October 31, 2011
Megan Rowe
PHOTO: Newscom
Ellen DeGeneres is putting her money where her mouth is: The talk show host and wife Portia de Rossi, both vegans, are teaming up with Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde and producer Steve Bing to open a vegan restaurant in the San Fernando Valley. The project is a natural extension of DeGeneres’s recently launched blog, Going Vegan with Ellen.
Vegetarian chef Tal Ronnen, who catered the couple’s vegan wedding and recently consulted on the menu for the just-opened LYFE Kitchen, a new healthy-eating concept, is developing the menu for DeGeneres and partners. Waldo Fernandez (the creative mind behind L.A.’s Soho House and Mezze and the makeover of the original Spago) will design the interior of the restaurant, to be located on Ventura Boulevard.
This new venture will be round two for Hynde, who recently shuttered the popular four-year-old VegiTerranean, a vegan spot in her hometown of Akron.
“We tried everything we could to keep the restaurant going but unfortunately due to the current economic climate this has not been possible,” Hynde said on the restaurant’s Facebook page. The IRS, Ohio’s state taxation and workers’ compensation departments and the developer of the restaurant have been hounding VegiTerranean’s partners for unpaid taxes, insurance premiums and fees for developing the restaurant.
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