The Churn
A Respectful Review of Bar Vegan, Slutty Vegan’s New Restaurant and Lounge in Ponce City Market
Mike JordanMarch 2, 2021
“Today’s culture is exploring the truth, and the truth that we’re walking into is that, as a community, we are beginning to eat healthier and focus more on the things we put into our bodies,” says the founder of Slutty Vegan.
“Bar Vegan’s aim is to create an enjoyable experience for those who want to eat well and enjoy a bit of fun and flare, while still maintaining the vegan lifestyle.”
Pinky cole
Not every restaurateur is bold enough to put a restaurant on the second floor of Ponce City Market, but Slutty Vegan, Pinky Cole’s Atlanta-based plant burger restaurant chain, is nothing short of a national phenomenon.
If you, like Pinky, had the opportunity to turn major momentum and success into even more success, wouldn’t you also open a flashy full-service bar and restaurant for the vastly underserved community of plant-based alcohol enthusiasts?
Now that Pinky and Derrick Hayes, two of Atlanta’s hottest restaurant owners, have joined forces with Dinkies and Bar Vegan, there could soon be a drastic uptick in second-floor foot traffic and foodie activity at Ponce City Market.
Yet there’s also the possibility that Bar Vegan will prove to have set the bar a little too high on ambition, and find it tough giving a tricky consumer base with great expectations the simple and effective experience they might expect.
The Good
Bar Vegan’s drinks, particularly the margarita and the ATL Fire Rescue, are not bad at all. They’re slightly to the sweet side, but Atlanta is notably fine with a little more sugar than necessary in pretty much anything, including grits.
It was a little weird watching my bartender pick up a metal (presumably recyclable) straw and drop it in my drink — you know, in the middle of a pandemic. But those particulars aside, it’s a better ‘rita than you’ll find at the actual Mexican restaurant below.
I really wanted to try the old fashioned, but three drinks in an afternoon is a bit much. I did hear that the house oldie is made with Woodford Reserve, which is a nice touch and justifies a $14 price point, assuming it’s the legit kind of old fashioned that isn’t red from cherry syrup on the bottom and clear from Coca-Cola mixing with an abundance of ice at the top. I’ll be sure to check on my follow-up visit.
And let’s be clear: the design is sexy.
Bar Vegan occupies the former space of The Mercury, one of Ponce City Market’s earliest (and fast-shuttered) bars. It employed an industrial mid-century modern aesthetic with bright coloring and natural wood accents. It served notable classic cocktails and had competitively good food (certainly for Ponce’s options), but was perhaps doing a little more than necessary for what second floor visitors wanted.
What Bar Vegan does with its interior is a lot slicker and trendier. It seems to be slightly smaller and noticeably darker than its predecessor. That should bode well for attracting people who like the lounge atmosphere.
It’s important to remember the two-year timeline of The Mercury when you look at Bar Vegan. It could share The Mercury’s challenges in attracting customers, but it could also quite possibly be yet another new example in the flaw in Atlanta’s understanding of what people want. And Pinky Cole surely wouldn’t go to the trouble of opening a bar with such spectacle just to have Bar Vegan join the ranks of restaurants that have come and gone in previously unlucky locations.
On paper, Bar Vegan should work perfectly. The location is perfect for a fun cocktail den with benefits. It’s got direct access to the Atlanta BeltLine, it’s dark but not in a mood-dampening way, and is just separated enough from the food hall to feel different.
And that can be a good thing: again, PCM’s food hall certainly has challenges with delivering consistently on what used to be expectations of greatness from restaurants owned by well-known chefs.
Bar Vegan could avoid many of the issues of the food hall simply by leaning only to the side of being a bar that happens to have food but is focused on constantly impressing customers through liquid refreshment. Besides, It feels more like an ultralounge than a place that serves vegan cheesesteaks and tater tots.
