Rawvolution, the raw vegan cafe/retail store on East 12th Street, closed "for renovations" back in early December. At the time, Jill heard from an employee that they would reopen Jan. 1. A week or so later, a former employee said the Rawvolution was done here, that the owners were focusing on their Santa Monica, Calif.-based flagship store.
Claimed the employee: There was "no warning, or heads up to their employees…shady shady." Said another former employee: "Furthermore, they failed to pay their entire staff their last two paychecks."
The Rawvolution website still says: "At this time we are not delivering locally to New York City, this is only temporary and will keep you updated when we do start again."
Meanwhile, in Santa Monica, a crowdsourcing campaign is winding down to save that shop. Per IndieGoGo: "Our landlord is trying to evict us. He has been trying to find ways to take away this community hub of amazing food and inspiration for years and to replace RAWvolution with a corporate coffee bar. We need $38,000 to keep the doors open and to ensure that we have enough capital to ensure a sustainable future." [Updated: Good point per a commenter: No mention in this campaign of the East Village location.]
With about 20-some hours left, the owners are nearly $34,000 short of their goal.
An East 12th Street resident told us that the storefront has been gutted, with some "real-estate types" in and out of the place.
Rawvolution opened in August 2011 here just east of Avenue A.
11 comments:
Interesting that there is zero mention of the East Village location in their fundraising plea. Why not mention that they had to close down the New York City branch of the business?
Hate to tell 'em but $10 juices are not a sustainable business model.
Because they don't want the people they are trying to wheedle money from to know they can't sustain a business.
I think it is more like they have no business sense.
Another beggar.
I agree with Gojira's comment. It's not fair that they weren't honest about this with everyone who has donated so far. Of course, most of these Cali people probably don't read East Village blogs, so they won't know the real deal.
It really bugs me when "businesses" have fundraisers. The way to raise funds is to sell your products. Donating to provide ongoing support what is supposed to be a going concern is ridiculous.
Damn. I'm going to miss this place. They had a really good deal on a shredded carrot sandwich. It was shredded carrots sandwiched in between two pieces of lettuce for only $13.99.
Its a sad state of affairs that I'm petrified of what is coming here next.
I thought the food was always under cooked. I will miss the Lennon / Ono painting or "2 gurus in drag".
Ya, these people were an unpleasant addition to the block where I live. I am glad they are gone and screw them for not paying their employees even though one of them was a skateboard douchebag.
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