living
as a producer creating
outrageous storylines on
The Maury Show. Then,
she opened up her own
restaurant in Harlem,
serving up meat-heavy Jamaican fare to
a cult following. But now, after another
stint in TV and going vegan, the career of
32-year-old Aisha “Pinky” Cole has made
a big pivot, and it has come with a side of
plant-based revolution.
In 2018, Cole found fame with her
new Atlanta food truck The Slutty
Vegan, serving up Impossible Burgers
smothered in a secret “Slutty Sauce”
and piled high with toppings like vegan
shrimp, jerk plantains, crispy bacon, and
heaps of guacamole. The combination of
provocative branding and an over-the-top
menu that destroys misconceptions about
vegan food worked, and soon, Slutty
Vegan took over social media with videos
of blown-away patrons trying their first
taste of plant-based fast food (or getting
“#sluttified,” as Cole says). FOMO set
in, and even larger crowds began to line
up, followed by a wave of veg-curious
mega celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Tiffany
Haddish, Taraji P. Henson, and Tyler Perry.
With lines snaking around city blocks and
some customers waiting up to six hours,
Cole knew she had a hit.
By the beginning of 2019, less than six
months after opening, Cole opened Slutty
Vegan’s first brick-and-mortar in West
Atlanta. Shortly thereafter, she launched
a cross-country pop-up tour—cooking,
dancing, and singing out of Black-owned
restaurants in cities from Washington, DC
to Oakland. Now, Cole is busy planning the
next phase of her Slutty Vegan takeover,