Just days before the closure of Atlanta’s oldest Black-owned vegan restaurant on July 12, TheAtlantaVoice visited Soul Vegetarian as it prepared to close a chapter in its rich history. A woman who had been coming to the restaurant since she was a child fellowshipped over a meal with her teenage son, reflecting two generations that the West End institution has fed. Farouq Dawud, a customer since the restaurant opened its doors, sat in a dedicated corner with a boxed plate of food in front of him.
While the longstanding customers bid their last goodbyes through patronage, Chef Pahroosha Israel cracked open a photo album she’d discovered the day before that chronicled 47 years of Soul Vegetarian. As Israel placed photo after photo on the table, depicting when the restaurant was nothing but an empty building with newspapers across the windows, powered by the vision of members of the African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem, a smile lit her face. The photo album was a parting gift that gave a glimpse of the legacy that she and many others have built.
“We’ve been in the building 47 years, but until you actually see where we came from, you don’t understand,” Israel said.
Since 1979, the goal of Soul Vegetarian has been to bring a healthier diet and lifestyle to the world. For nearly five decades, they’ve done just that, becoming a neighborhood staple and treasured hub where food, health, education, faith, and community thrived. The restaurant first opened at 625 Peachtree St. before later relocating to the West End in 1982. When the vegan eatery opened its doors, it was one of the first businesses to make a home on Ralph David Abernathy and the first of its kind along the corridor. It then became the backbone of the West End, inspiring many vegan journeys and many of the Black-owned vegan restaurants that now dot the city…