LBVE R.I.P. / Owners Need Help!
Donation protected
Update:
Thanks so much to EVERYONE who contributed to our campaign. Unfortunately we did not raise our goal and did not have what we needed to renew all of our licenses and permits to continue. August 1st was unfortunately our last day, it was sad to see all of our hard work go down the drain.
We still need a lot money to pay off a multitude of bills and a ton of debt, so we will be keeping this fundraiser going with hopes of people reaching out.
The landlord is in the process of renting the building and we are struggling to sell off as much of the equipment that we can in order to recoup some of our loses.
Original:
Everyone has a story: this is theirs.
Long Beach Vegan Eatery owners Jeff Terranova and Beckey Salg are both originally from the east coast, NY and CT to be exact. In December 2009 they packed their van and started the 3,000 mile drive to Southern California for a new start. Both had recently been divorced and grew tired of many things associated with living in New England. After a few days of crashing on a friend's couch in Orange, they decided to rent an apartment in Long Beach. Long Beach seemed like the perfect place to start over, with it's cultural diversity, affordable living, wonderful climate and strong music and arts scene.
While looking for new jobs/careers, the two thought that it would be wonderful to spread their love of veganism/vegetarianism with the local community. Jeff has been a strict vegetarian since 1987 and at the time, there was only one dedicated vegetarian restaurant in the entire city, so they put a strong business plan together, found a broker and started looking for locations throughout the entire city of Long Beach to open a little hometown eatery.
Over the eight month span that it took to find their current location at 2246 N. Lakewood Blvd., the one dedicated vegetarian restaurant converted to all vegan and an all organic vegetarian restaurant also opened downtown. Having now lived in Long Beach for a few years and quickly embracing a pride for the city, they decided that the name The Long Beach Vegan Eatery would be the most fitting. It boasted the vegan lifestyle as well as Long Beach pride, coupled with the logo, which boasted love, it couldn't have been a more perfect fit.
The Long Beach Vegan Eatery opened it's doors on October 17th, 2011 to an overwhelming non-stop crowd of excited people. That was mostly because the owners launched a Facebook page, posted photos and updates of their renovations and inspections and did a countdown to opening. The page had close to 300 "likes" before the restaurant even opened and word was spreading fast. The response was unexpected and overwhelming and there was not enough staff to keep up with it. They thought that it would die down after a few weeks, but it honestly continued for 8 solid months. It was like a steam train left the station on 10/17/11 doing 250 miles an hour and it could not be stopped.
Like most new businesses, there was a learning curve and there were minor mistakes made. It took a while for LBVE to grow into it's shoes, so to speak, and the owners are the first ones to admit that. As the expression goes, hindsight is 20/20, but this steam train kept forging forward, learning and growing along the way.
LBVE took upon the help of the Long Beach Unified School District who supplied high school interns who wanted to learn about the food industry through their Transitional Partnership Program. They also staffed themselves with local vegans who quickly developed a pride for LBVE and having another Ma & Pa vegan establishment in their community.
Since inception, LBVE has received stellar reviews in The Long Beach Business Journal, OC/LA Weekly and The Signal Tribune. LBVE has hosted an art show by a local artist, hosted a Skate Fanzine release party, hosted a spoken word event, participated in an event that raised money for the Breast Cancer Angels and vended a huge 4 day music festival.
Despite the illusion that they portray of doing great, LBVE has been struggling for quite some time now. They just cannot seem to catch a break. An ADA lawsuit last summer set them back a lot of money, refrigerators, freezers, sinks, hot water heaters and just about everything else has broken and/or required costly repairs throughout the past year and a half. They knew going into it that the building was old, but that was part of the appeal that attracted them to it. It has a 1950's East Coast Ice Cream Parlor / Diner feel to it, which they loved. The landlord has stepped up and helped out with the exterior, but refuses to contribute to anything inside or belonging to the business: The bills are piling up higher and higher and their debt is becoming way too much to handle.
When they decided to open LBVE, they had a pretty solid concept of what they wanted to be. Being sick of "specialty" restaurants charging high prices for small portions that left both your stomach and your wallet feeling empty, they wanted LBVE to be a place where you got your money's worth. Their price points are in line with other specialty restaurants including the Veggie Grill (who opened June 26th, 2012 in Long Beach), and their profit margins seem fine to sustain the business, (but not enough to generate the capital that they need to deal with everything mentioned in the previous paragraph). Raising prices any higher or lessening the portions would go against their principles and could also ultimately lead to their demise.
Beckey and Jeff have dedicated their lives for the past year and half to LBVE, working 11 hour days, 7 days a week for the first 14 months of operation. In mid December of last year they made the executive decision to close on Sundays and Mondays, which was one of the best decisions they have made to date. Their sales on the remaining 5 days open have all increased and the utility bills and operating costs have all slightly decreased.
They have hundreds of dedicated and loyal customers that they love seeing on a regular basis. They've made many new friends, changed people's perceptions on Vegan/Vegetarian eating and are changing people's lives for the better. LBVE is a place that offers compassion, equality and love, and right now that is what they need in return. So they are throwing this out there and leaving it up to the universe to decide the fate of LBVE. Even though the steam train has slowed down, it's far too late to turn it around and it's a long way back to the station.
Please help spread the word and donate if you can: Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You for reading our story!
