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.
