This New Vegan Restaurant Is Throwing a Juneteenth Celebration

This New Vegan Restaurant Is Throwing a Juneteenth Celebration

  • Hannah Bugga
  • Hannah Bugga

Plant-based restaurant The VTree Hollywood will host a social-distancing-friendly celebration in honor of Juneteenth. A part of the event’s proceeds will be donated to Our Own Life, a nonprofit dedicated to providing “resources for mental, physical, and emotional health to support the underserved.”

Juneteenth—also known as Freedom Day—is the oldest nationally celebrated memorial to the end of slavery in the United States. It marks June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers landed in Galveston, Texas, and spread the news that the Civil War had ended and that enslaved humans were now free.

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An “Ode to Black Lives” Celebrate Juneteenth with us, as we lift our voices in solidarity for JUSTICE and EQUALITY for BLACK LIVES! our sista’s @imayannagregory @aprilsampe @mumufresh and @chikalogy will bless the mic This is a social distancing friendly event. Eat, Park (in the Yamashiro parking lot) and enjoy the view while live streaming the celebration Time: 5-8 (live streaming begins at 6) You do not want to miss this historical event. A portion of the proceeds from The Vtree sales that day will go to support a local nonprofit feeding and empowering our community @ourown.life For questions: 202.413.4083 #blackowned #blackvegans #vegansofcolor #juneteenth #juneteenth2020 #juneteenthla @newworldla @dreambigdobigger @taibeau

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Guests of The VTree Hollywood’s celebration can order plant-based takeout from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and enjoy it in the large parking lot while the event is livestreamed. Musical artists Chika, Mumu Fresh, April Sampé, and Ayanna Gregory (daughter of vegan activist and icon Dick Gregory) will perform. On Instagram, the restaurant declared:

Celebrate Juneteenth with us, as we lift our voices in solidarity for JUSTICE and EQUALITY for BLACK LIVES!

The VTree Hollywood opened on April 30 of this year and offers Southern comfort-food favorites, like Cajun shrimp, chic’n and waffles, African peanut stew, and mac and cheese. Located inside Yamashiro—a 106-year-old Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills—VTree is a collaboration between Nick Cannon and Velvet Jacobs.

Actor, TV host, and rapper Nick Cannon began eliminating chicken, pork, and other foods from his diet after being diagnosed with lupus. He soon became a fan of Chef Velvet’s cooking, even posting a video on social media saying her plant-based chicken tasted “better than chicken.”

Chef Velvet is an entrepreneur, social justice activist, and restaurateur. She is also the co-founder of “Vegan in the Hood,” a program that teaches self-sustainability and healthy eating tips to underserved communities.

Not in Los Angeles but eager to support incredible Black-owned vegan restaurants? Here are seven more amazing businesses that you can get behind right now.