Jeff Terranova and Beckey Salg
Thanks so much to EVERYONE who contributed to our campaign. Unfortunately we did not raise our goal and did not have what we needed to renew all of our licenses and permits to continue. August 1st was unfortunately our last day, it was sad to see all of our hard work go down the drain.
We still need a lot money to pay off a multitude of bills and a ton of debt, so we will be keeping this fundraiser going with hopes of people reaching out.
The landlord is in the process of renting the building and we are struggling to sell off as much of the equipment that we can in order to recoup some of our loses.
Original:
Everyone has a story: this is theirs.
Long Beach Vegan Eatery owners Jeff Terranova and Beckey Salg are both originally from the east coast, NY and CT to be exact. In December 2009 they packed their van and started the 3,000 mile drive to Southern California for a new start. Both had recently been divorced and grew tired of many things associated with living in New England. After a few days of crashing on a friend's couch in Orange, they decided to rent an apartment in Long Beach. Long Beach seemed like the perfect place to start over, with it's cultural diversity, affordable living, wonderful climate and strong music and arts scene.
While looking for new jobs/careers, the two thought that it would be wonderful to spread their love of veganism/vegetarianism with the local community. Jeff has been a strict vegetarian since 1987 and at the time, there was only one dedicated vegetarian restaurant in the entire city, so they put a strong business plan together, found a broker and started looking for locations throughout the entire city of Long Beach to open a little hometown eatery.
Over the eight month span that it took to find their current location at 2246 N. Lakewood Blvd., the one dedicated vegetarian restaurant converted to all vegan and an all organic vegetarian restaurant also opened downtown. Having now lived in Long Beach for a few years and quickly embracing a pride for the city, they decided that the name The Long Beach Vegan Eatery would be the most fitting. It boasted the vegan lifestyle as well as Long Beach pride, coupled with the logo, which boasted love, it couldn't have been a more perfect fit.
The Long Beach Vegan Eatery opened it's doors on October 17th, 2011 to an overwhelming non-stop crowd of excited people. That was mostly because the owners launched a Facebook page, posted photos and updates of their renovations and inspections and did a countdown to opening. The page had close to 300 "likes" before the restaurant even opened and word was spreading fast. The response was unexpected and overwhelming and there was not enough staff to keep up with it. They thought that it would die down after a few weeks, but it honestly continued for 8 solid months. It was like a steam train left the station on 10/17/11 doing 250 miles an hour and it could not be stopped.
Like most new businesses, there was a learning curve and there were minor mistakes made. It took a while for LBVE to grow into it's shoes, so to speak, and the owners are the first ones to admit that. As the expression goes, hindsight is 20/20, but this steam train kept forging forward, learning and growing along the way.
LBVE took upon the help of the Long Beach Unified School District who supplied high school interns who wanted to learn about the food industry through their Transitional Partnership Program. They also staffed themselves with local vegans who quickly developed a pride for LBVE and having another Ma & Pa vegan establishment in their community.
Since inception, LBVE has received stellar reviews in The Long Beach Business Journal, OC/LA Weekly and The Signal Tribune. LBVE has hosted an art show by a local artist, hosted a Skate Fanzine release party, hosted a spoken word event, participated in an event that raised money for the Breast Cancer Angels and vended a huge 4 day music festival.
Despite the illusion that they portray of doing great, LBVE has been struggling for quite some time now. They just cannot seem to catch a break. An ADA lawsuit last summer set them back a lot of money, refrigerators, freezers, sinks, hot water heaters and just about everything else has broken and/or required costly repairs throughout the past year and a half. They knew going into it that the building was old, but that was part of the appeal that attracted them to it. It has a 1950's East Coast Ice Cream Parlor / Diner feel to it, which they loved. The landlord has stepped up and helped out with the exterior, but refuses to contribute to anything inside or belonging to the business: The bills are piling up higher and higher and their debt is becoming way too much to handle.
When they decided to open LBVE, they had a pretty solid concept of what they wanted to be. Being sick of "specialty" restaurants charging high prices for small portions that left both your stomach and your wallet feeling empty, they wanted LBVE to be a place where you got your money's worth. Their price points are in line with other specialty restaurants including the Veggie Grill (who opened June 26th, 2012 in Long Beach), and their profit margins seem fine to sustain the business, (but not enough to generate the capital that they need to deal with everything mentioned in the previous paragraph). Raising prices any higher or lessening the portions would go against their principles and could also ultimately lead to their demise.
Beckey and Jeff have dedicated their lives for the past year and half to LBVE, working 11 hour days, 7 days a week for the first 14 months of operation. In mid December of last year they made the executive decision to close on Sundays and Mondays, which was one of the best decisions they have made to date. Their sales on the remaining 5 days open have all increased and the utility bills and operating costs have all slightly decreased.
They have hundreds of dedicated and loyal customers that they love seeing on a regular basis. They've made many new friends, changed people's perceptions on Vegan/Vegetarian eating and are changing people's lives for the better. LBVE is a place that offers compassion, equality and love, and right now that is what they need in return. So they are throwing this out there and leaving it up to the universe to decide the fate of LBVE. Even though the steam train has slowed down, it's far too late to turn it around and it's a long way back to the station.
Please help spread the word and donate if you can: Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You for reading our story!
Jeff Terranova and Beckey Salg
Organizer
Jeff Terranova
Organizer
Long Beach, CA
