Yesterday, September 8, 2024, the news traveled quickly throughout Central Florida, that Ethos Vegan Kitchen closed their doors. Many people, including myself, were shocked and saddened to see this news.

We've lived in Florida for 18 years, and have dined at Ethos Vegan Kitchen regularly over the 17  years they were open. It's been my favorite restaurant in the state the whole time. I loved the place! The owners are great people, the food was awesome, the restaurant was nice, etc. Great place!

I read a quote from one of the owners that they were not renewing their five-year lease (which probably drastically increased in that time, along with all other real estate in this state). I also read a statement from one of the owner's sisters, where she said that they never really recovered from the pandemic. Whether it was the rising cost of renting the space, along with the rising cost of goods and hired help, it just wasn't sustainable for them to continue. Sadly, I think we are going to see more of this happening.

Every time I went to Ethos, including last month, they were busy. But, lunch for just myself, had gotten up to around $25 with tip. That's really hard to do, because the price of everything for consumers has gone up as well. We can't afford to eat out as much, and when we do, we have to look for ways to make the bill cheaper. Comparatively, I can have lunch at Del Taco for just $6 for myself! Is it as good? Not a chance! But I do get to eat out and it doesn't break the budget. Yesterday, I had lunch out at Jimmy Hula's (in between Del Taco and Ethos when it comes to quality), and it was $13 total. And it was good.  Another example, my family was dining every Friday night at Wayback Burger for their vegan burger and fries. Then overnight they raised the prices a lot! Our family bill increased by $14 overnight. That was such a turnoff that we now go maybe once a month. While it used to always be packed when we were there, now when we go there is hardly any other diners. Their drastic price increase may be something that they felt they had to do, but it's not something that we consumers feel we can do.

On that note, I will say that when dining out and you know it's going to be a bigger bill (as many vegan restaurants often are), it's always a gamble. With Ethos Vegan Kitchen, I knew it was always winning bet. We ate there countless times over the years and never had a bad experience. I knew the food would be good! However, that isn't the case with every vegan restaurant I've been to. I won't name the places, but there have been a few that we have went to that the first experience was not good and so we never went back (it was not worth gambling that money on trying it again), and there's another place that we have went to several times and it's hit or miss. Sometimes it has been good and sometimes not good at all. Due to that, we  typically don't want to gamble the money again, so we haven't been there in a couple of years. It's too much money to hope that we get a good meal. We don't want to walk out down $50-75 and feel like the food was not good or worth it. 

We are in a difficult time for restaurants, but also for consumers. We want nothing more than to always support local vegan and veg-friendly restaurants, but sometimes we have to do what fits our budget and pocketbook. We have lots of bills to pay as well and they have all sharply gone up since the pandemic. Another issue is that many  more vegan restaurants have opened up in the last five or so years in Orlando. While consumers love the variety of places to choose from, it also means that the one place they used to go to all of the time, is sometimes not being picked, so they are losing out on that revenue. Most consumers are having to pull back on dining out and having to eat at home more, and even the cost of that has gone up a lot!

Being that it was my favorite restaurant and my family loved it (my kids grew up eating there) I will dearly miss that place. I absolutely loved their BBQ plate and their chickun marsala. They were so darn good! I really wish they could have held on longer, because we lost one of the really good places with this closure. 

I wish the owners, Laina and Kelly Shockley, all the best. I appreciate what they did for the last 17 years and want them to know they will surely be missed!

By the way, Ethos Vegan Kitchen is an hour drive for us, or we would have went there more over the years than we already did. But it was our go-to place when we would go to Orlando, and often made special trips over there just to dine there (like on my birthday).

Jacqueline

On another not, this is happening more and more. Last year, Inn Season Cafe in Michigan closed. They had been opened for 40 years! They were one of the first vegetarian restaurants I ever went to, because I lived in Michigan when I became vegetarian (29 years ago next month). Sad indeed!