After 14 years, Echo Park-based Sage Vegan Bistro & Brewery closed its doors this month.
The operation, headed by founders Mollie Engelhart and Elias Sosa, shut down its main restaurant and also its Pasadena location on Jan. 5. It had previously shuttered its other operations in Culver City and Agoura Hills about a year ago.
Formed in 2011, Sage distinguished itself for its strict plant-based, farm-to-table sourcing and beverage production. Restaurants and breweries were hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, especially non-production breweries like Sage. The restaurant did buy a canning line as a result of the pandemic, but Engelhart noted in the closure announcement posted on Instagram, that the financial troubles continued. She and Sosa, her husband, sold their home last year to inject equity into the business, and she told the food publication Eater this month that the business had fallen behind on its taxes in 2023.
Sage last year pivoted its menu to include “regenerative” meat, dairy and eggs – grass-fed and finished beef and bison, fully pastured chicken and organic eggs. In an open letter, Engelhart said the change was motivated by a realization that produce is never “truly vegan” on account of fertilizer and the fact that produce harvesting disrupts creatures living in topsoil and that humans cannot truly take themselves out of “the natural order of things.”
“We all poured our passion into shifting the concept to regenerative agriculture, but despite our efforts, we find ourselves in the same predicament today,” she wrote on Instagram.
Engelhart told Eater that she and Sosa would now fully focus on their regenerative farm in Texas, which hosts their restaurant The Barn at Sovereignty Ranch.
The closure comes amidst continuing challenges for craft beer breweries, which are contending with rising supply-side costs, increases in minimum wage and soaring real estate and insurance prices.
Eagle Rock Brewery, which opened in 2009 and helped pave the way for the boom in the Los Angeles craft beer scene, closed this past summer. And Brouwerij West was prepared to shut down in December, citing financial issues, but pivoted days later in response to an outpouring of support and a GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign.
Operators of the brewery, which runs entirely on solar panels and uses a filtration system that reportedly cuts water usage in brewing by 30%, noted that changing consumer habits and rising costs were an issue.
“So many of you asked about crowdfunding, and that wasn’t an avenue we considered until you all called for a holiday miracle,” the San Pedro brewery wrote on Instagram, adding it would not draw down from the funding until owners developed a clear plan to move forward. “Even with your support, we can’t guarantee that everything will work out.”