Speaking of which…
The Concerns
Pinky isn’t the only one who brings considerable hype and a track record of success to Bar Vegan. She’s partnered with Derrick Hayes, president and CEO of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks, on Dinkies, the adjacent restaurant window which will supply BV’s “vegan bar food.”
One thing both Slutty Vegan and Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks have in common, aside from Black ownership, is insanely long lines of customers who’ve willingly turned waiting an hour for a burger or sandwich into a mandatory experience.
Sure, being Black and vegan-ish is a huge trend. But can the trend survive a cheesesteak made with not-actually-cheese and ground (instead of shaved) Impossible meat, paired with sweet potato tots that taste a lot like something you can find in the freezer at your local grocery store?
Vegan cheesesteak is certainly a bold move when it comes to bar food. In the case of what’s served from the window at Dinkies (an amalgamation of Pinky and the D from Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks), the question is, is this what vegans like to eat when they’re drinking?
Maybe a better question is: How many folks who might stand in line for a real cheesesteak or a slider version of Slutty Vegan’s famous “Sloppy Toppy” burger will be thrilled about a vegan cheesesteak? And maybe the best question: Will you survive the next morning after you’ve mixed this sort of food with what they’re calling “experience cocktails?”
Back to those cocktails for a second: A statement from Bar Vegan says that they’ll be made tableside, introducing Atlanta to what they call “bar theater.” One cocktail, the “Foreign Fruit Punch,” is served in an “active smokey volcano.” Other cocktails “may come in a fire extinguisher, gas can, ferris wheel or bank safe, complete with musical sound bites.”
Dry ice and other such spectacles are usually a sign that a bar or restaurant is less concerned with maintaining consistent quality and is more concerned with getting your attention. Atlanta has seen this over and over again, from Richard Blais and the $9 franks of Haute Doggery a decade ago, and that time Watershed got a new owner who put jellyfish pasta and a $350 pairing of Champagne and French fries on the menu.
Shock and awe may get you an initial pop from the press and Instagram’s earlybird FOMO crowd, but it’s not an easy strategy to sustain, especially if Bar Vegan’s buzz hits Slutty Vegan levels, resulting in heavy guest volume. If that happens, they’d better be able to get those volcanic fire extinguisher ferris wheel tableside drinks done quickly, and they’d better be good.
The Verdict
The success of Bar Vegan will largely depend on what we call “the culture,” and it will also depend on whether or not Cole and Hayes can make what sounds like a very complicated idea function in a way Slutty Vegan and Big Dave’s naturally do not.
I can’t tell you with 100-percent certainty that a bar is going to be successful or won’t be. But as a former bartender, I can promise you that people will wait much longer for food than they will wait for a drink, even if you call it “bar theater.”
And there are certainly more choices for drinks inside Ponce City Market if yours isn’t coming fast enough from Bar Vegan. Biltong Bar on the main floor below has some of the best cocktails in the city. The Tap on Ponce has hella beer (which you can walk around the property drinking), and Bellina Alimentari has plenty of great Italian wine, and a location right at one of the food hall’s entrances.
It’s not like there aren’t options (see the secretive 12 Cocktail Bar at the very top of Ponce City Market), and if Bar Vegan becomes an existential threat, the other spots in the food hall will surely step up their beverage game and figure out how to lure folks waiting in line to come upstairs or downstairs for an immediate seat at the bar and a fast, good drink.
Our respectful Bar Vegan advice is this: Don’t move too fast or do too much. Good drinks beat gimmicks every time. And consider mini Slutty Vegan burgers over vegan Subway sloppy joes.
And let’s be clear: Bar Vegan didn’t ask for our advice, which they may not want or need at all. People like what they like, and sustained success will reveal the truth. No one will be surprised if Bar Vegan has the kind of victorious outcome we’ve seen Pinky Cole recreate again and again with Slutty Vegan.
Ultimately, if the service is great and the vibe is right, Bar Vegan will be fine, at least through the year. But in order to evolve, it will need to find a way to be a little more meat-and-potatoes, metaphorically speaking.