CHELSEA — A restaurant that got hate mail from "CrossFit people" after going vegan last year is going under, its manager said.
The Sixth Avenue restaurant will shutter if it doesn't make enough dough to cover its $20,000 rent this month, Kiki Adami told DNAinfo New York.
"It's not working," Adami said. "We haven't paid our rent in two months."
GustOrganics switched over to a vegan menu in November, a decision that sparked a fiery backlash from its former meat-loving clientele. Despite an influx of vegan "love mail" at first, Adami said, business has since crashed.
"There's always a lot of vegans who say to me, 'Hey, we've been meaning to come but we haven't had a chance,'" she said.
In a mass email Tuesday, Adami pleaded with her vegan customers to come and support the venture.
"Where are you?" she asked. "We aren't giving up, but we are at our wits ends."
Former customer and meat-lover Zach Rosenbaum quickly responded to her email to condemn the veganization."Maybe you should have put your personal agenda and ego to the side for a minute and realized the facts of the matter," he wrote.
"Too bad, it WAS my favorite restaurant from here to Cali till you showed up," he continued.
"I'd even get food to go and fly it home to bring to my girlfriend. Thanks for nothing."
