Beacon of hope shines bright on Birmingham
Updated Jan 10, 2021;
Today’s guest columnist is Sanjay Singh.
Dora and I moved to Birmingham in 1993. I was a newly minted Ph.D. from University of Georgia, where I met Dr. Khris McAllister, former Chair of the Management Department of Collat School of Business. He invited me for an interview in the fall of 1992.
Dora and I were sold, as we drove past Lady Liberty I-459. We are both immigrants, having already uprooted our lives once – so were in the search of a home that fulfilled our desire to balance quality of life with professional opportunities. The gentle rolling hills and the greenery was just perfect, but what was even better was the view of Downtown Birmingham as I sat in Dean Gene Newport’s office for the interview.
From left: David Fleming, REV Birmingham CEO and President; Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin; Keeyah Johnson, Executive Assistant to Cole; Pinky Cole, Slutty Vegan ATL CEO
and Founder; Jason Crain, Slutty Vegan Chief Revenue Officer; Abra Barnes, Qualifying Broker at Barnes & Associates; and Mashonda Taylor, Woodlawn Foundation Executive Director. (PROVIDED PHOTO)
revbirmingham.org
Birmingham will be the fourth location for Slutty Vegan ATL, the Atlanta-based restaurant whose comfort-food, plant-based burgers have changed the way people think about vegan food.
Pinky Cole, CEO and Founder of the restaurant has purchased a building in Birmingham’s Woodlawn community for her first location outside the state of Georgia. Slutty Vegan will open in Birmingham in 2021.
Owner of popular Atlanta vegan restaurant closes on Woodlawn property Pinky Cole cuts a ribbon in front of the new Slutty Vegan location on 55th Place in Birmingham’s Woodlawn neighborhood following Wednesday’s closing. (Source: REV Birmingham) By WBRC Staff | December 23, 2020 at 4:35 PM CST - Updated December 23 at 4:35 PM
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - The owner of a popular vegan restaurant based in Atlanta has closed on a property for her first location in Alabama.
This comes after the food truck for Slutty Vegan came to Birmingham back in September. Afterward, owner Pinky Cole hinted a brick-and-mortar for the city could be next.
Slutty Vegan chooses Birmingham site, citing community revitalization
Updated Dec 23, 2020;
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Pinky Cole, the 33-year-old CEO and Founder of Slutty Vegan ATL, signed an agreement Wednesday morning to purchase a building and open the first Alabama Slutty Vegan in the evolving east Birmingham neighborhood.
“I am excited to expand Slutty Vegan outside of Atlanta and into the Woodlawn Community of Birmingham,” says Cole. “The Woodlawn area is a culturally rich neighborhood that reminded me of my very first location in the West End of ATL.”
“To have a successful Black-woman-owned business here gets to the core of equitable entrepreneurship as we engage in community revitalization,” says Mashonda Taylor, Executive Director of Woodlawn United, the non-profit that spearheads transformational efforts in the area.