Restaurant Closure
Dallas vegans get a raw deal with closure of Preston Center restaurant
Dallas' only raw-food restaurant, Be Raw Food and Juice, will close at the end of April.
Owner Paula Sepulvado Matter says that the last meal will most likely be served on April 27.
"My partner, John Vandelicht, and I both remain deeply committed to the vegan community and causes," she says. "We have loved serving Dallas and are sad to say goodbye."
Along with Spiral Diner, Be Raw has served as one of Dallas' primary temples of vegan food, and been a destination for vegan celebrities on their visits to Dallas, where they've been wowed by dishes such as the coconut kale enchiladas and killer vegan cheesecakes.
The restaurant had rocky times in Preston Center in its early days as Bliss, but Sepulvado, a devoted customer who took it over in 2012, gave it a steady hand.
Its existence helped pave the way for vegan-friendly concepts such as True Food Kitchen, whose Dallas location is only a few blocks away. Be Raw was also a precursor to the juice bar boom that has hit Dallas in the past couple of years.
Preston Center has been the site of some dramatic comings and goings in the past two years, most recently with the addition of a number of bakeries including Carlo's Bakery and SusieCakes, which opens in April.
But Sepulvado Matter says that the neighborhood wasn't a factor in the closure, nor was there any shortage of customers.
"I've been traveling a lot more, and it's hard to run a business when you're not there all the time," she says. "I'm sorry to close, and would have loved to find someone who wanted to take it over. It's going to be hard for me personally, because this is the food I like to eat, and there isn't anything else like it in Dallas."
