deerstalker
https://blackgirlnerds.com/netflixs-docuseries-bad-vegan-reveals-the-dirty-side-of-clean-eating/
Bad Vegan is an engaging reminder that the best “con-people” make us feel loved. Sarma Melngailis was the celebrity restaurateur/owner of Pure Food and Wine, the wildly popular vegan restaurant in Gramercy, NYC. Melngailis and her husband Anthony Strangis stole money from her employees and investors, skipped town, were on the run from the law for a year, and were arrested in a motel room in Tennessee after ordering Domino’s Pizza and chicken wings.
When Pure Food and Wine was one of the most successful raw food restaurants in NYC. The raw food eating style is only eating plant-based meals that are not cooked or heated over 104-118 degrees and are pesticide-free, not pasteurized, refined, or processed. To convince a New Yorker to pay almost $29.00 for vegetables and nuts, you better have a great hook and jaw-dropping flavors. Pure Food and Wine seemed to have all of that and more. In four episodes Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives takes the audience on a whirlwind trip back in time to the 2010s when haute cuisine veganism blossomed in New York City. It gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how Sarma Melngailis fell from grace.
Episode 1 “Mr. & Mrs. Fox”
Meet Sarma Melngailis. She went to Wharton, studied economics, then got a job in investment banking for a year, then quit and went to culinary school. She was a fan of celebrity chef Matthew Kenny and got a job working with him on a cookbook. They started dating immediately after they met.
Restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow agreed to back them for the idea of vegan/raw food, and the restaurant thrives. The restaurant does better than the couple, and Jeffrey lets Kenny go. Sarma goes through another relationship breakup and is super lonely and depressed. She meets Shane (we later find out is named Anthony) on Twitter and they, begin a relationship.
This is where I thought, huh, this documentary really works hard to show Sarma Melngailis in a positive light but doesn’t go deeper into asking why Sarma found herself in these situations. The episode does a nice job of introducing the loneliness and depression that could have allowed Sarma to open her heart to Anthony, who changes the trajectory of her life. Unfortunately, Anthony declined to be interviewed for this film. We only get Sarma’s side of this story.
Episode 2 “Happily Ever After”
In “Happily Ever After” Anthony connects with Sarma and, according to Sarma, begins his manipulation of her love for her dog, Leon. Anthony travels quite a bit, so they don’t see each other for long periods, but they form a relationship. Anthony convinces Sharma that he is immortal and has the key to everlasting life, this “happily ever after” and will extend eternal life to Sharma and Leon. As I got to know Sarma Melngailis more through this documentary, the more questions I had about her intentions. Why is this supposedly savvy businesswoman was so quick to believe Anthony’s outrageous stories?
In this episode, we get interviews with Sarma’s sister and father as they add nuance without letting Sarma off the hook for her actions. Melngailis starts to transfer funds to Anthony’s bank accounts to work toward immortality in this episode. It’s notable that as the situations she experienced occur, she shifts all of the blame onto Anthony. Not once so far has she taken any responsibility for her part in the fraud. I found it odd that the documentary has recordings of conversations with Anthony throughout their relationship. Was she recording him from the beginning? Hmmm.
Episode 3 “No Angels in Hell”
Episode 3 is the best episode of the series. The storytelling is tight, and we’ve spent enough time with all of the folks involved to want to know how Sarma and Anthony allowed everything to go off the rails. We learn in this episode that Anthony likes to gamble, and this information adds even more color to the situation. Again, how can this intelligent woman not see that this person is a total con man?
Anthony’s friend and business associate Nazim and his ex-wife Stacy come into the story. Stacy actually adds the best moments of humor in the series. Episode 3 blew my mind. Anthony continually asks Sarma to transfer hundreds of dollars to him, and she does it over and over again, to the point that she has to find investors to give her money so that she can make payroll. But the interviewers never ask Sarma Melngailis how is she getting people to give her all this money? At the same time, the staff isn’t getting paid.
It’s telling how she goes away to Europe and posts photos of herself in Europe on IG, but she’s not making payroll. When a member of her staff asks about their check, Sarma replies, “If you’re so upset by the inconvenience of a one-day delay and checks, then you are welcome to give your notice and leave. — I don’t want anger and resentment in our place.”
Episode 4 “Everything Will be Fine”
“Everything Will be Fine” and will not disappoint. We get the couple on the run, their capture, and the aftermath.
Throughout the film, director Chris Smith interviews several members of the front-of-house management team and the business office (who are all white). However, he only interviews one “back of the house” employee who is a person of color, Maiquen Saez-Vega. Perhaps Saez-Vega was the only one willing to talk to Chris Smith about this whole ordeal but it’s telling that the stories of the people most harmed by this ordeal had the least amount of time on screen.
Saez-Vega broke my heart when he shared that there was a family, daughter, mother, and father who all worked back of the house, and no one got paid for those weeks. The workers walk off, and the restaurant closes for a while, but then Sarma raises funds, and the restaurant opens again, and employees come back to work for her only to get their money stolen again.
