Vegan restaurant chain Hart House announced it was closing the doors to its four Southern California locations through an Instagram post.
In the post, the chain stated: “Thank You. To our team, guests, and community, who helped make the change we all craved. A Hartfelt goodbye for now as we start a new chapter.”
Hart House originally opened in 2022 and offered a traditional, but vegan, fast-food experience with products such as burgers, sandwiches, nuggets, milkshakes and more. After Hart House made the social media post, many consumers took to social media to speculate the sudden announcement.
“Hart house closing down all their locations effective immediately is crazy,” one X user said. Another added, “Can’t force demand.” A third said, “Blaming all restaurant closures on the pandemic is lazy, could it be that plant based is just not so popular? I don't believe the hype about fake mash called meat.”
The chain’s closure follows the closure announcement of burger chain Shake Shack’s Southern California locations. According to media outlet New York Post, the closures of many fast-food restaurants comes just five months after California’s minimum wage increase was implemented.
Additionally, multiple chains in the area such as Starbuck’s, McDonald’s, Burger King and In-N-Out Burger have increased prices to offset the higher wages and persisting inflation.
Its hard to know why Hart House shut down so abruptly, especially when its CEO Andy Hooper has not released a statement on it. Even though the demand for vegan food options is prominent in California, it sounds like many fast-food chains are fighting the combination of the minimum wage increase and higher food, ingredient and supply costs.
For many, working in a fast-food restaurant is an entry level-position meant to practice basic skills such as showing up to work on time and being a dependable employee, not a career. However, a government-mandated minimum wage has put unintended financial stress on fast-food chains, which is being passed down to consumers.
The mandate is actually only applicable to chains with 60 or more locations nationwide, so maybe Hart just decided the chain wasn’t profitable enough and wanted to focus on his acting and comic career.
On the other hand, Hart participated in a sports platform Draft Kings advertisement about one year ago. In the ad, he said that his wings got cold because he was distracted by watching and betting on sports. Even though he didn’t eat them, one has to wonder if they were vegan wings. It was never specified.
