After a years-long legal battle that resulted in the ejection of chef Chloe Coscarelli from her own chain of fast-casual vegan restaurants, she returns next week to the corner where it all began: Bleecker and MacDougal Streets in Greenwich Village.
The Jewish chef announced on Friday that her new restaurant, Chloe, will open at the same location as her original restaurant, By Chloe, on Tuesday. She described Chloe on social media as a vegan, “all-day café serving classic eats with thoughtfully sourced ingredients.”
“There are no words to express how grateful I am for this incredible opportunity and the amazing team who has helped turn this dream into a reality,” the chef wrote on Instagram. “We’ve been working around the clock to create a truly special place that I hope will become one of your favorite neighborhood spots.”
Coscarelli, 36, first rose to fame after winning the Food Network competition show “Cupcake Wars” in 2009 with all-vegan recipes.
In 2015, she opened By Chloe, a vegan and kosher chain that quickly became popular in New York City and is often heralded with helping bring veganism to the mainstream. Over the next two years, the chain opened seven more locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Boston, Providence and Los Angeles.
When she founded By Chloe, certifying the food kosher was a “no-brainer” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the time. Because she wanted her wine to be vegan as well, opting for kosher wine was an easy decision. (Kosher wines do not include animal-derived fining agents, although some may include fish gelatine or egg whites.)
“For us it’s about delivering a cleaner product and process — and working with companies with more transparency,” she said. “That’s required for both a vegan establishment and a kosher establishment.”
Growing up with a Jewish mother in Los Angeles, Coscarelli told JTA that her family celebrated Jewish holidays, and she learned how to make the classics vegan. She subbed nut-based “cheese” into noodle kugel and made matzah balls with chia seeds instead of egg.
Despite her restaurant’s success, Coscarelli says that within the first year she was pushed out of the company by a business partner. In 2016, Coscarelli filed a lawsuit against ESquared Hospitality, the company that operated By Chloe, of “improperly seizing control” after bringing in outside investors without her approval. Soon after she won back ownership in court in 2020, the brand filed for bankruptcy, a move she said was “an effort to wipe out my equity and reclaim (or, as they prefer to say, ‘rebrand’) it as their own,” she wrote on Facebook at the time.
By Chloe was acquired by investors and rebranded as Beatnic in 2021, without Coscarelli’s involvement.
Coscarelli alluded to the imbroglio in her social media announcement about her new restaurant.
“As many of you know, my former restaurant By Chloe was co-opted by a deceitful partner in 2017. It was an abrupt halt to what had otherwise been a magical experience. I still remember leaving our flagship store for the last time and feeling an overwhelming sense of unease. It didn’t seem right to mourn the end when I knew, deep down, that I had only just begun,” she wrote.
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“Standing on the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal, I promised myself that someday, somehow, I would return. And when I did, it would be on my own terms. Well… that day has come!!”