Why don’t the filmmakers know how Sarma is getting all of that money from her investors? The documentary glosses over the most vulnerable worker’s stories but gives the audience nuance and deeper understanding of Sarma Melngailis’ bad actions. But then the documentary turns around and questions itself, is Sarma Melngailis in on the con?
I gotta admit, it is entertaining to watch and be outraged by all of Sarma and Anthony’s foolish hijinks and seeing a pious stealing vegan have to deal with the consequences of her actions. I’m sure Sarma will have a new crew of admirers who will defend her after this documentary airs. I won’t be one of them. At the end of the day, Bad Vegan is a binge-worthy docuseries that proves what you eat doesn’t make you a person with good ethics.
Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives is currently streaming on Netflix.
Bad Vegan is an engaging reminder that the best “con-people” make us feel loved. Sarma Melngailis was the celebrity restaurateur/owner of Pure Food and Wine, the wildly popular vegan restaurant in Gramercy, NYC. Melngailis and her husband Anthony Strangis stole money from her employees and investors, skipped town, were on the run from the law for a year, and were arrested in a motel room in Tennessee after ordering Domino’s Pizza and chicken wings.
When Pure Food and Wine was one of the most successful raw food restaurants in NYC. The raw food eating style is only eating plant-based meals that are not cooked or heated over 104-118 degrees and are pesticide-free, not pasteurized, refined, or processed. To convince a New Yorker to pay almost $29.00 for vegetables and nuts, you better have a great hook and jaw-dropping flavors. Pure Food and Wine seemed to have all of that and more. In four episodes Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives takes the audience on a whirlwind trip back in time to the 2010s when haute cuisine veganism blossomed in New York City. It gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how Sarma Melngailis fell from grace.
Episode 1 “Mr. & Mrs. Fox”
Meet Sarma Melngailis. She went to Wharton, studied economics, then got a job in investment banking for a year, then quit and went to culinary school. She was a fan of celebrity chef Matthew Kenny and got a job working with him on a cookbook. They started dating immediately after they met.
Restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow agreed to back them for the idea of vegan/raw food, and the restaurant thrives. The restaurant does better than the couple, and Jeffrey lets Kenny go. Sarma goes through another relationship breakup and is super lonely and depressed. She meets Shane (we later find out is named Anthony) on Twitter and they, begin a relationship.
This is where I thought, huh, this documentary really works hard to show Sarma Melngailis in a positive light but doesn’t go deeper into asking why Sarma found herself in these situations. The episode does a nice job of introducing the loneliness and depression that could have allowed Sarma to open her heart to Anthony, who changes the trajectory of her life. Unfortunately, Anthony declined to be interviewed for this film. We only get Sarma’s side of this story.
Episode 2 “Happily Ever After”
In “Happily Ever After” Anthony connects with Sarma and, according to Sarma, begins his manipulation of her love for her dog, Leon. Anthony travels quite a bit, so they don’t see each other for long periods, but they form a relationship. Anthony convinces Sharma that he is immortal and has the key to everlasting life, this “happily ever after” and will extend eternal life to Sharma and Leon. As I got to know Sarma Melngailis more through this documentary, the more questions I had about her intentions. Why is this supposedly savvy businesswoman was so quick to believe Anthony’s outrageous stories?
In this episode, we get interviews with Sarma’s sister and father as they add nuance without letting Sarma off the hook for her actions. Melngailis starts to transfer funds to Anthony’s bank accounts to work toward immortality in this episode. It’s notable that as the situations she experienced occur, she shifts all of the blame onto Anthony. Not once so far has she taken any responsibility for her part in the fraud. I found it odd that the documentary has recordings of conversations with Anthony throughout their relationship. Was she recording him from the beginning? Hmmm.
Episode 3 “No Angels in Hell”
Episode 3 is the best episode of the series. The storytelling is tight, and we’ve spent enough time with all of the folks involved to want to know how Sarma and Anthony allowed everything to go off the rails. We learn in this episode that Anthony likes to gamble, and this information adds even more color to the situation. Again, how can this intelligent woman not see that this person is a total con man?
Anthony’s friend and business associate Nazim and his ex-wife Stacy come into the story. Stacy actually adds the best moments of humor in the series. Episode 3 blew my mind. Anthony continually asks Sarma to transfer hundreds of dollars to him, and she does it over and over again, to the point that she has to find investors to give her money so that she can make payroll. But the interviewers never ask Sarma Melngailis how is she getting people to give her all this money? At the same time, the staff isn’t getting paid.
It’s telling how she goes away to Europe and posts photos of herself in Europe on IG, but she’s not making payroll. When a member of her staff asks about their check, Sarma replies, “If you’re so upset by the inconvenience of a one-day delay and checks, then you are welcome to give your notice and leave. — I don’t want anger and resentment in our place.”
Episode 4 “Everything Will be Fine”
“Everything Will be Fine” and will not disappoint. We get the couple on the run, their capture, and the aftermath.
Throughout the film, director Chris Smith interviews several members of the front-of-house management team and the business office (who are all white). However, he only interviews one “back of the house” employee who is a person of color, Maiquen Saez-Vega. Perhaps Saez-Vega was the only one willing to talk to Chris Smith about this whole ordeal but it’s telling that the stories of the people most harmed by this ordeal had the least amount of time on screen.
Saez-Vega broke my heart when he shared that there was a family, daughter, mother, and father who all worked back of the house, and no one got paid for those weeks. The workers walk off, and the restaurant closes for a while, but then Sarma raises funds, and the restaurant opens again, and employees come back to work for her only to get their money stolen again.
Why don’t the filmmakers know how Sarma is getting all of that money from her investors? The documentary glosses over the most vulnerable worker’s stories but gives the audience nuance and deeper understanding of Sarma Melngailis’ bad actions. But then the documentary turns around and questions itself, is Sarma Melngailis in on the con?
I gotta admit, it is entertaining to watch and be outraged by all of Sarma and Anthony’s foolish hijinks and seeing a pious stealing vegan have to deal with the consequences of her actions. I’m sure Sarma will have a new crew of admirers who will defend her after this documentary airs. I won’t be one of them. At the end of the day, Bad Vegan is a binge-worthy docuseries that proves what you eat doesn’t make you a person with good ethics.
Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives is currently streaming on Netflix.
“Can you imagine looking for classrooms and asking persons the way, only to find the same unresponsive person you asked for directions seated in the classroom, which you entered late because you could not find your way?”- Sadie Alexander.
Sadie Alexander walked on the campus of one of the country’s most well-known universities and was blatantly ignored by her peers and staff. She entered college life with high hopes, eager to study economics. Yet during her first year, Alexander would have to battle racism amongst the typical challenges of a college freshman.
On January 2, 1898, Sadie Tanner Mossell was born to defeat the odds. She would grow up in the 1900s amongst racial segregation, discrimination, and even public lynching. Declared by her mother Mary Louisa Tanne, she was “destined to come into the world.” Through a climate of uncertainty Alexander’s life was molded by a legacy of greatness in her family.
The men in Alexander’s family carried a list of historic endeavors. Her father Aaron A. Mossell, was the first African American to graduate from Penn’s Law School. A school Sadie Alexander would later attend. Her uncle, Nathan Francis Mossell was the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania’s Medical School.
It only seems fitting that Alexander would continue this legacy.
Her journey and triumph
Although Alexander had her heart set on going to Howard, her mother persuaded her to attend Pennsylvania University in the fall of 1915. While completing her undergraduate her experience was all but welcoming. She encountered racism and disrespect from all different angles. The library wouldn’t allow her to rent certain books, or they would lie about the availability of required text. The cafeteria denied her a hot meal because they refused to serve Black students. Radical slurs were often said as she walked past classmates. Her social life was grueling, yet she focused on her grades and allowed her hard work and dedication to shine through.
After graduating she became the first African American in U.S. history to receive a Ph.D. in Economics. “The Standard of Living Among One Hundred Negro Migrant Families in Philadelphia¨ was the title of her dissertation. She continued to break more barriers by becoming the first Black woman to enroll in the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. When she graduated with honors in 1927, she became the first Black woman admitted into the Pennsylvania bar. Despite her achievements, law school wasn’t a walk in the park. Many classes were only available to men and she continued to experience racism. Even with the aggression from her classmates, she was able to form a community during her time at Penn.
Alexander was inducted into the third chapter of the first Black sorority on Penn campus, the Grand Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She was then elected to be the first National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc from 1919 to 1923. A win after being denied entrance into Phi Beta Kappa.
In 1923 she married Raymond Pace Alexander, and together they managed a private law firm. An issue they were both passionate about was the racially dividing issues in Philadelphia. Because of the unique challenges that African Americans faced much of Alexander’s work focused on civil rights and family law. In 1959, she opened her own law firm.
Her impact
With her doctorate degree in economics, she spent a significant amount of time-fighting for the labor rights of Black workers. In March 1945, she gave a speech at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College addressing these issues. Making profound statements such as:
“When labor, white or Black, native or foreign-born, understands that full employment means greater purchasing power for all people, which can be obtained only by giving every man capable of holding a job the right to work, labor will have solved its own problems…. The right to work is not a Black, nor a white problem but a human problem”
As an economist, she understood the power and benefit for the nation to have full employment regardless of race. Alexander said, “I need not state to you that full employment for all willing and able to work is also the solution to all over national difficulties.”
Alexander lived a long life, 91 years, and continued to fight against injustice to the very end. In her later years, she worked with the White House Conference on Aging appointed by President Jimmy Carter, to address the economic and social needs of the elderly.
Throughout Black history, there have been many ways to combat racism. Alexander exemplifies fighting hatred through the advancement of her education and political work. She is a reminder to all women to hold their ground. That if you find yourself in a room, surrounded by people who neither look like you nor support you, you still deserve to be in that room. When women take up space, and pursue their dreams, regardless of the barriers, they can achieve great things.